Royal Enfield Bear 650

• Ever since the 650 twins got launched in India, Royal Enfield has been experimenting with their potent 650cc parallel twin motor by putting it in all sorts of motorcycles. After the Interceptor and Continental GT, we saw the Super Meteor 650, the Shotgun 650 and now finally a scrambler. The Bear 650 is based on the same platform as the Interceptor and the Continental GT 650. It also gets some improved hardware changes to make it prove a better case for itself out on the road.

• In my opinion the Royal Enfield Bear 650 is one of the finest-looking motorcycles currently in Royal Enfield’s inventory. To my eyes, it looks like a proper scrambler, with its slightly tall stance, retro design and off-road tyres. The Bear 650 gets a well-sculpted metal tank with an exciting design for the side panels. The addition of all LED lights and a centrally-mounted round instrument cluster does enhance the overall look. To complete the scrambler look it also gets round side view mirrors and a new 2-into-1 exhaust system.

Convenience

• The Royal Enfield Bear 650 uses the same colour-TFT display from the Himalayan 450. The display shows all the crucial information such as speed, rpm, fuel, trip info, side stand warning, gear position indicator, and time. This display also allows smartphone connectivity via Bluetooth which enables other important features like Google Maps navigation and SMS/call alerts. The Maps feature, although great to have, is slightly painful to use, as it requires your phone to be unlocked the whole time. This defeats the purpose of having built in navigation to begin with.

• The Bear 650 also comes with adjustable levers which made it more comfortable to ride. 

Safety

• For me the switchable ABS provided reassuring braking performance while I rode the Bear 650 on off-road patches.

• In my opinion for 2025, the Bear 650 still doesn't get features like traction control, cornering ABS, quickshifter and a tubeless spoke wheel setup. All of which could have been great additions to this motorcycle’s feature list.

• The Royal Enfield Bear 650 uses a 43mm inverted fork from Showa and twin shocks at the rear which offers preload adjustability. Being a scrambler, the Bear 650 also gets slightly more suspension travel, 135mm of travel at the front and 115mm of travel at the rear. In my opinion this increased suspension travel was able to give this motorcycle an advantage on bad roads along with a slightly better ride quality than other Royal Enfield 650 models.

• The Bear 650 uses the same tried and tested 649cc parallel-twin motor from other Royal Enfields. For the Bear 650, Royal Enfield has tuned this engine differently so it produces the same 47.4PS of power, but it now makes 56.5Nm of torque, which is almost 4.5Nm more than its 650cc siblings. I felt that with the new tune, along with the new 2-into-1 exhaust system, the Bear 650 is livelier to ride. In terms of refinement, this motor is known for being absolutely butter smooth and felt the same in the Bear 650 too. It remains vibration free throughout the rev-range with just a slight buzz near the redline.

 City Performance 

• Out in the city, what I felt was that due to its improved torque output, the Bear 650 was a lot more effortless to ride. The added torque also made riding in higher gears and lower speeds a lot easier than before. This engine sits happily at 50kph in 6th gear and even pulls cleanly without having to downshift.

• In my experience, this motor offers a very good low and mid-range grunt, which made it comfortable to use even in bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions.

Highway Performance

• All the motorcycles with this 650cc parallel-twin motor are praised for their effortless highway performance. And the Bear 650 too, takes on the highway with a lot of confidence. I was easily able to cruise at 130 to 140kph on the Bear. And even at those speeds the engine still had a lot left to offer.

• The Bear 650 also comfortably cruised at slow speeds, and the butter-smooth twin made it a rather delightful experience.

 Mileage 

• The Bear 650 has an ARAI claimed mileage of 22kmpl. 

• The mileage figures I got were quite close or slightly better than the claimed figures in mixed riding conditions. It provides a decent tank range too with its 13.7-litre fuel tank. Although a slightly bigger fuel tank could have been a bit more convenient, especially if you were looking to travel a lot on this bike.

• For a 216kg motorcycle, I was able to manage the Bear 650 fairly easily, as it handles quite well. It surely felt more confidence inspiring than the Interceptor 650 to me. The Bear uses a 19-inch front and 17-inch rear spoke wheel setup. However the tyres were not able to provide justice to the kind of fluidic handling the Bear 650 offered. A tyre swap would definitely make the Bear 650 handle even better, especially on the road.

• For braking duties, the Bear 650 uses a 320mm front and 270mm rear disc brake setup. It uses sintered Brembo brake pads on both ends, which made the Bear 650 stop quite well despite its weight.

• I feel that the Royal Enfield Bear 650, being a scrambler, offers a lot more versatility than the Interceptor and continental GT 650. The Ergonomics are comfortable, along with a decently well-tuned suspension setup which ensures a good ride quality. Although the suspension tune feels more suited to the highway, it performs decently well on bad roads too.

• The new engine tune has definitely made the Bear prove itself to be a better case for itself as a daily commuter. The addition of a 2-into-1 exhaust system has also made the Bear a lot more manageable than the older 650 twins for sure. As their twin exhausts made them impossible to squeeze through tight gaps in traffic.

• The Bear 650 could be a good daily commuter and quite a comfortable touring motorcycle too because of its suspension setup. It can do off-roading too, thanks to its decent 184mm ground clearance and spoke wheels. Although the ground clearance is not class leading, it still managed those off-road patches without scraping.

Triumph Scrambler 400X

Reasons to Consider -

• Lighter kerb weight

• Comes with alloy wheels

           Reasons to ignore - 

• Gets a single cylinder engine

• Down on power

BSA Gold Star

Reasons to consider -

• Lower price

• More focused retro design

            Reasons to ignore - 

• BSA’s single-cylinder engine is not as smooth as RE’s twin-cylinder