Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450

At the outset, Royal Enfield deserves credit for venturing into unchartered waters with the GRR 450. For a company steeped in history with massive success in the retro-style motorcycle space, launching a roadster in the burgeoning and competitive 300-500cc segment is a bold move. After briefly sampling the bike in sunny Spain, we put it through a proper road test in India. Is Royal Enfield’s new roadster convincing enough for you to look away from the competition? We are about to find that out.

The Guerrilla 450’s design language takes a leaf out of the modern-retro styling handbook, and it’s very well executed. From the round LED headlight, to the large, teardrop-shaped fuel tank and the slender tail section, the Guerrilla’s styling elements are neat. It cuts a handsome figure, and its proportions are large enough to grab attention.

And grab the attention it did, as random strangers came up to compliment its design wherever I went. Part of it, I’ve to add has to do with the Brava Blue colour of our test bike. Its sky-coloured front wheel and subframe, or the painted stripes pattern on the fuel tank grabs eyeballs. Not to mention the way it contrasts beautifully with the shimmery white colour on the rest of the body panels is particularly striking.

In all, the Guerrilla 450 looks good and I’ve no complaints about its design. The colours that the bike is available with are quite bold, especially the Gold Dip colour, which requires a certain Ranveer Singh-like personality to pull off. Nevertheless, the Guerrilla 450 will certainly appeal to the young and the bold.

As for the quality levels, they’re good for the most part. However, I still find the ‘Home’ button on the left switch cube to be quite hard to operate. Even the joystick to navigate the menus is fiddly and inconsistent in its operation. Lastly, Royal Enfield needs to rethink the idea that one mirror size fits all bikes. The mirrors on the Guerrilla are small and at times it is difficult to get a good read of the traffic behind.

Hop onto the bike and you get a sense of straddling a large motorcycle. The distance between the rider’s perch and the handlebar is accessible and doesn’t feel like a stretch. The seat itself is wide and comfortable, while the footpegs are placed at a comfortable height and angle. It is a riding position that won’t induce fatigue over long periods.

The Guerrilla 450’s Sherpa engine is the same as we’ve seen in the Himalayan 450. It has the same gear ratios as well, but the throttle calibration is sharper and the final drive is shorter. What all of this has translated to is a motorcycle that feels quick.

Take the engine past 2,500rpm and there is a surge in acceleration that feels more measured than thrilling. It is a quick bike, mind you, but it is not KTM 390 Duke quick. The Guerrilla 450’s performance is all about being quick without scaring the living daylights out of you. A certain section of riders will appreciate that.

The tractability of the engine in the city is good enough and one doesn’t need to shift very often. However, don’t expect to ride it lazily, as you would a Hero Mavrick 440.

Performance at the top end is pretty good as well and the bike sits comfortably between 100-120kmph on the highway, all day long. The speeds can climb higher as well but there is a notable increase in the vibrations as the rev needle approaches the redline.

The other issue is with the inconsistency in the throttle response, especially in Performance mode. While I am smooth with my throttle inputs, the bike would at times surge ahead unexpectedly. That can catch the inexperienced riders off guard and we hope a software patch to address the issue is in the works at Royal Enfield.

In the end, the Guerrilla’s engine is unhurried but it gets the job done when it comes to performance and hitting high speeds.

As for the ride and handling, the Guerrilla 450 is a mixed bag. The telescopic fork and the preload-adjustable monoshock are set on the firm end of the scale and that will give you a fair idea about what to expect when it comes to ride quality. Over smooth or well paved roads, the Guerrilla’s ride quality is absorbent.

However, when riding over wavy concrete surfaces and undulations, the suspension’s stiffness becomes more apparent and these are transferred to the rider. In fact, as the speeds rose to triple digits, these undulations were felt to a higher degree, especially at the rear. I wouldn’t call this a dealbreaker but it is something that one must take into consideration while purchasing the bike. Otherwise, for the most part, the ride is good and certainly better than the Royal Enfield Hunter 350, if you are looking for a reference to compare the ride quality.

The Guerrilla’s handling is one of its strong points. Despite its size, length of the wheelbase, and heft, the Guerrilla 450 feels quick to turn. The steering effort required is also unexpectedly low, partly due to the sharp steering geometry and the leverage offered by the handlebar.

Once tipped into a corner, the Guerrilla felt planted with enough and more grip from the Ceat tyres. But all of the above is applicable on dry roads. On a slightly wet patch of concrete, the tyres don't inspire the same level of confidence. Perhaps the pattern of the tyres isn’t that great at extracting water. A stickier set of road-biased tyres could help in this regard.

The brakes of the Guerrilla 450 are strong and predictable while progression too is easy to understand and modulate.

The Guerrilla 450 has a decent set of features, especially on the top we tested. It gets dual-channel ABS and a neatly designed colour TFT display, the same unit seen in the Himalayan 450. It features Bluetooth connectivity and Google Map mirroring on the screen, which is far more accurate and convenient than the turn-by-turn systems you see on some motorcycles. That said, running the app drains your phone’s battery quickly. The USB type-C charger should come in handy in case one needs to charge the device.

We put the bike through a comprehensive BikeWale fuel economy test, and it returned 31.5kmpl in the city, in moderate traffic conditions. With a fuel tank capacity of 11 litres, one can expect a range between 330km to 350km before needing to refuel.

Change, as they say, is the only constant and it was about time Royal Enfield evolved its product line to cater to an ever increasing and evolving motorcycle market. As its first roadster in this segment, the Guerrilla 450 is a good job.

It looks distinct and has a personality, which I like. The engine is good, performance is quick enough for mature buyers and even the ride and handling are good. But, that’s what it is - a good motorcycle, but nothing outstanding, like what we’ve come to expect of Royal Enfield after what they’ve come up in recent years.

All said, at a starting price of Rs 2.39 lakh (ex-showroom) the Guerrilla 450 is good value for what it offers. Not to mention the gate pass that it becomes to enter the enormous world of Royal Enfield. If you want a chill, easy-to-ride motorcycle that can get up to a fast pace when required, the Guerrilla 450 might interest you.

Images by Kaustubh Gandhi