Barring unforeseen global events, EICMA season always brings a swirl of color and activity to the lives of moto enthusiasts every year. After all, it’s where OEMs and the whole industry usually come together to show off all their coolest stuff—from concepts to new models and everything in between. To build anticipation, we usually start seeing lots of hints and teasers—both of the leaked and officially-sanctioned varieties—trickle out of every corner.
In October, 2021, rumblings from the Indian motorcycle press were widely expecting Royal Enfield’s long-awaited Super Meteor 650 cruiser to finally break cover at EICMA 2021, which would take place in November. If you’ll recall, while EICMA is usually a big deal, 2021 was a particularly interesting time because folks were just starting to get back into the swing of things as COVID vaccines rolled out and restrictions in many places eased.
Ultimately, what Enfield rolled out wasn’t the expected sibling to the Continental GT 650 and INT(erceptor) 650. Instead, it was the SG650 Concept—which definitely fulfilled the cruiser expectations that had been bubbling in the Indian moto press. However, it wasn’t a production-ready machine—just a signpost and focusing point for moto fans to consider when thinking about Enfield’s past and future, and where its design philosophies are headed.
Fast-forward to November 3, 2022—and Royal Enfield dropped its first official teaser for its planned EICMA 2022 reveal. On Tuesday, November 8—the first press day at EICMA, when most of the news will be revealed—we’ll get to see the curtains open all the way at 11:30 a.m. CET.
That’s 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time / 3:30 a.m. Pacific, if you’re in the States and you want to watch it live. The event will be livestreamed on Enfield’s official YouTube channel, which is also where the OEM posted its first teaser. We’ll include a link to the placeholder page in our Sources so you can sign up for notifications if you’re interested.
We mentioned the Super Meteor 650 up above to note that we’ve been expecting it for a long time—and now, at last, it appears that it’s about to finally make its first appearance. The teaser image depicts green curtains, pulled back just enough to get most of the rear view of a Royal Enfield 650 Twin. You can see the edges of the twin tailpipes on either side, even if you can’t see the engine itself from this angle.
The sculpted tail showcases a single round, red taillight above a tidy black license plate bracket. Twin rear shocks are visible, also with black springs. The swoop of the saddle flows neatly into the tank, which is a dark color that you can see a hint of pinstriping on, swooping up over the curve toward the front of the bike. A set of black, high handlebars is visible, as are the bottom parts of black mirror stems—but not the mirrors themselves.
A typical Enfield round gauge pod cluster is also visible, including what appears to be Tripper navigation—which is not at all surprising, since Enfield seems keen to include that feature on all its new models these days.
Eagle-eyed readers may note that a Royal Enfield Scrambler 650 test mule has also recently been spotted out on the roads around Chennai. Given the differences in the rear end parts that we can see in the teaser image, Enfield’s big EICMA 2022 reveal does not appear to be this bike—just yet, anyway.
Could it be a misdirect? Anything is possible, as ever. After all, although rumors of a ShotGun 650 (or SG650) had also been swirling for some time prior to EICMA 2021, the concept that Enfield ultimately showed off was a delightful surprise.
