FIRST RIDE
P58
ROYAL ENFIELD CONTINENTAL GT
History
ON WHEELS
RIDING THE NEWEST RETRO BIKE
FROM ROYAL ENFIELD
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KYOICHI NAKAMURA
"I
say, that's a nicelooking bike," exclaimed the immaculately
dressed
60-something as he
emerged from the post
office in the heart of the
Warwickshire countryside
and approached me just
as I was straddling the
Royal Enfield Continental
GT. "It looks very much
like the Royal Enfield I
used to ride back in my
own motorbiking days,
long ago. But that's a new
registration mark you've
got on the number plate,
isn't it? Do they still make
these over in Redditch,
like they used to do back
when I bought mine?"
Well… yes, sir - and no,
sir. For while this particular bike is indeed a direct
descendant of the Royal
Enfields of yesteryear, its
journey to here, a dozen
miles from Enfield's old
Redditch factory southwest of Birmingham
where the company was
founded back in 1898,
started out in Chennai
(aka Madras), India.
For that's where all
Royal Enfields have been
made since the parent company closed its
doors in 1967, after making a brave, but ultimately
futile attempt to stave off
insolvency with the introduction two years earlier
of the 250cc Continental
GT café racer - a sporty
little single complete with
flyscreen that looked
like it was doing 100
mph just standing still.
And that's the bike that
this new much largercapacity 535cc model
is ultimately based on, at
