Royal Enfield Continental GT may go even faster

The new Royal Enfield cafe racer is the Continental GT.

UPDATE: Photos and comments on his road test of the Continental GT, by Siddhartha Lal.

The new Royal Enfield cafe racer will be called the Continental GT, president Siddhartha Lal  confirms, as he rides the prototype Royal Enfield cafe racer to Mangalore, India, photographing it as he goes.

Royal Enfield is promising "official announcements" regarding the launch of new motorcycle. With its new frame and larger motor it is going to be the fastest production Royal Enfield of recent years.

That is sort of like saying it will win any race run only by other Royal Enfields (at least those built in India).

Still, it's a mouth watering prospect for Tom Lyons and Sumanth Janardhan, who make Royal Enfields go really fast with modifications produced by their ACE Performance Products.

On his outstanding Yahoo! group Lyons greeted the Continental GT this way:

"Personally, I think that this is a direction that RE should have taken a long time ago... It's a natural fit for a single-cylinder bike with British heritage...

"I like the frame, especially the rear section which has the triangular area for the side covers and the flat mounting area for the seat. This makes it look a bit more sporty, and a bit less rooted in the plunger style. I don't really think they needed to do away with the open cradle in the front of the frame, but the duplex cradle is OK.

"Rear sets are nice, and not too extreme. The handlebars are probably OK for most people, although I personally would prefer true clip-ons...

"I think it needs a more swept-back header pipe... But the good thing about them just providing a sporty basic platform is that the owner gets a chance to stylize it in his own way, which is necessary for the real cafe racer theme. Owners must put their 'stamp of individuality' on a cafe racer to make it 'authentic.'

"What really excites me about this bike is that it will tend to appeal to the more performance-minded buyer. That means that owners will be looking for power, and that some of these owners will end up here for some work...

"I'm glad to see this bike coming out."