The Royal Enfield Continental GT review.
Text & Photos: Sandeep Goswami/ Old Fox
That the Royal Enfield Continental GT café racer can be called a pretty good motorcycle goes without much doubt. It is pretty, from almost any angle at that. The ‘good’ also gets apparent when on the move but with a qualifier. More on that later. For the moment let’s get to know both the bike and the concept from up close.
Café Racing
Café racing goes back to the 1960’s era Europe and was a fun past-time with its own hue of light-hearted and informal competitive riding for riders and enthusiasts alike. Of course getting competitive on a fast two wheeler would bring in its own form of aggression and an occasional tumble into the wrong side of the law but the general idea was to make your bike as capable as you could using homegrown stuff and then riding it the best that you could. So of necessity, the design would tend towards minimalism to keep the weight low and the seating would encourage the rider to tuck in to maximize speed. Though we in India never did have any such thing going here but then bikers anywhere would understand the legitimacy of any excuse for riding a bike, riding it hard after some tinkering with it and later getting to talk about it all endlessly among similar company.
Royal Enfield India brings in a taste of this very concept to the riding fraternity here as the Continental GT. The romance of simplistic motorcycling of the yore brought alive in modern times and with a promise of reliability and control that rise to modern standards has an appeal in its own right. Adding the ‘charm’ factor is the heritage that comes tagging along with the bike. The RE people have managed to stay pretty close to the original café racer concept with the Continental GT and this ‘authenticity’ is a strong USP for the bike. It is new for India, heritage for Europe and in a sense nostalgia for the US.
The GT arrives
The RE Continental GT is a new bike in all respects except for the engine powering it. The cycle parts are all new, designed up from scratch and the modernity shows in the way the GT rides, handles and brakes. The steel double cradle frame has been designed by Harris Performance and is a revelation in stiffness and composure. The bodywork comes courtesy the Xenophya Design (a UK based firm since 2001 that is a member of the Motorcycle Design Association) and has a definite freshness about it despite being in conformance with a previous era concept. The manner in which the modern clip-ons, the knurled foot-pegs with those long feeler bolts, the right-sided drive chain et al have been blended into a 60’s era package is commendable. Quality performance parts pepper the entire bike with Brembo brakes that come with braided lines, Paioli shocks and those sturdy Excel aluminum spoked rims. The result is a fine handling motorcycle which comes almost as a culture shock for someone accustomed to the usual ‘run of the mill’ Bullet!
The synergy between the various cycle parts of the Continental GT effortlessly brings it at par with any of the better modern day motorcycles in terms of handling and braking. Powered by a tweaked up version of the Unit Construction Engine powering the Classic 500 with a slightly bigger bore, a remapped EFI and some flow improvements, the GT however could easily handle a newer and far more powerful engine. The 29.1 BHP @ 5100 RPM and 44 Nm of torque @ 4000 RPM rolled out by the 535cc unit is just about adequate; more so because the rest of the bike can be pushed far beyond what the engine can produce.
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