WE'RE NOT BORED

Not when an RE Interceptor 650 is transformed into an RE Interceptor 865

- Pablo Chaterji

The Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 is a brilliant machine. From the day I first rode it in California in 2018 to the last time I rode one in Lonavala in early 2020, I have felt nothing but love and admiration for it. It looks right (for someone of my advanced years, anyway), sounds good, goes just fast enough, won’t scare you to death around corners and is reliable, which is pretty much all that I want in a motorcycle these days. For the money, it’s about as good a 650cc bike as you can get straight out of a factory, and even though it’s considered an excellent project bike, I really can’t think of anything that I’d want to change about it. Suraj Narayan, however, is not me.

When Chennai based Suraj bought his Interceptor, he (like me) appreciated its qualities and enjoyed it for what it was – a well-built, entertaining, old-school machine. After a while, however, he began to feel an itch. The bike ticked many existing boxes, but what if there were some new boxes that could be added – by him – and then those ticked off one by one as well? He ruminated for a while, and then picked up the phone and called Jaideep Gautam, who runs the Motodynamics workshop in Chennai. I’ve known Jaideep for over 20 years, and if there’s one thing he loves, it’s a challenge. Discussions between him and Suraj ensued, and to cut a long story brutally short, the end result was the bike you see here – an Interceptor with a big-bore kit and numerous other modifications.