The Royal Leap

Launched on November 26th 2013 in India, i finally got my hands on the Royal Enfield continental GT.

When this bike was first displayed at the 2010 auto expo in Delhi, i became its fan just by the looks of it! The bike was launched internationally in the middle of last year and Royal enfield took 6 more months to send it to India. This is the first Indian motorcycle which was launched internationally before it was launched here. 

The bike has been very successful in international markets with Europe its centre of focus.

I totally understand why it is so successful outside, because it is extremely beautiful and relatively cheap than other cafe racers.

The Bike as i mentioned earlier IS very beautiful and probably the most good looking bike you can buy in India under Rs. 4 Lac.

The bike though has been priced at Rs 2.06 Lac(On-road, Indore)

Well priced, I'd say because once you see it even you would say that.

The bike carries the royal enfield's motto of designing modern old bikes like the bullet and the classic bikes. The bike is basically a cafe racer and it surely looks the part. But by not any means does it looks dated and you somehow get the sense that the bike is modern.

When you compare the C-GT to other Royal Enfields you realise that the company has gone to enormous lengths to make this bike look and perform unlike any other enfields. It is totally out of league of the others and broken every benchmark that were set by The Thunderbird 500. 

The bike is very well made but the build could've been better. You can see the welds on the chassis which is not a very welcoming sight for a bike worth Rs. 2 Lac. But still as i said earlier the build quality is at par with other enfields. The bike looks like it has a very dedicated riding position but trust me it ins't and contrary to its looks it is quiet comfortable. 

But trust me looks aren't the only party piece of this enfield. The engine used in this bike is the same fuel injected 500cc unit used on classic 500 and thunderbird 500, but here it is stroked out to 535cc. With more CCs comes more power, exactly 29bhp and 44Nm of torque. These are entry level performance bike figures! But here is the catch- the bike weighs 180 Kgs! The engine is much much better than the 500cc unit. It is much much quicker and happy revving. You can revv it to its 5500 Rpm redline without any lag. The throttle response is also much much better. The Bike also boasts awesome performance with 60kmph coming in 4 seconds and 100kmph in 12 seconds. These are not record shattering figures but still the best of royal enfield. 

The Ride

The bike has very nice suspension setup with a little inclination towards ride than performance. But still this is still no slouch when you show it some corners and is very confidence inspiring in corners even better than the Honda CBR250R. The bike is best handling Royal Enfield ever. It is the same during braking. The bike sheds speed like a child sheds his clothes when he sees a pool.

But all of the performance, braking, power and speed stuff doesn't matter with this bike! The only thing that matters with this bike is the feel and attention you get when you ride this bike. Royal Enfield is probably the only bike maker in India which make bikes that have souls. At this point most you might be thinking that i have gone insane talking about souls in bikes. But no, i am 100% aware of what i am saying. If you look at the spec-sheet of a RE you will realise that its bikes are technologically as advanced as a spoon. Then why do people buy them? Because of the 'feel' REs offer. You can never be sad when you ride a RE. And this is the reason why REs are most. You bond emotionally with REs. And then there is the sound these machines make. The sound is literally an orgasm for ears, same is the case with C-GT. The sound is very different from other REs but still is sweet for the ears. 

Being RE this also has its drawbacks. Not a big list but still there are a couple. Firstly the bike has a very big problem of vibration which starts from around 3000-3200RPm and stays till the end of rev band. The vibration is a very big problem because vibration loosens everything up on a bike which is not exactly built like a Mercedes. Long distance cruises in speeds in excess of 100kmph are hard and will leave your hands numb at the end of the journey, But cafe racers are not exactly built for cruising. The other problems are not major and are only concerned with visible welds and some glitches in painting.

With this bike RE have gone to enormous lengths to make it look, perform and specially feel like a cafe racer and they have certainly achieved what they sought after. So what it is not the best motorcycle, It is no doubt the best RE. And a person who doesn't know what is it like to own a RE will never consider this bike as an option if he/she is looking for performance. Every performance enthusiast will prefer the KTM Duke 390 which is similarly priced but offers much better performance and incorporates state of the art technology, but as i said earlier it is never about performance when you talk about REs. A RE can never give you worldly pleasure like speed and acceleration but what they are capable of only few bikes will do that. They capture your heart. You will buy a KTM duke 390 and when you will be riding it and once in a while you will see this bike in traffic and you will think what a douche! He bought the wrong motorcycle! similarly when the RE rider will see you he will think the same for you. He might be true or he might not be true but i am pretty sure that he loves his motorcycle much more than you ever will.

Buying a bike in this range takes a lot of thinking becaus Rs. 2 lac is not cheap and you probably have worked your ass off to earn it.  so you will make a desicion that makes sense in the head. Most of the decisions you make in life are made by your brain. But once make a decision with heart you will have a sparkling red, beautiful Continental-GT standing in your garage waiting for you.

Welcoming you.