To be fair to Royal Enfield, the Interceptor 650 is a cracking bike for the money. And for certain riders, it'll be perfect. I spent a week touring the west coast of Ireland on one, and as much as I loved every minute of it, I'd had exactly enough of the 47 horsepower on tap when I delivered it back to the rental company.
I was carrying a passenger and luggage, which didn't help, and I usually ride spiritedly.
If it'd pulled harder at higher road-legal speeds, there'd probably be one sitting in my garage. Or maybe a Continental GT 650 (more likely). Well, DoctorMotorcycle appears to have broken into my mind palace and built exactly what I wanted—his Interceptor 650 even looks like a Continental GT 650—by installing a turbocharger.
His video takes you through a step-by-step process, which is so clear that even I, with my extremely limited mechanical knowledge, believe I could follow along and create a turbo Interceptor 650. Even if you have no intention of ever fitting a turbo to anything, the grinding, drilling, and welding ASMR creates a beautiful soundtrack.
What I appreciate about the video is that it starts with a clear goal: Make the bike notably faster at doing a 40-80 mph pull. The baseline time on the standard N/A motorcycle is 7.1 seconds, and the goal was to bring this down to a mid-four-second time.
While running 7.5 PSI DoctorMotorcycle does exactly what he intended to and brings the 40-80 mph roll-on time down to 4.3 seconds, shaving 2.8 seconds off the baseline time. For fun, the good Doctor upped the PSI to 10, shedding a further 0.4 seconds off the roll-on time.
Oh yeah, and it can do power wheelies.
So, considering all of the above, who would be interested in a production turbocharged Royal Enfield Interceptor 650? At this point, I think it's a necessity. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
