Twin-cylinder Royal Enfield spotted testing

It's no longer a secret that Royal Enfield is working on a twin-cylinder bike. Several Continental GTs with a new parallel-twin engine have been spotted testing in Europe and India. Now, the motorcycle has been spotted again with test equipment loaded on the rear, trailing a Royal Enfield van in Pune. It is likely that the motorcycle might have been brought to Pune for certification by ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) or for its performance analysis in city traffic.

It is rumoured that the new twin-cylinder engine will have a displacement of 750cc and will share the basic construction with the 350cc motor as seen on the popular Royal Enfield Classic 350. Also Royal Enfield engineers have selected a parallel-twin layout as it requires lesser space and as we can see it gets easily accommodated in the Continental GT’s frame. The new motor will also feature an external oil-cooler similar to the Himalayan’s powerplant as liquid-cooling would have bumped up the price. The engine will be mated to a 5-speed gearbox. 

Recently Royal Enfield boss man, Siddarth Lal, had earlier said that the new engine will not be restricted to only one motorcycle and we feel that the Himalayan which uses the same frame as the Continental GT could also get equipped with the 750cc mill. This should be good news for prospective Himalayan customers who felt that the current engine ran out of breath on the open highways and wished it had more grunt. Given the fact that the bike has been spotted on so many occasions, it seems that the new Royal Enfield twin-cylinder bike is in its final stages of testing and could be launched by late 2017 most likely at the EICMA motorcycle show in Italy. 

Source: ZigWheels.com