Royal Enfield top boss responds to one-off factory custom 850 adventure bike shown at Goodwood FoS

Royal Enfield could well be gearing up to join the mid-size adventure bike market with a larger parallel twin model, having showcased a bored-out 850 rally concept at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed based on the existing 650 twin platform.

The mystery bike was built in partnership with artist David Gwyther of Death Spray Custom, who was said to be inspired by Dakar Rally racing machines of the 1980s and 1990s. Conversations with Royal Enfield began three-years-ago, with the finished model making its debut at the July 4-7 event.

“Working from what platform they had, I thought about creating a rally bike, but I really wanted it in that golden era of rally bikes from ’88 – ’91 with the Ténérés, Africa Twins because when I was a kid that was the rallying I’d see,” Gwyther told MCN at the Chichester festival.

“I think they took a lot from their flattrack racing program, so the idea was can we make a bike that’s the same horsepower and weight as they were in those days but using the modern technology,” he continued. “And then I wanted to create the style, the graphics, the engineering to be very similar to that era – so I made sure we used halogen lights and nothing that was out of spec for that time.”

Finished in light pastel pink and purple, the bike treads a path between modern and retro, similar to the ethos of Ducati’s larger V-twin Desert X – which plays on the rallying heritage of the Cagiva Elefant.

There’s even a neat analogue-styled map book up front, showing the route up the 1.16-mile Goodwood hill climb course, plus period correct graphics for brands like Alpinestars.

Larger forks, spoked wheels, and a bespoke fairing also feature alongside chassis upgrades from Harris Performance. The engine also runs as it should despite the internal revisions and made a number of trips up the Goodwood sprint.

“We’ve got a modified headstock to get the correct rake and then it’s the GT/Interceptor engine block that’s been bored out,” Dave continued. “There’s adjustable Öhlins suspension, a Harris swingarm, Harris exhausts, and the aluminium rear sets are bespoke for the bike.

“The bodywork is all one-off and when we were coming up with the way we created it, it was all about making it practical, and repairable in the dessert.”

With so many mid-size parallel twin adventure bikes now on the market, the custom build appeared to show a possible signal of intent for the future of Royal Enfield.

Afterall, the brand are no strangers to hiding future bikes in plain sight – with the 2021 SG650 concept becoming the Shotgun 650 cruiser, and the current 350 single-cylinder J Series cylinder heads used on the V-twin Concept KX prototype back in 2018.

MCN caught up with the brand’s Chief of Design, Mark Wells at the recent Guerrilla 450 launch event and put the question to him.

“That is a pure custom project,” he confirmed. “Adrian Sellers (Head of Custom and Motorsport) and my custom team did all the bodywork, and he did the paintwork. That definitely wasn’t done as a concept bike as to what might come in the future.”

Wells continued: “There’s absolutely no doubt – and I’m not saying anything I shouldn’t here – in that it’s the most asked for product. I quite regularly say to people in conversation – especially journalists – what do you think we should do next? And nine times out of 10 that’s what people say.

“I guess we’ve got a history of listening to people,” he added. “There’s a bunch of our products that we’ve done in plain sight and there’s also a bunch of our products that are direct answers to how customers do stuff.

“I can’t confirm or deny anything. I guess what I can say is the demand is there.”