The bonneville family revived the
fortunes of the triumph brand in the 21st century it married old-school charm
with modern day riding dynamics and in 2016 the whole family received a whole
host of updates such as electronics bigger powerful engines and more
importantly the whole styling became a lot more cooler
well the entry point into the brand was the street twin and for 2019 it has
received a whole lot of updates and it might not be visual but it has made the
bike a whole lot more younger and here what’s up with the new street twin so
here’s what’s new in the new Street Twin well firstly the styling it gets subtle
updates such as the headlamp bracket which now comes in this lovely machined
aluminum finish then you get these new alloys which are also cast aluminum then
the side panels they get a new design plus it gets the new logo moving on to
the mechanical bit it gets an uprated 41 mm cry abba open cartridge tie fork then
you have instead of the old missing two port brakes at the front you get the
Brembo four pot actually mounted brakes and then lastly the biggest change comes
in the engine which is now 15 percent more powerful than before and even though the torque is the same it
is made at slightly higher rpm and that means you have a wider top band well
you’d think that these updates would increase the price of the street twin
but no that’s not the case the street twin was the entry point
into the Bonneville family, it was also the entry point into the Triumph brand and it
has become even more cheaper it’s become cheaper by twenty five thousand rupees
and let’s not forget the street twin was and still is the most affordable British
twin you can get in India today well yes and no because it was now though say
hello to the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 what are you doing here PD I thought
this other Street Twin video we are it’s supposed to test the street twin or I
don’t understand it is a very good bike no question about it but if you want the
classic British twin why would you buy that when you can get the Interceptor
for so much lesser British Interceptor Royal Enfield you know is where it’s
made right it’s made in Chennai 9 not in Coventry
well it’s British where it matters and that is in the way it feels but more
importantly your bike the Street Twin cost three times as much as the inverter
is it written to the bike ok what would you like have I’ll take coffee so I want one Java chip
Frappuccino skim milk instead of regular milk and extra espresso short little bit
drizzle of caramel a bit of chocolate and don’t forget to a whipped cream can you repeat your order okay one Java Chip Frappuccino instead of regular
milk I want skim milk a little bit extra a chocolate drizzle of caramel two pumps
of espresso and don’t forget whipped cream feeding you have to agree that
triumph is the more premium of those two brands at least yes
I mean sure Royal Enfield at one point wasn’t considered that premium but now
with the arrival of the twins they are definitely moving up that ladder
the twins address and the cleanliness the brand for sure but ask any real
biker which bike would they rather have in the garage a Triumph or a Royal Enfield
one was sensible will pick the Royal Enfield and save a lot of money as well but money
is not everything no it’s supposed to give you the ridding feels also it does
feel as good as the twin okay just look at the two bikes together in one
frame the street twin looks so much more premium so much more well built well
packaged man look at the paint quality I know the orange chrome really looks nice
on the Interceptor what that paint quality on the tank and then goes the
headlight brackets that machine finish aluminum and then the Alcantara seats
does your RE give you that no and when you see the bikes together the turqu
twin looks so much more compact that it makes the Interceptor look unnecessarily
large you have to agree this street twin looks
cool sure but if you want a classic British motorcycle you want classic
styling and on that front the street twin will look like a modern interpretation
of a British classic design on the other hand the Royal Enfield looks like a
properly classic bike but importantly it rides like a modern motorcycle does it
get ride by wire does it get rider modes at the gate traction control there’s a
good liquid cooling no and all that makes the street twin so much more better
to ride but all the things are very super close for the riding experience ok
let’s just settle it once and for all in the street sir your order you really thought your 650 could beat 900 but PD you’ve forgotten what it is like to be fast on a motorcycle
I’ll way ahead of you man you won’t die died of me what do you feel not that was
zero two hundred thousand one and a half seconds quicker than you I didn’t think
about it that bike is three times the rise of this bike and it’s not three
then this quick for any bike to be three times as quicker than your interceptor I
would need something like a Hayabusa or a particle a before not this honestly thing
I’m a simple man put a simple maths and the thing that matter this Interceptor does
things just as well as the street twin I mean if you’re on the highway cruising
at 100 220 km/h it’s just as smooth and it’ll do that speed all day long just
like the Street Twin okay what if I want to go a little bit more faster what if we
were all both of us heading to goa and I go a little bit faster that is where
your bike will struggle look I mean faster than the 120 on Indian roads come
on it’s not really feasible at all and yes you might get there a little bit
faster but that’s just a little bit I mean it’s not gonna make a big
difference in the long run and of course at those piers you need good braking
hardware and the Interceptor has you covered on that front as well I mean
obviously these brakes are much cheaper than your fancy Brembos and they stop
just as well the conditions are identical from all speeds fancy brake
which company makes those calipers by the way library and the full form of
library is by bamboo by Brembo but I mean listen it’s made in India and it’s
a lot cheaper than your fancy for water and it works just as well I’ve had
enough I want some more coffee honestly what we had that was not coffee so Jehan now that I’ve had your fill
of caffeine hmm let’s get down to the basics now these bikes are not
performance bikes from any angle and while they are were on the highway
they’re not really meant for outright touring cool where they will spend most
of their time is it the city yep and your fav the Interceptor does feel a
little bit better he’s got that nice wide handlebar that hold all as well
that gives you a lot of leverage when a mother in through traffic is so much
easier on the Interceptor yeah on the other hands on the street twin those low
bars Langly front end means motoring through
tait traffic feels a bit of a task okay steering so traffic I agree the
Interceptor at the edge but when you come to a halt when you’re in the
parking lot here you want to park your bike move it around I think over there
the compact nature of the street twin the dimensions and also the low seat
height helps it just a move around a bit more easily and I know for a fact those
white foot pegs on the Interceptor well if you try to move it around it will
give a kick in your shin and the bike is a bit too heavy in that sense when
you’re just trying to push it around and don’t forget what happened in our pillion test the seat on the Interceptor it’s much more padded it’s a lot softer
okay it’s been you lower this got a lovely
foam over here and look at this man Alcantara as that nights with the finish
and have you know software is better okay let me call on somebody who will be
an impartial jury over here yeah hey ray have you managed to convince your
parents for 125 Duke well not yet
you know what happened yeah you know something they’re going to get older and
then you want to big bikes like these so so these to meet the most
sense for you technically so it would be go out on the ride of course why
not cool cool cool but pillion only what fine so the street twin you better be better
but ray this is softer seat but ray Ride is so much better but oh so sweet
this is a better ride yeah but this is just but cheaper is see to it moving on to right quality the
interceptor suspension is softer and feels more plush on our roads
sure it can feel a little too soft at times but that can be easily fixed by
bumping up at the rear preload but the Interceptor still feels bouncy on bigger
bumps and when it bottoms out prepare for an almighty shock to your backside
the street twin on the other hand yes it feels more forum in general but the
damping is a lot more sophisticated and it soaks up larger bumps without getting
upset again where it matters the Interceptor gets NH the street twin might
be much quicker off the line but the Interceptor has better ride ability at
motor speeds in both third and fourth gear the RE accelerates better than the
triumph and that’s exactly what you need in the city blame this on the triumph
spell of gearing both bikes may run the same tyres but
thanks to alloy wheels there are tubeless on the street plans, you might say
that it doesn’t matter for the most part but when you get a puncture there’s no
escaping the indignity of pushing your bike to the poncho Walla fine fine I’ll
give those points to the street twin but in our lovely weather conditions the
Interceptor does have an edge now your motor it’s bigger it’s liquid cool but
the problem is gonna throw a lot of heat at you yes especially when you’re in
slow-moving traffic and this big nature of this engine it is unnecessarily big
it’s not it has it dissipates heat so much better so when you’re in traffic
there are zero hot spots around your knees or your ankles and I mean you’ve
spent like hours on this in traffic yeah it does not run hot and yeah yeah yeah I
faced that issue quite a bit over here but let me tell you something even
though it is big in terms of cubic capacity my motor actually returns the
same fuel efficiency as your 650 twins so technically this 900 is the more
the efficient engine of the too yeah but then this bike has the bigger tank which
means you get a bit more range just slightly but fuel costs aren’t the only
running costs for these motorcycles when you factor in maintenance service parts
I mean come on triumph VS Royal Enfield is that
even a question yeah I get that when you are factoring to buy a premium big
imported bike and then you have to factor in stuff like big cost for your
running maintenance and serviceability and in that sense I think the Royal
Enfield has the edge over you yeah that’s the advantage of having a British
bike that’s made in India so Jehan are you not convinced that the
Interceptor is better value for money than the street twin see there was never
really a doubt the Interceptor offers phenomenal value for money but when you
talk about being the better bike well the street twin triumph over the
Royal Enfield and you have to agree with me on that yeah I’d be silly if I said
that the Interceptor is as good as the street twin in those regards but the
question that we asked was is it worth three times as much for all that extra
bit and in that sense I’m still not entirely convinced if it was twice the
price yeah maybe it’ll make more sense see if you want a bonney you have to
spend that much bit poor and get yourself up on it true I think we need
to ask this question to somebody else so what do you guys think do you think that
the street twin is worth three times that of the Interceptor and if we had to
pick between these two bikes which one would you pick do let us know in the
comments below and the best comment will get pinned in the video so until next
time ciao