For all my time on two wheels, I’ve never really understood cruisers. The weight, the power, the handling, the seating position — none of them made sense to me alone, let alone together. Now, though, I think I get it.
What changed my mind wasn’t a modern Indian or a heritage-laden Harley. It wasn’t some high-powered Triumph or meticulously crafted Kawasaki. It wasn’t even the sheer beauty of the BMW R 18. Instead, it was something far more humble: The Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650.
Full Disclosure: Royal Enfield shipped me out to Dallas-Fort Worth to test the new Super Meteor 650. The company paid for airfare, food, and lodging, all of which helped to put color in my cheeks.
What Is The Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650?
The Super Meteor is, fittingly, the bigger sibling to Enfield’s Meteor 350 — a traditionally-styled cruiser, laden with the 650 cc parallel twin engine from the INT650 and Continental GT. The Super Meteor is the heaviest of the three, sitting at just over 530 lbs when fully fueled, but makes the same 46 horsepower and 31 lb-ft of torque as its siblings.
Besides the conspicuous lack of a V shape under the tank, however, the rest of the Super Meteor is very traditional cruiser fare. The bars sweep backwards comfortably, the foot controls sit almost straight under the triple tree. From the perspective of its low-slung seat, there’s not much to differentiate the Indian bike from, well, an Indian bike.
How Does It Ride?
The odd thing about this press trip was that I boarded my flight without actually knowing what I was heading out to ride. All I knew was it was new, it was a Royal Enfield, and it was in Texas. When I learned it was a big, shiny cruiser, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed — I thought the ride would be all highway cruising; a boring, windy affair. Thankfully, I was dead wrong. The Super Meteor is an absolute blast to ride.
Despite the size and weight, the Super Meteor feels eager and nimble when moving. Its torquey engine, already a blast in the INT650 and Continental GT, truly shines here — all that low-end power complements the Super Meteor’s character. The Super Meteor may not have the most top-end power, but its off-idle fueling shames Honda with its smoothness. In a cruiser, which matters more?
Once you’re up and moving, and move from city streets to twisting back roads, the Super Meteor doesn’t falter. It’s far more nimble than you’d expect from all the chrome, and the suspension is perfectly composed until you start hitting the really big bumps. The transmission on the Super Meteor is also a high point, with great feel and a nice, lightweight clutch — easy for those city traffic stops and starts, yet rewarding when clicking through gears on a twisty road.
Ironically, the Super Meteor only starts to feel out of place when the actual highway cruising starts. The seating position, with those forward controls, puts most of your weight straight onto your tailbone. It’s fine at first, but wears on you with hours in the saddle. The wind does too without a windshield on the base model, but that’s an easier solve. The seating position is a tougher sell.
Who Is It For?
Anyone and everyone. The Super Meteor is Royal Enfield’s flagship, so it’s not the most accessibly-priced bike in the lineup, but it’s also Royal Enfield’s flagship — the company is upfront about its plans to own the lower-cost market while competitors keep pushing upwards. Despite its top-of-the-line status, the Super Meteor starts at a mere $7,000 — just over half the cost of the cheapest Harley-Davidson.
The Super Meteor is accessible in more than just price, though. Its low seat height is approachable for folks of all heights, its clean fuel mapping means there’s no jerky throttle for beginners to contend with. Yet, despite these beginner-friendly considerations, the bike never feels like the starter bikes that other companies uncaringly contract out. The machining, the construction, even the switchgear punches far above its weight class. It’s a premium bike in everything but price — and displacement.
Final Thoughts
In the time since I rode the Super Meteor, the bike has never left my mind. It feels better put-together than my own BMW, yet simpler to swing a leg over and go out for a ride. The low end torque and nimble handling make it a genuine joy to ride — at least for the first few hours, before the saddle starts digging into your tailbone.
Perhaps best of all, though, is the fact that anyone can have that same joy on the Super Meteor. It’s a big enough bike to feel serious — like a step up from single-cylinder beginner fare — but it’s easy enough to ride that I wouldn’t hesitate in sitting a beginner on one. It’s affordable yet premium, approachable yet exciting, it’s the kind of bike that serve as an introduction to motorcycling just as easily as it could act as a beloved, decades-owned workhorse. The Super Meteor 650 democratizes the high-end cruiser, making it an option for folks of all stripes to try out — and it’s almost, almost good enough to get this ADV rider to swap over.
