The Royal Enfield India has many bikes in the higher capacity touring and sports bike segments. Their Continental GT is a ‘Caf© Racer’ type bike. The Caf© racer, introduced long back in 1960 by the Royal Enfield, has returned in 2013 with the launching of the Royal Enfield Continental. This bike with power is better than other Enfield models like the Classic and the Bullet as far as off-roading features are concerned. This bike is popular equally among the urban and rural rich who like some adventure.
This 535 cc bike with a naked sports body is priced Rupees 1,94,617 ex-showrooms. The on the road price will come to 2.15 to 2.25 lakh approximately. The combination instrument console has analogue speedometer and tachometer and digital fuel and trip meters. There are low oil, low fuel and low battery charge alarms and a kill switch also. The bike with kick and auto start options has a 14 Ah dry battery, 60/50 watt halogen head lamps, 21/5 watt LED brake and tail lamps, 4 numbers 10 watt crystal turn lights and pass signal lamp.
The Continental GT is powered by a 535 cc, 29.1 bhp and 44 NM torque air cooled engine with 5 speed manual transmission. The clutch is wet multiple plate type and the end transmission is by chain drive. The fuel system is Keihin electronic type and the injection is digital electronic type with a single spark plug.
The physical dimensions of the Continental GT are 2060 mm length, 1360 mm wheel base, 800 mm seat height and 140 mm ground clearance. This bike weighing 184 kg has a fuel tank of 13.5 litre capacity.
The naked sports body Continental GT has a twin down tube cradle type chassis. The suspension is telescopic type at the front with 41 mm fork and 110 mm travel and Paioli twin adjustable gas charged shock absorbers at the rear. The 18″ alloy wheels have 100/90-18 56H Pirelli sports demon tyres at the front and 130/70-18 63 H tyres at the rear. The brakes are 300 mm disc type at the front and 240 mm disc type at the rear with 2 piston floating calipers.
The Royal Enfield Continental has a good fuel economy of 32.4 kmpl, which is better than the mileages given by the Bullet, and the Thunderbird models of the same company. The top speed of this bike is 142 kmpl.
In the Indian premium bike market the Royal Enfield is registering maximum sales. A combined sales figure of 25,000 is easily achieved every month. The competition comes from other premium bikes like the KTM 390 Duke, Hyosung Aquila 250, Royal Enfield Classic and the Royal Enfield Thunderbird.
