Modified Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450: Image Gallery Of The Best Bike At The Wheels And Waves Festival

Royal Enfield has showcased a modified Guerrilla 450, turned into an ultimate cafe racer/track weapon, at the Wheels and Waves Festival 2025. This insane build was done by Italian custom bike builder Pepo Rosell, also known as XTR Pepo, and has been showcased at the annual festival for all things motorcycling and surfing in Biarritz, France. Pretty much everything on the bike has been changed, except the engine and frame.

 

 

 

 

 

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From first glance, it’s hard to figure out that this custom bike is a Royal Enfield, let alone the Guerrilla 450. The front section has been completely changed, and the bike now sports a quarter fairing, along with a sculpted tank. 

As mentioned above, the bike’s mainframe has remained the same, but the subframe is custom-crafted by XTR Pepo. The new one has allowed for a slightly raised seat, with a more compact-looking tail section. Along with all this, the GRR 450 liveries, along with brand decals have added in a anGRR-y looking feel to the bike. 

An angry bike has to have an aggressive riding posture, wouldn’t you agree? Naturally, gone is the stock handlebars. It’s been swapped out for low-slung clip-ons for a more committed riding posture. The grips are custom ones from Domino (no, not the Pizza chain). The stock instrument console has been remounted to fit in better with the new quarter fairing setup.

Although the engine is still the stock 450cc liquid-cooled motor, XTR Pepo has made some tweaks to improve the overall performance. The airbox has been changed with one that allows for more air-flow into the engine.

We can also see that the bike is running a custom exhaust header and a custom end-can from Spark. The increased air-flow should, in theory, improve the bike’s performance compared to the stock engine’s output of 40PS and 40Nm.

A faster bike calls for better underpinnings, and in this case, XTR Pepo has taken help from a certain fellow Italian (read Aprilia). The swingarm is one from the Aprilia RS 660, and it has been paired with a custom footpeg set. The footpegs have been placed far back in the rear, going in line with the low-slung clip-ons. 

Moving on to the suspension, the bike has the same Showa inverted fork as the Aprilia RSV 1000, and a custom nitrox monoshock at the rear. What we find most interesting here is the revised steering geometry. The bike’s rake angle has been reduced for more agile handling. 

At this point, this build is no big and slow Royal Enfield no more! At the front, the bike gets a dual disc setup with Discacciati callipers and a single disc at the rear, with Brembo calliper. The bike rolls on 17-inch Dymag magnesium alloys at both ends (likely to be lighter than the stock ones) with Continental Conti Road Attack 2 tyres.

Not very long ago, a liquid-cooled engine-equipped Royal Enfield seemed like a fantasy. But now with the Guerrilla 450, Royal Enfield has turned dreams into reality. With this custom cafe racer, it goes to show that modified Royal Enfields need not only look fast, but also actually be fast. If you’re wondering about a road-legal cafe racer version of the Guerrilla, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the Royal Enfield Continental GT 450. While it’s not confirmed, going the cafe racer way seems to be the next ideal step for Royal Enfield, especially for a motorcycle with a peppy liquid-cooled engine.