2018 Royal Enfield Continental GT review - sporty cafe racer sister to the top-selling Interceptor.

As an overall package, the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 is great, if a little one dimensional. Because it’s a café racer, the position is more extreme, so it’s less comfortable than the Interceptor retro motorbike it shares the vast number of components with. It’s only got a single seat too, so you can’t take a mate around.

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As a Sunday blast bike though, it’s great fun, arguably more fun than the Royal Enfield Interceptor but as an overall package, the Interceptor is the better buy.

Watch: Royal Enfield Continental GT video review

Royal Enfield Continental GT takes on the MCN250 test route

First published on 27 February, 2019 by Phil West

The very fact Royal Enfield’s 650 twins caused such a stir when they were launched was itself an indication of the scale of the ambitious Indian company’s achievement.

After all, the roadster Interceptor and its café-racer brother, the Continental GT, not only lifted Enfield to a whole new level, they’re even being considered as credible rivals for the likes of Triumph’s Bonneville and Moto Guzzi’s V7, as well.

The GT is distinguished from the Interceptor by its more angular, 12.5-litre tank, rearsets and clip-on bars, plus an optional café racer style seat and cowl, which costs £170 extra.

And, to be brutally honest, inspecting it up close for the first time outside the MCN office before a lap of our 250-mile test route, I’m yet to be convinced.

Sunny Sunday toys like this aren’t usually built for big days in terms of either comfort or equipment. Its 47bhp will surely underwhelm and its Indian-built, budget approach is all too conspicuous: switchgear and dials are a tad tacky, mirrors cheap, and the Monza filler cap a bit flimsy.

But as I hop on board, thumb the starter, twist out a fruity thrumm from the willing twin and blart out of the car park, darting up and down through the gears with ease and dancing nimbly through the traffic, I’m already impressed.

Within half-a-mile I’m completely at ease. Despite the ace bars and rearsets, the riding position isn’t at all extreme and, being relatively light, slim and all-round dinky means it’s also completely unintimidating and manageable. You really do just get on and ride.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Continental GT and this is from someone who was prepared to be underwhelmed.

Don’t get me wrong: in no way is it a Triumph Bonneville-beater and in some areas it reminds more of Chinese fare than European. Its price is also a little deceptive as the single seat, stylish paint and more are all extra, lifting the price of our test example to around £6k.

But there’s also no doubt that it’s a pleasing, unintimidating ride. Its all-day-at-80 performance lifts Enfield to another level, it has a cool name and look (plus huge potential for trendy customisation) and it should have appeal both to newbie A2 types and downsizing older riders. For a combination of ability, credible style/brand and value, not much comes close.

Additional reporting by Jordan Gibbons and Phil West

The Royal Enfield test riders say their brief for these bikes was to make them fun and they’ve succeeded. Because it doesn’t make huge amounts of power, you can rev the nuts off it and spend the whole day stretching your throttle cables without feeling like you’ve had the shit kicked out of you.

When a corner approaches, the Bybre brakes scrub off speed well with a decent bite and good modulation – hell even the budget Pirellis do a great job of sticking to the road. Riding along you start wondering where they’ve saved the money, then you come across some challenging corners and it all becomes painfully apparent.

When you really start to push on, the budget suspension starts to struggle although it remains slightly more composed than the Interceptor. The bikes are very soft, at the request of the Indian market, and can wallow on fast, sweeping roads but the GT comes with more rear preload as standard, which helps put a bit more weight onto the front.

The clip-ons and rear sets also push you weight further forward, eliminating the worst of the ‘floaty’ feeling from the budget springs. When you consider the price, you can forgive the bike a few faults – there are more expensive bikes with naff suspension too – but it’s still disappointing.

The Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 is fitted with Enfield’s brand new, air-cooled 650 parallel twin. It doesn’t make huge amounts of power or torque, but that’s not really the point and it has ‘enough’.

Down low there’s a reasonable amount of torque with 80% arriving before 2500rpm, so you can chug it out of corners but you can rev it all the way to its 8000rpm redline. The throttle is lovely and smooth too, partially as a by-product of its low power, plus it’s A2 compliant.

Holding on to gears brings you a bit more power while also rewarding you with a fantastic exhaust note. It sounds like it’s straight out of the ‘60s, which is a miracle in a Euro4 strangled world (although the bike was updated to Euro5 in 2020) – there are even some S&S cans for noisy types.

The new six-speed gearbox (an Enfield first!) is slick and if you keep feeding it gears it will clamber all the way to the magic ton.

For the brief 150 miles we rode the bike on the launch, nothing broke so I guess it’s 5/5. In all seriousness Enfield doesn’t have the best rep for reliability but that’s something they want to change.

All the new bikes that come off the line will go through a 1007 point check, which Enfield say takes over six hours to complete. If that’s not enough, every new bike will come with a three year unlimited mileage warranty, so it comes with peace of mind too. Speaking personally – I wouldn’t have any concerns about buying one and it falling apart on the ride home.

We ran the GT's sister bike, the Interceptor, on the MCN Fleet for 2020 and it experienced no mechanical failures in a year of running.

In May 2020 a recall was issued for this bike due to corroding Bybre brake calipers.

Our Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 owners' reviews show a few issues with build quality, but nothing major that you should be concerned about.

The very fact Royal Enfield’s 650 twins caused such a stir when they were launched was itself an indication of the scale of the ambitious Indian company’s achievement.

After all, the roadster Interceptor and its café-racer brother, the Continental GT, not only lifted Enfield to a whole new level, they’re even being considered as credible rivals for the likes of Triumph’s Bonneville and Moto Guzzi’s V7, as well.

The Continental GT 650's low power (and price) make it unfair to compare it to the pricier but excellent Triumph Thruxton R but the old Thruxton 900 is close in performance and spec to the GT and you can pick up a good used example for about the same price.

An even better comparison can be drawn between the Triumph Street Cup, but that has unfortunately also been dropped from Triumph's range, so it's a used bike purchase only.

Despite its budget price there’s some decent kit. Brakes are from Brembo subsidiary ByBre and they’re paired with Bosch’s two-channel ABS. Pirelli provide the tyres (although 18” sizes doesn’t leave many aftermarket options).

The retro clocks are nice too and they’ve even got a fuel gauge, although they’re not as feature rich as the ones on the Royal Enfield Himalayan, which is a bit of a shame. The fit and finish of the rest of the bike isn’t bad either – the only thing that really lets it down is the budget suspension.

Listen: Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 S&S slip-ons

You can listen to the sound this engine makes with aftermarket slip-ons and an air filter below - the Interceptor and Continental GT are the same in this respect.

Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 Euro5 updates

For 2021, Royal Enfield tweaked the Continental GT’s air-cooled internals to ensure the bike is now Euro5 compliant. Power and torque remain at around 47bhp and 39lb.ft respectively, with the big story being a range of five new colour designs to choose from.

Prices now start at £6299 for block colours and raise to £6799 for more technical liveries, making it slightly pricier than it’s more upright Interceptor 650 stablemate. There are five new designs to choose from, ranging from the solid red 'Rocker Red' design, reminiscent of the old 535cc Continental GT, to British Racing Green and even a chrome-tanked 'Mister Clean' finish.