When you have access to some of the best possible roads in the world, motorcycling haven if you will, you will want a machine that’s just as entertaining. Which is exactly why Royal Enfield flew us down to Barcelona to get our first taste of the Guerrilla 450, the second bike with the Sherpa 450 engine and an outright roadster this time around. This is what the company calls its neo-retro roadster and it certainly looks the part. But does it ride like the company claims like it does? Off to the sunny twisties of Barcelona to find out.
What is a neo-retro roadster? According to Royal Enfield, something that embraces a contemporary style while having something in its overall design characteristic that screams Royal Enfield. To that end the designers have done a great job with the Guerrilla. It is based on the Himalayan 450 and you do see a fair bit of that design trickle in with the headlight, the tail lights, the switch cubes on the ’bars, the instrument cluster on the mid and top variant and other elements picked straight off of the towering ADV. The engine is also right off the Himmi but with a new tune, but more on that later. The natural assumption is that this is the successor to the Hunter 350, but with the Guerrilla the idea is a little more involved than that. The folks at RE consider the Hunter a heritage-retro roadster. So the design inspiration is in turning the pages of the history book back. But with the Guerrilla 450, like with the Shotgun 650, the idea was to make something that you could very well see in a Cyberpunk 2077 update. And to be very honest, with the striking colour finishes that you can choose from, I won't be surprised if you can actually control this bike with a joystick and triggers very soon. The roadster stance is very evident, you’re sat upright with a slight forward weight bias adding to the sporty stance. The seat height is a comfortable and more importantly accessible 780mm, handlebar is nice and wide and the seat itself is fairly comfortable for longer days on the road. As you would expect from an RE, you can option a taller seat or one more focussed for touring from the GMA catalogue.
There are three variants you can choose from the Analogue (base), Dash (mid) and Flash (top). The only thing separating the variants is the colour schemes and the fact that the base variant only gets the analogue instrumentation with an optional tripper pod for turn by turn navigation.
Royal Enfield has been making roadsters for a while now with the Classic 350 and so on but with the Guerrilla, the task was to focus on the thrill of riding rather than the chill of it. More on getting the heart pumping than reminiscing. To that end, the boffins started with the very capable Himalayan 450 chassis as the base. The ADV, while a notably better handler than a predecessor, was still nowhere in naked bike territory. To get there some radical changes were made to the chassis. The main frame, while similar in design, is much shorter and also gets a much sharper steering geometry. At 21.8 degrees, the rake is 4 degrees sharper than the Himmi and the trail is shorter by 27mm. This is also down to the smaller 17-inch wheel at the front. The fuel tank that sits on top of the main frame has a similar aesthetic to the Himalayan but is a fair bit shorter and also carries only 11 litres of fuel instead of 17. The tank also doesn’t have the rails around it anymore. The subframe is marginally shorter as well with a similar design to the Himalayan’s. The swingarm is a fair bit shorter and that along with the changes at the front has resulted in a 1440mm wheelbase, 70mm shorter than the ADVs. All the changes and omissions have also resulted in a 185kg kerb weight making it 11kg lighter than the Himalayan. Coming to the wheels, the 17-inch wheels are shod in bespoke Ceat rubber 120-section at the front and 160-section at the rear. This was immediately a worry for me. But Chris, one of the key members in the chassis development, told me to ride the bike before I jump to any conclusions. And lo and behold, the Guerrilla 450 is surprisingly nimble and eager to change directions. So much so that I genuinely feel that downsizing to a more readily available 110-150 front-rear set will make it almost too agile. Despite the width, you don’t feel and drag or extra effort required to change directions or weave in and out of traffic. In the corners, the bike truly came alive and was a hoot and a half. It stays planted through the corner and there is plenty of cornering clearance before you start scraping pegs. Tyre grip at the extreme edge of the tyre is not the best but still plenty to not feel like you’re about to test the friction coefficient of the bodywork (of which there is very little). While 185kg is a lot less than the ADV it still is chunky by roadster standards. But courtesy the 780mm seat height and the agile front end, you don’t feel the weight that much and the side stand doesn’t lean over as much as the ADV so setting off is hardly a problem either. All these changes and additions make it, in my opinion, the best handling Royal Enfield to date.
Braking is courtesy the same hardware as the ADV barring a 10mm smaller 310mm front disc. Braking performance is great and my only gripe is non-adjustable levers. The suspension setup is different too with a telescopic Showa fork setup instead of USDs and a similar monoshock but with lesser travel and different damping settings. The front offers 140mm of travel and the rear is good for 150mm. While the setup is great for cornering, I can’t really comment on the ride considering the pristine roads we were on. That being said, I have a strong feeling it won’t be nearly as harsh as the Hunter 350 and if that is the case it should be great.
Propelling the Guerilla into warfare (forgive me) is the same Sherpa 450 engine but with a new tune to the ride-by-wire system and two fewer teeth at 45 teeth on the rear sprocket. The tune has been made to make it more potent in the mid and top-end while also feeling a little more aggressive. From the couple of hundred kilometres that I rode for, that was pretty evident. It didn’t feel identical to the Himmi and that is a good thing. It feels even more eager to rev and to that end you need to be more heavy with your right hand to set off as well. The Himalayan is properly fast now and with all the less mass you’re lugging around, this feels quicker. In terms of vibrations, they are present here too and a little more prominent in the mid range between 4500 and 6500rpm. Which means vibe-free cruising is around 100kmph in sixth gear. Gearing and all other engine internals are identical and feel solid.
Features-wise you get everything that you got on the Himalayan and that’s plenty. Introductory ex-showroom prices for the Guerrilla start at ₹2.39 lakh and go up to ₹2.54 lakh for the top-end colour scheme. At this price, I feel Royal Enfield has a solid contender in the sub-500cc naked/roadster bike segment. This of course won’t make the KTM 390 Duke soil its underwear but bikes like the Triumph Speed 400, H-D X440 and the Hero Mavrick have a serious rival in the Guerrilla 450. The roadster is great fun to ride in the twisties, easy to manage in the city and promises to offer a good ride on our roads too (that will be verified soon). It takes a very Royal Enfield approach to a sporty roadster and you have to love it for that. I know that I do, especially for the price and the wacky colours.