I looked at the new Enfield's several times and test rode the GT and the C5. I went on Amazon and bought four or five books on people (Americans and Brits) who went to India and rode them for long periods touring in India. I wanted to get the insight of what the Indians are about as motorcycle people. Excellent reading and highly recommended. Now, I get it. India is a developing country and the bikes reflect their needs. By the way, they are durable if maintained. These guys rode them and rode them. Also see what the new UCE bikes had to come about. Japan sells plenty of bikes in India. Royal Enfield plans to stay in the game. Good for them!
The GT was my first choice until I rode it. What a looker!! Sadly , it is just a notch above the other bikes in overall performance. I know for certain I will be blasted off this forum for saying this and shown no mercy......but it is my honest opinion. There will be many used GTs on the market. The performance does not match the look, profile, image projected. The look will wear off once the owner gets weary of the relatively slow bike. I know speed is not every thing, image and economy is important certainly in India where gas is very expensive. But, on my test ride, the first thing the guy at the stop light asked me was how fast is that thing? How much HP? You, see he does not have any idea what it is, he thinks it looks fast, so it must be.
A Honda 250R single will give it a run. A 300 twin Kawasaki Ninja will eat it alive. Yes, I know that does not matter to you. But this is a Ford 427 Cobra with a four cylinder engine.
It can't walk the walk as they say. But, it can talk. The Classic I bought makes no pretense. It is honest and it is what it is. A very cool British retro bike with modern engineering. I don't care if it has 22 HP, it does not have to be anything else. It gets the job done. While at the dealer I saw a single I had read a lot about about. So, I took a test ride. The KTM 690 Duke won my heart. It has 68HP around 50 lbs of torque and weighs 337 lbs dry/350 lbs wet. On sale for $7790. So , I bought both. I am not passing this way again. I have nothing else I am addicted to. Both were discounted so I got out for way less than a BMW Adventure bike. The KTM walks the walk for a single. I have the best of both worlds.
Now shoot me.