Royal Enfield has announced a limited edition farewell to the popular Classic 500 line in the Classic 500 Tribute Black, with the model marking the end of the road for the firm’s 500cc long-stroke engine.
After nearly 14 years, the Royal Enfield Classic 500 is being discontinued. This seems to be in part because the long-stroke engine reaching its emissions development limit as well as Royal Enfield wanting to free up production capacity for future models.
Priced at $9690 and available for pre-order from royalenfieldmotorcycles.co.nz or at your local dealer, just 40 examples of the Tribute Black are expected to land on Kiwi shores with roughly 200 allocated to Australia. The first bikes are expected to arrive in dealers before the end of the month.
As the name implies, the Classic 500 Tribute Black is an all-black affair with two-tone gloss and a matte black tank with hand-painted gold accents.
As expected for a limited edition motorcycle, each example of the Tribute Black is a numbered limited edition and features a special build plaque noting the bike’s special place in Royal Enfield’s 120-year history.
As for the Classic 500 itself, local Distributor Urban Moto Imports acknowledged that the last stock of the Royal Enfield stalwart has already arrived with CEO Joseph Elasmar noting "once they're gone, they're gone forever."
To celebrate the end of a rather spectacular period in Royal Enfield's history, Royal Enfield dealers including Experience Motorcycles, First European, Freedom Motorcycles, MCR and Wanaka Powersports will be holding a tribute evening to the Classic 500 on the evening of July 7th.
