Opinion: The 500cc Royal Enfield motor should return

Our first motorcycle podcast was all about how Royal Enfield has so many upcoming motorcycles in development that it almost feels like the company is doing too much. And yet, here I am – writing a column on why I think RE needs to add another bike to that list.

I believe that RE is missing out by not bringing its 500cc thumper back. The 500 UCE engine that lived in bikes like the Classic, Thunderbird and Bullet was lost in the transition to BS6 in 2020. And to Royal Enfield’s credit, the new J Series 350 was such an improvement that it pretty much offered UCE 500cc levels of performance in the real world.

A big part of what makes the new 350 so heartwarming is the riding environment in the typical Indian big city. Unruly, never-ending traffic and miserable roads are killjoys on modern, sporty machines, but the new 350s (particularly the Classic and Bullet with their comfy ergos) thrive in this chaos.

Unlike every other liquid-cooled single – including RE’s own 450 – the joy begins as soon as you let the admittedly heavy clutch out. Nothing else matches the way this engine pulls you forward at impossibly low revs, accompanied by a gentle but soulful thump that can be felt through the motorcycle. It’s one of the few bikes that is a pleasure to ride in an environment that feels like a chore on most other machines.

The 350 isn’t perfect, of course, and it starts to run out of steam above 90kph while having nothing more to give above 120. This is mainly where RE is missing out in the face of more capable competition. That’s where a 500 would come in.

You would rightly ask why RE should bother when they now have the thoroughly modern 450 engine that makes more power than the 500 could ever dream of. However, the Indian market continues to prove that it is not simply after performance, even if it comes at fantastic value. Today, there are multiple affordable machines that offer 40hp (some of them priced on par or lower than the Classic 350), and some of them wear very premium international badges. And yet, none can muster sales numbers higher than 2,000-3,000 units monthly.

Performance biking is undoubtedly a growing segment, and I love the fact that all these bikes exist, but that’s not what the bulk of the market seems to want. A collective 45,000-50,000 units per month split between the Classic, Hunter, Bullet and Meteor proves that. Clearly, India loves slow-revving, easy-riding bikes with waves of bottom-end torque that create the impression of ‘unstoppable power’. While the company should undoubtedly pursue newer kinds of engines, I also think that the core identity of an old-school Royal Enfield riding experience should not be relegated to just one engine.

There are many challenges to bringing back the 500, which is why it’s not immediately on the cards at RE. The biggest issue is that unlike the previous UCE 350 and 500 engines, the new J-Series was always conceptualised as a 350 and cannot simply be bored/stroked out to 500cc.

There’s also the issue where the price would creep uncomfortably close to the 450s. But I think a 500 will find a different set of buyers against the 450, which is high on speed but quite anonymous in terms of character. As for the 650s, now starting at Rs 3 lakh, they’re not only comfortably more expensive but also bigger and heavier than a 500 would end up being.

I think there’s real scope for a reborn 500, and I’d be sold if RE manages to capture the same character as the 350 but with about 30 percent more performance.

Also See: Opinion: Why I sold my big bike

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