Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 review: On the offensive

“A member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.” That’s the answer that Google provides when you type in the word Guerrilla - a search that has surely spiked in popularity now that Royal Enfield has used it to name their latest bike. It’s an apt name when you consider that this is Royal Enfield’s stab at infiltrating a segment it has never been in. And the fact that it is going to do so with smaller sales numbers than usual.

RE has definitely adopted a fighting spirit with this motorcycle, with the company making fun of ‘plastic’ rivals as well as stating that too many manufacturers seem to be making clones of other products. That second dig is well earned given how blatantly Honda’s new CB350 has been ‘inspired’ by the Classic 350…

Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 design and features

With that sort of a tone, it’s good that the Guerrilla has its own look and identity in its segment. You won’t mistake this bike for any other modern retro, although there is a clear shared design identity with its bigger brother, the Himalayan. The sculpted fuel tank extrusions and clean tail section particularly remind of the Himalayan and in a good way. There’s also the same round LED headlamp, blacked out Sherpa 450 engine and stubby exhaust. The Guerrilla also has the fattest front and rear tyres (120/70R17 and 160/60/R17) of any made-in-India motorcycle and that adds to the visual appeal.

Thankfully, the Guerrilla takes a sharp departure from the Himalayan in its approachability. At 780mm, this bike has the lowest seat in the segment and it has lost all of the ADV’s top heaviness. At 185kg, this is the heaviest bike in the 300-400cc liquid cooled roadster segment, but it’s not a heavy feeling bike in general. Lifting it off the side stand is easy and it’s weight feels about right for the size of the bike.

Size is one thing the Guerrilla has going for it when compared with most of its rivals. Based on the Himalayan chassis, this is a substantial feeling bike and that will go in its favour. The fuel tank feels quite large despite holding just 11-litres and even with those styling extrusions along the side there’s no interference where your knees meet the tank.

Despite the low seat height, the riding position is very well judged and even larger riders won’t find it immediately uncomfortable. With footpegs raised by 30mm, tall riders  will eventually find some soreness in the knees, but the bike was quite comfortable for the first few hours of our ride.
The handlebar placement is very natural which results in a comfy, upright riding position, but still one that gives you a good connection with the bike when riding at a faster pace.

Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 performance and handling

We were spoiled with some exquisite riding roads outside Barcelona and the Guerrilla was an absolute hoot in this environment. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that the Himalayan itself is a surprisingly good handler and the Guerrilla platform only builds on that. It has the same main chassis as the Himalayan but with a much sharper headstock angle. Suspension travel has also been reduced from 200mm at both ends to 140mm at the front and 150 at the rear. The biggest change however is the move to 17-inch wheels at both ends.

With its chunky block pattern Ceat tyres, you might think there’s some scrambler-capability built into this bike, but much like the Ducati Scrambler, that is in appearance only and the Guerrilla is very much a pure roadster. That being said, it goes about being a roadster very well. The handling can best be described as neutral, predictable and encouraging. The Guerrilla leans over quite a long way before scraping its footpegs and the Ceat tyres work remarkably well in terms of grip. The profile of the tyre does result in a slightly unnatural feel when you explore the outer limits of the available lean angle and the Guerrilla will probably be even more fun with more conventional road tyres.

The braking set-up is largely similar to the Himalayan except for a slightly smaller 310mm disc. Actual braking performance is more than sufficient, although not the sharpest set-up out there. Dual channel ABS is standard but unlike the Himalayan, the rear cannot be deactivated. Spanish roads are probably the worst place to try and gauge suspension comfort, but I suspect that the rear shock is on the firm side. Hopefully, this bike will do better than the Hunter in that regard in our roads, and has sufficient travel on its side, but it is something we want to evaluate here.

The Guerrilla uses the same 452cc 40hp/40Nm liquid cooled engine as the Himalayan with a slightly different tune aimed at spicing up the lower to mid range performance. The bike also gets a smaller rear sprocket (by two teeth) to make up for the smaller wheel/tyre diameter compared with the Himalayan.

On the move, the engine feels very similar in that it wants to be above 3,000rpm at which point it surges forward strongly. The engine is happy to rev out to the redline and that adds to the fun streak in this motorcycle. If anything, the 11-kg weight loss over the Himalayan makes the Guerrilla feel a little quicker and we should be looking at a 0-100kph time in the low 6s range. Like with the Himalayan, there are varying degrees of vibrations at different speeds and how this manifests at highway cruising speeds is something we’ll be able to report once we ride the bike in India. If you plan to do a lot of highway touring, this bike has more than enough performance and space (a very high 191kg payload as well), but the 11-litre fuel tank will mean frequent fuel stops.

Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 verdict

The Guerrilla 450 is available in three variants, with the base bike getting the semi-digital display from the Super Meteor. The mid and top variants get the same TFT as the Himalayan as well as some exclusive colour schemes. As fast as features go, this is a relatively simple bike without the likes of traction control and a quick shifter. But as with the Himalayan, you do get a USB charging port and the ability to cast maps from your phone to the TFT display. Also as with the Himalayan, you need to keep your phone screen on to facilitate this, which while far from ideal still beats the risk of having to mount your phone on the handlebar.

The Guerilla 450 is an appealing and fun to ride roadster, but it isn’t really doing anything unique or game changing. The same goes for its price (Rs 2.39 lakh to Rs 2.54) which is significantly lower than the KTM 390s and Husqvarna 401, but a little higher than the Triumph Speed 400. While we still need to see how the Guerrilla performs in India it has already proven to be something that you must consider if you’re in the market for a modern roadster.

Also see: Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 review: On the offensive