Nina — A Love Story

It was on a lazy Sunday, in August 2019, that I decided to tag along with my friend to a Royal Enfield showroom to test drive one of the beastly twins that were the talk of the town. I never anticipated that I would fall in love that day but the moment I sat on an Interceptor 650 and twisted the throttle, I did! The bike had me clinging on to my dream of owning one, as hard as I grabbed onto its handlebar when I opened the throttle in first gear.

I am a fan of torque rather than speed and hence would any day, choose a torquey machine over the high revving sports bikes. I would probably describe my style of motorcycle riding as “relaxed” rather than “aggressive” and I felt that the Interceptor was tuned just how I liked it. Picking between the Interceptor 650 and the GT-650 was a continuation of the same story. The Continental GT-650 with its clip-on handlebar offered an aggressive riding posture to the riders. Thus I knew I had to pick the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650.

Producing 47 horses of power and 52 Nm of peak torque, the numbers were a class apart from motorcycles that the manufacturer had ever produced. After my research on the internet, I concluded that a bike that churned out these numbers and that too at a price point below 3 Lacs, was definitely worth the money. To put the cherry on the top, the service interval of the bike was roughly 10K Kms with an average service cost of Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 and this according to various articles, was low for a 650 parallel twin of its kind. The performance of the motorcycle combined with its retro styling was incentive enough for me to go for it.

The bike is heavy and can be cumbersome to handle if you are pulling it out of a ditch or while riding in sluggish traffic, but once in motion, the bike is an absolute pleasure to ride. Despite the weight, the bike is really stable and even on tough corners, you find yourself being confident enough to tilt the machine to quite an angle. Contributing to the confidence is the fact that braking duties are taken care of by Brembo disc brake systems equipped with dual-channel ABS, which work really well.

At a sweet spot of about 110-120 km/h, the bike can cruise all day without breaking a sweat and yet will have a good amount of power left to be delivered if you decide to twist the throttle a little more, for when you feel the need for an adrenaline rush. The low-end torque delivery and quick throttle response will often make you want to shift down a gear and take off, overtaking several vehicles ahead within seconds.

If you are a thumper at heart you might miss the “thump” of the classic Royal Enfield bikes but the whistling sound that the 270-degree parallel twin makes might seem sweetly similar to that of the Triumph Street Triple. I find myself revving and enjoying the sweet exhaust note, often just for the sake of it. The sound the engine emits on roll-off too is quite the music to my ears.

Buying a bike is an investment and I being a fresher out of college don't plan to upgrade anytime soon. With a little persuasion, I convinced my dad to stretch the budget and bring Nina home. Oh! Nina is my Baker Express, Royal Enfield Interceptor 650.