When we think Royal Enfield, we think of one of two things. Either you’re a diehard off-roader and the only bike worth buying from the brand is the Himalayan, or you’re a laid-back rider who appreciates simple, barebones machines with tons of customizability.
Given the fact that I’m neither of those, I must admit that Royal Enfield’s bikes haven’t always been top of mind for me. That is, until now.
You see, I love performance-oriented motorcycles. And while I love liter-class hypersports pushing upwards of 200 horsepower as much as the next guy, performance can mean different things to different people. For me, my definition of performance is more about balance—a lightweight, flickable chassis, mated to a peppy engine that provides just the right amount of power and torque to have a good time out on the twisties.
Little did I know that with the Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450, I’d find just that.
I was invited by Royal Enfield to try out the new Guerrilla 450 in a very unique way—a chill track day on a tight and technical race track used mostly by go-karts. Quick side note here—track days in the Philippines are very much different from track days in the US. Everything’s much more chill, almost to a fault. You’re not required to wear leathers, there aren’t any safety inspections, and heck, there aren’t even any marshals out on the track. You simply head over there and ride as if you were riding on the street. Pretty crazy, right?
At my disposal was not one, but two brand new Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450s. For those unfamiliar, the Guerrilla is RE’s newest naked bike, scrambler, street bike thing that’s set to go up against the likes of the Kawasaki Z500, KTM 390 Duke, and Husky Svartpilen 401. Styling-wise, it came across to me as a sort of confused bike. Is it a naked bike? Yeah, sure. But its scrambly tires suggest that it’s willing to go off-road. But wait, it’s also rolling on 17-inch wheels front and rear—so is it a flat tracker? I didn’t know anymore. All I knew was that I wanted to ride.
And ride I did.
The Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 is a very big deal for Royal Enfield. Not only is it based on the Himalayan 450’s brand-new platform, but it’s also the sportiest on-road motorcycle in RE’s catalog to date. I get it, the Continental GT650 exists, and while that’s a full-blown cafe racer, this thing’s nothing short of a hooligan masquerading as a retro-inspired scrambler.
Swinging a leg over this thing and taking it out for its warm-up lap immediately reminded me of my first “real” motorcycle, the KTM 390 Duke. Yep, it’s that good.
The engine, as those who’ve ridden the Himalayan 450 would be familiar with, is eager to rev, has a healthy spread of power and torque from the bottom of the rev range up until the middle of the powerband. It’s only when you wring it out to redline that you notice all 40 ponies and 30 pound-feet of torque tapering off. Speaking of power, this thing has two ride modes—Power and Eco—which you can switch between on the fly. But given that we were on a race track, I made sure to leave it on Power mode pretty much the entire time.
The track we were on was called Tarlac Circuit Hill, and its name is pretty much self-explanatory. It’s a tight and technical circuit situated on the hills of Tarlac City, around a three-hour drive from Metro Manila. And as it would turn out, it was the perfect proving ground for a fun and agile bike like the Guerrilla 450. Going through the corners, the Guerrilla 450 felt surprisingly stable. I found myself backing it in through corners, getting the tail out by overpowering the ABS by downshifting twice without rev-matching.
And when you wanted to ride it like a sportbike, well, you could. I found myself adjusting my body position from leaned-in to a leaned-out in the middle of a turn, and the bike didn’t get upset at all.
Now, Royal Enfield offers the Guerrilla 450 in three variants in its home market of India—Analog, Dash, and Flash. But here in the Philippines, only the Analog and Flash versions are available. Luckily, I was able to run both models through their paces, and right out of the gate, it was clear that if it was a fun and hooligan-esque ride you were after, you’d be an idiot if you didn’t spend the extra bucks to get the Flash.
The top-of-the-line Flash variant not only comes with the fancy Brava Blue colorway, it also gets better tech. It’s rocking a full-color TFT, which makes it easy to see what mode you’ve set the bike on at a glance. As for the Analog model, the tiny Casio calculator-like display in the middle of the instrument cluster will have you squinting to decipher the information. Like the Flash model, it also gets Tripper Navigation, but it’s mounted on a separate pod beside the main cluster. So yeah, a clean and well-integrated dashboard is yet another reason to splurge on the Flash variant.
As for the bike’s on-road manners, well, it’s clear that this thing’s a traffic buster. The stuff you’d complain about on the twisties are actually the stuff that make it easier to ride on a daily basis. The footpegs, whose feelers I managed to grind all the way down on the track, are low enough to keep you relaxed, while just the right height for you to be able to grip the tank with your knees. The tall handlebars and the tight turning radius give you a commanding stance on the road, while making filtering through tight traffic a breeze.
And of course, the single-cylinder Sherpa engine has a lot of potential. It has proven itself as an off-road capable mill in the Himalayan 450, and now, with the Guerrilla 450, it’s proving that it can hustle on the street, too.
Now, as of the moment, the Guerrilla 450 isn’t available in the US just yet. It’s expected to land stateside in the spring of 2025, and so official pricing has yet to be revealed. Nevertheless, it’s more than likely that this machine will provide some very attractive value for money—some say close to the $5,000 mark. And it’s only a matter of time until a bustling aftermarket scene will pop up specifically for this model.
Gallery: 2025 Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 - First Ride
Personally, if I had this bike in my collection, I’d swap out the stock foot pegs for higher rearsets, slap on a clubman handlebar, fit a set of Bridgestone Battlax S23 rubber, perhaps throw on a slip-on exhaust for good measure, and hit my favorite set of twisty roads. But hey, that’s just me. And the Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 proved to be quite the capable bit of kit straight out of the box.
Towards the end of the day, I found myself second glancing at this bike and asking myself if this really was a Royal Enfield. All my previous experiences with Royal Enfield’s bikes (except for the Himalayan 450) tamed me and taught me how to appreciate riding at a leisurely pace hopping from one coffee shop to another. But the Guerrilla 450 was something else. It was the first time that a Royal Enfield made me feel like popping wheelies at stop lights and sliding the tail out when taking corners.
It’s a bike that I actually want for myself, and one that just might find its way to my garage sooner or later.
