2019 Royal Enfield Continental GT 650

Summary:

Budget 60s nostalgia served warm

Faults:

Nothing

General Comments:

Budget retro....What a glorious looking motorcycle. It looks and sounds exactly how, in my view, a motorcycle should. The Royal Enfield 650GT Continental is a lovely bike.

What's it like to ride? It's a 'naked' so you do get all the weather, wind and road stuff in your face, but that's the same for all bikes without a fairing. It's quite a sporty riding position. The clip on handle bars are quite low and narrow, but it makes the bike look a lot faster than it is. It's not really a mile muncher... the 'GT' and 'Continental' imply, to me anyway, that it's a long distance steed... It isn't. It's a cafe racer. The handling is adequate but it's no superbike flick fest. Being air cooled it's a ball cooker, too. It gets very warm between your legs in slow or heavy traffic.

Performance? There isn't any. It's a joy to ride but it's no sports bike. It runs out of legs very quickly so there's lots of frantic gear changes if you want to get a move on. Its claimed top speed is 105MPH, but you'd be hard pushed to reach that even if it was allowed. This bike is a wonderful quiet A road ride... I like it but after a couple of hours I've had enough, it's not the most comfortable machine ever built but it is a head turner. A very handsome machine indeed and it sounds like heaven. For a 650CC machine, it isn't fast and it isn't powerful, but it is very, very well priced and should please the people it's aimed at....Probably the slightly older rider wanting a swig from a warm bottle of vintage nostalgia.

Would you buy another motorcycle from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 13th January, 2023