Enfield’s café racer coming

Royal Enfield’s most modern and powerful bike ever, the long-anticipated new Café Racer/Continental GT WILL be officially unveiled next month and go on sale later this year, MCN can now confirm.

We’ve learnt that the café racer-styled single, which in prototype form has been shown to gauge public reaction at shows around the globe for the past year, WILL now be launched in production form at a special unveiling at that home of the café racer, London’ Ace Café, next month.

Around the same time it’ll go into full production at Enfield’s brand new Oragadam plant.

The bike, expected to be dubbed the Continental GT535, has been spotted undergoing final shakedown testing in India repeatedly over the last few months.

Although based around Enfield’s current fuel-injected, ‘lean burn’ single, reports from India suggest it has a bigger bore to take capacity up to 535cc. Meanwhile a bigger throttle body, lighter flywheel and remap helps boost peak power to a reported 35bhp – making it the fastest Enfield yet.

Frame is a brand new but conventional tubular steel dual cradle with a pair of new teles at the front and, despite the Ohlins used on the show bikes, a pair of Paioli shocks at the rear. There are disc brakes front and rear, wire-spoked wheels and Pirelli tyres. Bodywork is all-new with a long and slender tank inspired by its ‘60s namesake, low set adjustable handle bars and, as our Indian spyshots reveal, both single and dual seat options.

The Cafe Racer’s 535cc engine is expected to deliver about 36 Bhp of peak power and over 45 Nm of peak torque, making this motorcycle the most powerful Royal Enfield ever built in India. The transmission remains the same 5 speed manual gearbox. The Cafe Racer 535 could also be the lightest Royal Enfield in the retro motorcycle maker’s current line up, what with the slew of weight reducing bits employed on the motorcycle to justify its sporty intent. Talking of sporty intent, the 2013 Royal Enfield Cafe Racer 535 comes with swept back foot pegs, a revised cafe racer style handlebar, a long fuel tank with knee recesses and a sporty short seat.

The sporty character of the motorcycle, along with its light weight, is expected to translate into peppy performance. Expect the Cafe Racer 535 to be the fastest Royal Enfield motorcycle in terms of acceleration and top speed. The motorcycle is expected to sit right at the top of Royal Enfield’s model range, as a flagship variant. The Cafe Racer 535 is expected to be priced over 2 lakh rupees. Although the motorcycle is very different from the likes of the Honda CBR250R and the upcoming KTM Duke 390, its pricing level could lead to the Cafe Racer competing with these motorcycles.

The Cafe Racer 535 could attract a new crop of motorcyclists as it is easily the sportiest of Royal Enfield motorcycles made in India. Soon after the India launch, the Cafe Racer 535 will be launched in many international motorcycle markets. The motorcycle is expected to roll out from Royal Enfield’s spanking new factory at Oragadam, off Chennai.