Royal Enfield Continental GT

The most attractive variable of riding the Continental GT is the exhaust note. The heavy thump and the crackle and bang on the overrun are just intoxicating. You will never ever get bored of it. The twisting turning roads of Goa gave us a taste of the handling prowess this motorcycle has. The ride and handling is nothing short of impressive. It is agile and negotiates high speed corners with ease. The superb handling is partly down to the twin downtube cradle frame. The chassis development was done by famed Harris Performance of Hertford, UK. The motorbike went through extensive testing and fine tuning by Steve Harris who happens to be a genius when it comes to chassis tuning.

The engine gently delivers the power rather than catching you off-guard. Power is very accessible almost all of the time, and the delivery is very predictable. In a conversation with Siddhartha Lal, he stated that power is only good until you can use it. He wanted to make a point that ridiculous power numbers are not useful when normal riding is concerned. Hence, the Continental GT has been tuned to be fun under the 120kmph mark, as over that is not practical on public roads. I stand by his statement and applaud his spirit, but the mad human I happen to be, would have liked tuning for a bit more top speed. However that is a personal statement and what the Continental GT offers is more than enough for most of the customers.

The rear suspension is Paioli twin gas charged shock absorbers and is setup on the harder side. This greatly supports sporty handling characteristics. Stopping power comes from Brembo, with a 300mm front disc and a 240mm rear disc. The final piece of the jigsaw is the Pirelli Sport Demon tyres, a 100mm up front and 1300mm at the rear. These high quality components show that Royal Enfield want to make no compromise on the performance of the Continental GT.

Apart from the motorcycle, Royal Enfield as will sell a collection of cafe racing themed accessories which they are calling, ‘Burn-Up wear’. These classic styled collection leather jackets, gloves, helmets and shoes which will bring back memories of the analogue old-school to our digital pretentious times. The only thing which makes me angry is why now, and why not earlier. Royal Enfield took their own sweet time in developing and producing this fantastic machine, but in the immortal words of William Shakespeare, ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’. Or should I say , “...That begins Well..”?