With its casual bobber styling and easygoing twin-cylinder motor, the Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 isn’t the type of motorcycle you’d expect the unhinged crew at ICON Motosports to froth over. Nevertheless, Portland’s finest were nonplussed when Royal Enfield asked them to customize one for the annual EICMA trade show.
ICON specializes in the outrageous—and nothing is quite as outrageous as turning a mild-mannered cruiser into a bonkers café racer-cum-drag bike. But getting the Shotgun from there to here necessitated a substantial overhaul of its chassis.
Most of the frame’s rear half was binned, along with the bike’s wheels, suspension, and swingarm. With a new subframe welded into place, team ICON started piecing together the Shotgun’s new running gear.
Some judicious finagling of the front end made room for a set of nitrogen forks from a 2015 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. The ZX-10R donated its twin Brembo front calipers too, which grip custom-made discs from EBC that mimic the shape of the vintage Astralite race wheels. 16” Avon Cobra cruiser tires keep the bike planted.
At the opposite end of the bike, ICON took two 2015-spec Kawasaki Ninja 650 swingarms, hacked them apart, and welded them back together to make one tubular unit. The new unit features a second shock mount and extra bracing, while custom-built Nitron shocks connect it to the main frame.
The Royal Enfield’s racy bodywork is a glorious mash-up of seemingly unrelated parts. The fuel tank started out as a Yamaha RD400 part, before the crew massaged it to fit the Shotgun’s frame, and incorporated an endurance-style filler cap assembly and an inboard fuel pump. Unable to source a dry break cap for the right-hand side of the filler unit, ICON 3D-printed a cover out of translucent resin instead.
Next, an aftermarket Air Tech Yamaha FZ750 fairing was fitted to the front—but not before ICON had unleashed extensive modifications upon it. It now integrates perfectly with the fuel tank, locks in place via a set of quarter-turn fasteners, and sports generous side panels.
The scoops on either side were grafted on from a different fairing, and are there to direct air to the revised intakes. Twin square headlights shine through the front, flanked by a pair of 3D-printed winglets that were most likely not tested in a wind tunnel.
The Royal Enfield’s tail cowl was once part of a Buell S2 Thunderbolt—but for this build, it acted as little more than a material donor. Once ICON had cut-and-paste it into the shape they wanted, they capped it off with a slim race seat and hollowed out a new home for the battery.
Embedded in the business end of the tailpiece is the mesh-covered muffler of the bike’s two-into-one exhaust system. The entire setup was built from scratch, using parts supplied by S&S Cycle. Sashaying its way around the parallel-twin mill and up under the tail, it’s a subtle detail that warrants closer inspection.
Other additions to the Shotgun include custom-made fork guards, a sporty belly pan, and K&N filtration. The cockpit features clip-on bars, Pro Grip grips, Magura controls, and micro-switches, with the original clocks re-mounted behind the fairing. New rear-set foot controls complete the setup.
The Shotgun’s livery is as subtle as you’d expect from ICON—paying tribute to the company’s American heritage while also elevating Royal Enfield’s branding.
Long, low, and loud, this ICON special bears zero resemblance to the bone-stock Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 it once was. But it didn’t always look this shiny; Icon’s test rider flung it down the track three weeks before it had to be shipped to Italy for EICMA, significantly damaging the fairing and exhaust.
21 days of brutal labor later, the aptly named ‘Always Something’ was reborn and off to Milan for her debut.
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