The all new Royal Enfield Continental GT

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On the 10th of September 2013 Royal Enfield has introduced it’s new cafe racer to the international press.

The Continental GT was introduced during a multi-day event at the ACE café in London and at Brooklands circuit.

This café racer will retail in the UK at 5200 GBP which is roughly the same as the RE classic 500.

It is a complete different bike compared to the RE classic 500, the engine is actually 535 c.c., Harris Engineering in the U.K. designed the new cradle frame, there are Brembo front and rear brakes, Paioli rear shocks and Pirelli Sportdemon tires.

Here is the bikes at Brooklands:

RE has created a nice website for their new café racer:
http://royalenfield.com/continentalgt

There are some really nice video’s on this website, have fun!

 

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Here is the line up at the ACE cafe in London.

 

[merantau]

The bike looks good. What's your take on quality issues? I hear people denigrating RE but suspect they're not talking from personal experience. I know that in India RE are disappearing from the streets. They're become the preserve of enthusiasts only. I guess the company survives on exports now and suspect there must be some government support for it to keep going.

 

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The bike looks good. What's your take on quality issues? I hear people denigrating RE but suspect they're not talking from personal experience. I know that in India RE are disappearing from the streets. They're become the preserve of enthusiasts only. I guess the company survives on exports now and suspect there must be some government support for it to keep going.

The built quality of RE has improved significantly, my 1993 RE indeed is a bike with low quality of parts such as bearings, cables, levers etc, the chrome is poor and the workmanship not high.
The family owned RE shares were sold to an Indian automotive company called Eicher in the early nineties and that sales has changed the company around, most importantly on quality awareness and product innovation.
This year the new production plant was opened, allowing to increase the sales from 70.000 units per year to 150.000 units per year. Waiting list in India for an Enfield is currently 6-8 months! Maybe good to have a look at these figures: Royal Enfield rolls out first motorcycle from Oragadam plant - Economic Times

The reason why it seems you see less RE's in India currently is the fact that different brands are now made in India like the TVS (agreement with BMW!) and Bajaj (who also produce the KTM 200 and 390 cc Dukes).

RE has changed its position from a manufacturer of bikes for mass transport to a motorcycle life style brand, the new cafe racer is evidence of that life style.

 

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Another nice video, behind Mr. Siddhartha Lal, CEO of RE a new Continental GT is being assembled, one of the first it seems as they fumbled around with the tank a bit :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxDqen-fSIo&feature=player_embedded

 

[steaminjungle]

The built quality of RE has improved significantly, my 1993 RE indeed is a bike with low quality of parts such as bearings, cables, levers etc, the chrome is poor and the workmanship not high.
The family owned RE shares were sold to an Indian automotive company called Eicher in the early nineties and that sales has changed the company around, most importantly on quality awareness and product innovation.
This year the new production plant was opened, allowing to increase the sales from 70.000 units per year to 150.000 units per year. Waiting list in India for an Enfield is currently 6-8 months! Maybe good to have a look at these figures: Royal Enfield rolls out first motorcycle from Oragadam plant - Economic Times

The reason why it seems you see less RE's in India currently is the fact that different brands are now made in India like the TVS (agreement with BMW!) and Bajaj (who also produce the KTM 200 and 390 cc Dukes).

RE has changed its position from a manufacturer of bikes for mass transport to a motorcycle life style brand, the new cafe racer is evidence of that life style.

I agree. I had a 500 Bullet in the Uk . I bought it second hand when it was 3 years old with 17000 miles on the clock. I lived in Devon and the bike came from Cornwall , delivered to me on a pickup. I said it would of made a good ride for 2 delivering the bike. Then I was told it probably wouldn't of got to my house. Nice ! Local rides no problem but when I tried to go to North Devon to visit my bro it would come to a stop.( he lived 50 miles from Plymouth ). On the return journey it would stop. Two or three times this journey was undertaken and it would always stop both ways in the same place.
After new points a new plug and a new condenser,,,,sorry a new capacitor condensers are on steam engines it turned out to be the lucas coil. OK not Enfield but not good for their reputation. The bike ended up with a straight through Triumph silencer a 2 tooth bigger engine sprocket and higher lift cams, screen and topbox. So in the end it was a better bike than what left the factory. I came to Thailand and my son-in-law sold it for a 100 quid bless.

 

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In fact the U.K. (Redditch) made Bullets from the 50's were not much better, nor were the BSA's or the Triumphs. Not for nothing Lucas was called Prince of Darkness.
It was normal at that time to tinker with your bike to keep it running, the problem was that the Indian Enfield suffered the same, 40 years after date!
The Japanese bikes of the 90's were examples of high quality, low maintenance bikes, so no one wanted to tinker on their bikes any more.

Look at the comments about current Enfields in two seperate Himalaya trips on this forum, not a bad word on quality other than normal wear and tear.

 

[2wheels]

Here's an interesting, relevant and sad thread from 'Motorcycle Thailand' re Royal Enfields in Thailand.


http://www.motorcycle.in.th/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=4334&mode=&show=10

"The latest information we received from Royal Enfield HQ is that they're again looking for a Thai distributor. So it seems that the previous Royal Enfield distributor went under before they sold much motorcycles."​

​

 

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Seen that one, this website sometimes does not have all the correct info, have a look at the last page (4) of that thread.
Hope to be able to give some more and solid info in the future, there is a lot of work being done behind the screens!

 

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The first 56 bikes have been shipped to the U.K. dealers according to Moto GB who further state: "The price is £5199 for the base model OR £5499 as per the launch bikes with the sports exhaust, alloy wheel rims, single seat & billet alloy mirrors."

 

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[KTMphil]

If someone could get this model into Thailand at a competitive price, this might get the Thai, cult following along the same lines as Triumph have achieved here.

 

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Yes Phil, I agree, what Thai website would be the best platform to test the water?

 

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RE in France have announced the sales price for the Continental GT is 6500 Euro which is about 275.000 baht.

 

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A Royal Enfield Continental GT has set a new Land Speed record in the 500MPPS (Modified Pushrod Partially Streamlined) category at Bonneville, clocking an average unofficial speed of 157.2 kmph. Matt Capri’s souped-up Royal Enfield Continental GT, ridden by Nadine de Freitas has modifications to cam shafts, the cylinder head, throttle bodies, piston and exhaust system. The Royal Enfield Continental GT has been modified by ace performance tuner and former motorcycle champion racer Matt Capri. The bike's engine made a power output of over 60PS, twice that of the regular production model.

Royal Enfield sets new Land Speed record: In pictures Slide 1