Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 Review: The quintessential cruiser

The Meteor 350 brought in the new J Platform and the Hunter 350 introduced the brand to commuting and sportier ergonomics.

There comes a time when you’re gunning down the highway at triple-digit speeds toward your destination but have no intention to hurry. Most motorcycles allow you that luxury, but nothing does it better than a cruiser. These obviously come with some caveats, but we’ll get into that later. Now for the most part, cruisers have gone out of fashion in the Indian market, and while we do have some entry-level bikes and many more at the top end, there was a big mid-segment-sized hole that needed filling. Remedying this is Royal Enfield’s latest work of wonder, the Super Meteor 650.

Credit where credit is due: Royal Enfield’s newest launches have been doing wonders for the brand. The Meteor 350 brought in the new J Platform and the Hunter 350 introduced the brand to commuting and sportier ergonomics.  But RE has always been known as a cruiser manufacturer and while their motorcycles are essentially retro, save for the Meteor 350, a real cruiser has been missing from their portfolio for a while. And this is what the Super Meteor is aiming at.

Design

As always, we’ll start with styling. One look at the Super Meteor tells you everything you need to know. It is a thorough-bred cruiser complete with low seat height, high handlebars and forward-set foot pegs.

The Super Meteor is a handsome beast and there’s no two ways about that. Now, the engine is the same 650 parallel twin as the ones on the Interceptor and Continental GT, but everything else is all new. The styling cues are all perfectly old-school, but there flashes of modernity thrown in as well. Take, for example, the round headlamp. It’s the first in RE’s line-up to get LEDs to light up the road in front of you.

Then there are the upside-down forks made by Showa. There is premium-ness wherever you look on the Super Meteor, be it from the fit and finish levels to the kind of tech used. The headlamp cluster is the same unit that is available on the Meteor 350, but a Tripper navigation pod comes standard, brushed aluminium is splashed throughout the front of the bike while the rear is a neat, almost minimal trail-off. Even the twin exhaust cylinders have been redesigned to sit closer to the bike’s body and flow in a straight line from the engine to the rear, unlike the flared design on the other 650 siblings.

One thing that I see as a possible concern, is the brushed aluminium plating on the switchgear. Don’t get me wrong, it looks extremely upmarket and is a welcome addition from the standard black switchgear available on other RE bikes. However, this kind of plating tends to flake and fall off over time and while it may not happen very soon, that added premium factor could become a sore sight later on.

I should mention that the Super Meteor is available in two variants. The base Interstellar variant is essentially naked, while the Celestial tourer variant gets a standard windshield and pillion backrest. Then you have RE’s long line of accessories for customising your cruiser even further.

Powertrain

As I said earlier, the Super Meteor gets the same 650 parallel twin as the Interceptor and Continental GT. RE has tweaked the map of the engine to better suit the bike’s personality, but those changes are relatively small. Taking off from a standstill is a breeze as it should be on a cruiser and if you twist the throttle a little further you hear more of the horses coming out to play.

The mid-range is surprisingly peppy and while hitting triple-digit speeds comes a little slower than usual, you don’t feel any loss in power all the way to the top of the rev counter. Refinement is pretty good, too. There are no vibrations to speak of at lower speeds. Higher up, however, vibes will creep into the footpegs and handlebars. Transmission is a six-speed changer and while the gearing is relatively short, you have to remember that the bike is heavy and the added meatiness is something that is required so that the bike feels quick on its feet.

Changing said gears too felt smooth for the most part, at least when riding on open stretches. In traffic and low-speed/low-rev sections, there was a clunkiness I felt that caused a knock every time you shift from a higher gear to a lower one. I do rev-match almost every time I down-shift, but it happened in either way.

Ride, handling and manageability

The cruiser format in the motorcycling world comes with its own inherent limitations and to understand this, you need to know that this is a very American concept where the roads are superbly paved with long, straight open highways. This is not the kind of situation you see in most of India. The lower stance of the bikes begs a short suspension travel and with that, a stiff setting.

This means that you get to feel almost every bump in the road climb up through from the tyres and into your back side. The front forks are a decent 120mm and do a well-enough job of keeping the front stable. The rear is a different story, however. The 101 mm travel barely reduces the impact you feel. I’ve had the bike for a few days and I’ve taken it wherever I could.

Smooth roads outside of Mumbai allow for an amazing time but within the city and in the more rural suburbs, the bike has to be ridden a lot slower so you don’t get tossed around in your seat. This doesn’t mean the suspension is bad. In fact, the stiffer back coupled with the bike’s steering geometry and long wheelbase allow for some of the most stable and planted feelings you can get.

Even in high-speed turn sections, a surprise bump won’t throw you off and the bike will continue to forge on and hold its line. Now, I have to mention that I rode on the base variant which means you get a standard split seat set-up and no windscreen. This seat is hard when you first sit on it, but gets surprisingly comfortable after a few hours. It’s when you hit the bumps and potholes that you remember how hard the seat is. The touring seat, I hear, adds a lot more comfort and should be able to soak in those bumps a lot easier. The windscreen, too, would add to your comfort when riding fast for longer. Anything above 110 km/h results in a pretty severe windblast.

Then there’s the bike’s weight. This is something everyone and their grandmother will be worried about. At 241 kg, the bike is not the lightest, but then again, remember that this is a cruiser and it isn’t even the heaviest in this category overall.

Truth be told, the only time you feel the weight of the bike is while walking it or in extremely low-speed environments and even then, it is better behaved than you would expect. A little planning on your part before you manoeuvre will go miles in making things easier. At higher speeds, you don’t feel the heft. It’s no light corner carver, mind you, but it will do its job if your technique is good with your only worry coming from scraping the sides because of the low 135mm clearance. Again, a non-issue even after throwing it around the twisties outside of the city.

Price and verdict

To put it bluntly, the Super Meteor 650 is a machine built for the cruiser enthusiast. It offers all of the advantages a cruiser would and also features some of the disadvantages. Within the city, you’ll be making heads turn and you’ll be catching a lot of stares and questions. Outside, on the open road, you’ll be listening to your favourite rock ‘n’ roll hits with not a care in the world save for the occasional wild pedestrian crossing.

But it is a cruiser and you are limited to just paved roads, so take it to Ladakh at your own peril. Yes, there are improvements that could be made, but it’s nothing a cheap aftermarket part couldn’t fix. As for the pricing, the Super Meteor is the most expensive RE on sale today. At a starting price of Rs 3.49 lakh, it is Rs 60,000 more expensive than the Interceptor 650, but it also comes with more expensive standard hardware such as the Showa suspension, Tripper navigation and even adjustable levers.

Then there is the absolutely premium fit and finish quality that was difficult to find in older REs. If it was my money, I’d spend a little extra for the Celestial variant at Rs 3.79 lakh for the better seats and windscreen, but if you’d rather have the naked look, then the Interstellar is just fine too.