When it comes to selecting the best factory built Cafe Racer it looks like Royal Enfield's Continental GT Cafe Racer could take out first place. The Royal Enfield Continental GT Cafe Racer which is scheduled to be released in 2013 (fingers crossed), sports the first new chassis to be released by the Indian motorcycle manufacturer in 50 years. Along with the new chassis Royal Enfield have added a selection of performance upgrades and Cafe Racer styled parts you won't find on any other motorcycle in their current line up.



As you can imagine this is pretty exciting news but at the 2012 Auto Expo in India the Enfield Cafe Racer was overshadowed by the unvealing of their new Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500 which may be due to the fact that this bike is more targeted to markets outside of India. While many are now speculating that this bike will be rolling out of the Enfield factory next year it's important to remember that it was labeled as a 'concept' so we'd wait for an official production announcement before we get too excited.





The Continental GT Cafe Racer is based around Enfield's single cylinder Bullet 500cc engine but no details have been released about any upgrades to it's performance. Due to the stripped down appearance of the Continental GT and the specially designed frame I'd expected that this bike will weigh in less than the Bullet so I would assume that performance improvements could be expected.

Starting with a motorcycle that was designed half a century ago as a base it's obvious why the GT looks so much like a classic. Enfield's designers have stayed true to classic Cafe Racer looks with an elongated, Manx style tank held in place with a leather buckle, a wasp tail single seat, clip on bars, bar end mirrors and low profile lighting (huge thumbs up from me for that one). The GT also features some high quality finishes including a polished triple tree, brushed alloy switch gear, alloy fenders, alloy dash and minimalist instrument cluster.

After the release of the Norton 961 Commando in 2009 MCN decided to pull together some of the best "off the shelf" modern Cafe Racers on the market for an all out open throttle review.

With a Norton Commando 961 Cafe Racer, Ace 904 Thruxton Special, Hyde Harrier Jubilee and Royal Enfield Clubman fueled up and ready to go they headed off down the coast and delivered this awesome review of the four ultra desirable Cafe Racers. Hit play and enjoy the show.

You want another bike, and you want it bad. But you know the awkward, tense, likely-to-be-sleeping-on-the-couch discussion with your partner about the money that you should be spending on the mortgage/rent/credit card payments will be a killer. The more ordinary amongst us would probably leave it at that. God knows I would. But not one Mohit Sharma from a little place west of Asia you may have heard of called "India". See, when he wanted a new bike for his stable, he didn't ask the misses. Oh no. As a matter of fact he didn't tell her at all; what he did was build this here bike you see before you and then give it to her as an anniversary present. Genius or what? We're pretty sure the Nobel Prize doesn't have a "Contributions to Bike Collecting" category, but if it did then this Sharma dude would be a dead cert.

Damn show offs. That's right - we're calling it as we see it. The guys from Cycle Icons are show offs. Why? Well listen up, 'cause we're about to rain on their little parade big time. First they go and create one of the sweetest little Enfields we've ever seen. It get a serious amount of coverage and applause from almost everyone, except a few guys in the EXIF comments section which means they are obviously doing something pretty friggin' right. Job done, yeah? Break out a case o' cans and rest on your own merits, yeah? Of course! But not for these guys. So what do they do? They go again. ON THE SAME BIKE! C'mon! And as if that's not bad enough we think they've actually gone and made it better. Boo! They're like that high-school jock who saves the game by scoring in the final minute and then scores again with seconds on the clock just to make sure no one missed the fact that he's so annoyingly talented. Do you have a mental image of him in your head? Good. Now swap the team uniform for a Cycle Icons Tee. See where we're going with this?

The country Nepal is probably most famous for that rather large hill they call Everest. Known to the locals as 'Sagarmatha', or 'Goddess of the sky'. The thing they are probably least famous for is their killer death metal bands. Oh - and building custom motorcycles. As we recently learnt, there's a reason for this. Any type of of motorcycle modification is strictly prohibited by the Nepalese Government. Not one to thrive living inside the rules, Sergey Egorov decided to chance it and build one of the first truly custom bikes in Nepal. This is the story about the bike named 'Himalayan Outlaw' or as we'd like to call her if we magically got naming rights, 'Goddess of the street'.

It's one thing to see a motorcycle roll out of a factory but when you get to see some of the skill that goes in to piecing each machine together it's a beautiful thing. Could this guy be any faster/smoother with his pin striping?!



Take note of how many tanks there are in the background. I'm thinking our friend here has his work cut out for him.

Here at the Pipeburn palace, we often wonder aloud to ourselves while relaxing river-side with the elephants, a fresh yoghurt Lassi and decent serve of post-curry gulab jamun, just why there isn't more Royal Enfield-based customs around the place. After all, they are in a way a living fossil whose basic design hasn't changed since 1948. Surely this would make a perfect base for creating a motorcycle that would be pleasing to these young coffee racer-types we hear so much of? Today we were doing just that - wondering, that is - when the young tea wala broke his usual silence and pointed out to us that we had indeed received a communiqué from our good friend Vijay of the very reputable Rajputana Customs in Jaipur just this very day. "My word," I exclaimed. Then there was a long pause in proceedings where I stared into the distance, adjusted my monocle, and commanded the wala to refill my tea with a mere twitch of my eyebrow. "Well, shouldn't we read it?" Scotty interrupted. "Jolly good," I said. "Let's have at it then..."

I would like to extend great thanks to Keith Mangino and Mike DePalo of Royal Enfield for the Great hospitality at the NYC Cycle Word Motorcycle show as they pulled out all the stops for the Old Bike Barn staff and our pro Photologue Tristan Brand. It was great to get up close and personal with Billy Joel’s Famous Royal Enfield Cafe Racer and meet the builder Mike DePalo.

In a follow up conversation with Keith Mangino Regional Sales Manager NY I was very please to find out the event was outstanding for Royal Enfield with much interest from fans new and old alike!

Keith went on to say “It is very obvious that interest in the Classic Motorcycle and Café style bikes is growing in the US as our booth was extremely crowded on all three days”

That’s good news for all us vintage and Cafe Racer guys, I’m beginning to thing this moment is picking up steam, and that we will continue to see more interest in Classically styed bikes and Cafe Racers.

The Fact is these bikes are just plain fun, no they don’t have the power of the latest 120 hp Road Rocket but I increasing find that those bikes are only fun at the Track and I enjoy more realistic bikes with gobs of style for the street.

Here are a few key links to Classic Motorworks / Royal Enfield USA.

www.enfieldmotorcycles.com www.royalenfieldusa.com www.cyclesidecar.com

I think Mike at Royal Enfield may be getting some more demands for bikes styled like the bike pictured below that he built for Billy Joel. Here’s some shots me and the team checking it out. Mike can be Reached at U.K. Motorsports LTD Long Islands Exclusive Enfield dealer.

www.enfieldmotorcycles.com www.cyclesidecar.com www.royalenfieldusa.com

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