Comparison Series: Triumph Bonneville vs Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 vs Moto Guzzi V7

I bought a Triumph Bonneville, a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650, and a Moto Guzzi V7, with my own money. We’re going to figure out which one is going to be the best mid-size retro motorcycle (for me), and that’s the one I’ll be keeping.

I started buying these motorcycles a few months ago so I’ve been living with all three for a while now. Over the next few videos we’re going to find out

1. Does the Triumph Bonneville deserves it’s spot as the “top dog” when you think of retro motorcycles?

2. If Royal Enfield has stepped up its game enough with the Interceptor 650 to win me over as a fan  and be in the same league as these two European legends?

3. As someone who rides rain or shine, can I learn to live with, and even love, the Moto Guzzi V7’s quirky italian-ness as my daily rider?

Now let’s look at the motorcycles we’ll be comparing:

Buying new vs. used

There’s one catch to all this. My original plan was to buy all of these motorcycles brand new. It turns out, where I live, after freight, PDI, licensing, other dealer fees, and taxes, buying all of these motorcycles brand new would cost me about $29,000 ($40,000 Canadian) to buy all three motorcycles.

The Triumph Bonneville and Moto Guzzi V7 would have cost me, out the door, about $10,500 ($14,464 Canadian) each. Even the cheapest Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 I could find was going to cost $8,000 USD ($10,940 Canadian) brand new.

But none of these motorcycles are particularly cutting edge. None are considered among the latest and greatest that motorcycling has to offer us. So, at prices like these, in this kind of economy, do you really need to buy one of these motorcycles brand new, or can you save a lot of money buying used ones? Hmm.

Me, personally, instead of buying any one of these motorcycles new, I bought all three of them used. What I spent to buy the Moto Guzzi, the Royal Enfield, and the Triumph, was nearly equivalent to the cost of buying just one of these motorcycles brand new. I picked the used motorcycle route, and I’ve committed myself to a maximum budget of $3,650 (or about $5,000 Canadian) for each motorcycle. With a little luck, and literally dozens of hours spent driving almost a thousand miles for the best deal that I could find, I’m really happy with the V7, Bonneville, and Interceptor 650 that I bought. I’ll show them to you in the video above.The plan from here

Over the next few videos and posts here on YouMotorcycle, I’ll be letting you guys know my thoughts on each of these motorcycles. We’ll talk about what I like about them but also what problems I’ve discovered about each one along the way. And trust me, none of these machines are perfect.The format will be a bit like an elimination tournament. Once I’m sure which of the three retro motorcycles I like the least, I’ll sell that one.

If I lose money on the sale, oh well, too bad. If I make money on the sale, we’ll put that towards upgrading the remaining two motorcycles. Then we’ll continue with our comparisons, and finally at the end we’ll crown the winner of the “best mid-size retro motorcycle” competition.

A look at our competitors

The youngest motorcycle in our best mid-size retro motorcycle competition is a 2019 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 with about 300 miles. I bought this for $3,650, which is 100% of my budget which means there is no budget left for upgrades. However, I basically got a brand new three year old motorcycle, so as long as all the YouTubers who say this is a great bike aren’t wrong, this was a pretty good deal.

Next we have a 2010 Triumph Bonneville base model with 9,000 miles. I bought this motorcycle for $3,400. It’s the oldest of the three motorcycles, but at least it’s still fuel injected. It’s a little different from most Triumph Bonnevilles out there because it has 17” factory mag wheels instead of 19” laced spoke wheels. In a future post and video I’ll talk about why this can make a huge improvement in how this Bonneville handles. It could be a difference maker in this competition.

Lastly we have a 2013 Moto Guzzi V7 with 8,000 miles that I bought for just $2,000! The bad news is that this motorcycle may have been a police theft recovery. I suspect that’s the case based on the sketchy spray paint job this bike has suffered. The good news is that because I got the Moto Guzzi for so cheap, I have almost $1,700 left in my budget to spend on improving this motorcycle. I can do a lot fixing and upgrading with that kind of money to spend.

So now you know all of the bikes we’ll be comparing to crown a “best mid-size retro motorcycle” competition but there’s still one more challenge for the winning motorcycle ahead.The final challenge

After two rounds of elimination, we’ll be left with our best mid-size retro motorcycle competition winner. But the contest won’t end there.We’ll take our winner, and recap whatever upgrades it may have gotten, take it for a ride, and then compare it to a brand new 2024 version of the same motorcycle. We’ll examine how the used motorcycle with the upgrades compares to the brand new motorcycle in terms of both price, and performance. Then we’ll be able to tell for certain not only which mid-size retro motorcycle is best, but whether you should buy one new or used.Stay tuned

This series will probably run about five or six posts long as we explore various elements of the Triumph Bonneville, the Moto Guzzi V7, and the Royal Enfield Interceptor to determine which one of these motorcycles is best (for me).

If you’re someone who might be interested in buying any one of these motorcycles I think this is a series you’ll want to follow along on YouTube. It’ll be a really good opportunity for you to let me be your guinea pig and tell you what living as the owner of all three bikes is like, and you can ask me your questions along the way. Be sure to subscribe to YouMotorcycle on YouTube to follow along.

As always, ride safe, but have fun!

– Adrian

Check out the next episode in the series by clicking on the pic below: