[wildbill]

well i gave it my best shot but the riding position on the cafe racer finally got to me. i spent more time looking at it than on it lol so in the end - 6 weeks and 330klm later it now has a new home.
new owner should be happy and saved himself about $2500 in total as i included the bar end mirrors - sports exhaust- windscreen and heal guard on the deal.
anyway to cut it short new bike number 4 in only 2 years - yep 2 years is gone and now ready to have a hit at a new tan/cherry c5
liked the look of that bike ever since i saw the photos. i still say the cafe job is better put together than the other bikes and very good value for money.
points i will miss is that great brembo front disc and that no more neutral gear change and that smart solo seat.
it was the seat i thought would eventually stop me but surprisingly it was the best seat i sat on in the whole royal enfield range.
something i wont miss is the pathetic slow start up. ... never started as well as my previous c and b 5's...but you cant win the all.
tan jobs are a 4 week delay till they arrive in australia. silver looks pretty good too but i think bike 5 will be the tan and once again will probably back surfing thispart of the site lol
only good thing from these bike exchanges and a bit of lost cash is - you have a very good idea on the bike range 

[Joel-in-dallas]

Sorry the Continental GT didn't work out for you.
As for me its not enough of a change to make me trade in my 2011 G5.
Plus I am still having a great time on it.

Hopefully soon RE will have a parallel twin. With the Harley Davidson Street 750 selling in India maybe RE will have a bigger machine to match.

[Ducati Scotty]

Hold out for the color you want.  They're both nice and very vintage looking but the cream/red is definitely my pick too.  See you again soon

[suitcasejefferson]

Not an Enfield, but I sold an '09 Kawasaki EX500 about a year and a half ago for the same reason. I had one back in '88, and had no problems with it. I guess I should have realized I was more than 20 years older. '09 was the last year of production, and the bikes were not selling well. Local dealer had just gotten a truckload of them, and was having a fire sale. I couldn't resist the price, and jumped at it. It felt pretty good on the showroom floor. I realized I had made a mistake by the time I got it home, and was hurting all over. I kept it 3 years, even put bar risers on it, but still had less than 5000 miles on it in that time, most of them in pain. So it had to go.

I have put over 2000 miles on my B5 in less than 2 months, and have had no problems, other than the seat is a bit hard. Not a really big deal, it starts to get uncomfortable about the time I need to get gas.

Most people claim the EX500 has a "standard" riding position. Not even close. It's not a supersport, but far from being a standard. I consider the B5 to be a standard. It has a far more upright riding position than an EX.


Again, if they would make a GT with a standard riding position, I would probably be interested. It's a beautiful bike, ruined for me by an impossible riding position.

[Ducati Scotty]

Honestly, if it had a standard riding position it wouldn't look like a GT.  

For all the shortcomings of my C5, I can ride it just about no matter how bad my back is that day.  If I can walk I can ride, so in that way it's a great bike.

Scott

[wildbill]

right off the bat a test ride would have picked up the problem but it was a pre paid deposit several months earlier and just pick up and go.
my first 20 mile run immediately picked up the shoulder and neck muscle pain and that to me was the beginning of the end.
the b5 was a pretty good bike too but i still like the solo seat set up on the c5 plus i never do two up rides anyway.
later on i might even be able to comment on if the 2014 c5 has any improvement over the 013 model lol
apart from that there is really no other new bike out there style wise im interested in. the facts - you never get one of the enfields as a forget and just bike bike - but that aside and a good forum for advise especially from the old hands - scotty - bare etc these enfields are a pretty good fun bike

[suitcasejefferson]

right off the bat a test ride would have picked up the problem but it was a pre paid deposit several months earlier and just pick up and go.
my first 20 mile run immediately picked up the shoulder and neck muscle pain and that to me was the beginning of the end.
the b5 was a pretty good bike too but i still like the solo seat set up on the c5 plus i never do two up rides anyway.
later on i might even be able to comment on if the 2014 c5 has any improvement over the 013 model lol
apart from that there is really no other new bike out there style wise im interested in. the facts - you never get one of the enfields as a forget and just bike bike - but that aside and a good forum for advise especially from the old hands - scotty - bare etc these enfields are a pretty good fun bike

With my weight, I don't carry passengers either, but I wanted the look of the B5, and the rear part of the seat comes in handy as a place to strap stuff to. If I had a C5 I would have to put a rack on the fender.

I'm afraid the GT may turn out to be a failure. I've been reading about it on a couple of other forums, and riders that want that riding position want a lot more power. Most of them want a 600 or liter class Japanese "crotch rocket" So it's not fast enough for that type, and it's riding position is too painful for old guys like me. Who does that leave?

[mattsz]

I'm afraid the GT may turn out to be a failure. I've been reading about it on a couple of other forums, and riders that want that riding position want a lot more power. Most of them want a 600 or liter class Japanese "crotch rocket" So it's not fast enough for that type, and it's riding position is too painful for old guys like me. Who does that leave?

Maybe an answer to your question...

Excerpt from Cycle World Magazine's article titled "CHAI RACER - Riding the New Royal Enfield in Its Native Indian Habitat" by Gary Inman:

The Continental GT is the quickest thing on Goa's roads, certainly leaving stoplights. Despite lots of cafe-racer posturing in its marketing material, the bike can't crack the ton, but that is largely irrelevant in the country that will account for the lion's share of the sales.

Virtually every time I stop, a polite crowd is drawn to the red and chrome and the questions start. "What size is the engine?" is the most popular, followed by queries about fuel consumption. Indians are obsessed with how far a machine can travel on their $5-a-gallon unleaded. Equally popular is, "How much does it cost?" No on seems surprised when I tell them 200,000 rupees - the equivalent of about $3,300 (MSRP in the US is $5,995).  Seaside town hustlers ask if they can buy the test bike from me.  In two solid days of riding, I'm never asked what the top speed is, the default question were I grew up, in England.

Doesn't help CMW, but it really is a home-market bike, then RE India may not care how it does in the US...

[suitcasejefferson]

Sounds like India's motorcyclists are a bit more mature and responsible than most U.S. riders. Here it seems like we have mostly Harley riders who like to dress up like pirates and don't wear helmets, and speed crazed crotch rocket riders who like to ride over 100 mph on public roads. Of course, here bikes are mostly thought of as toys, while in India they use them as transportation. Gas where I live is over $3.50 a gallon, and the most common vehicle is a lifted crew cab truck.

[gizzo]

I'm afraid the GT may turn out to be a failure. I've been reading about it on a couple of other forums, and riders that want that riding position want a lot more power. Most of them want a 600 or liter class Japanese "crotch rocket" So it's not fast enough for that type, and it's riding position is too painful for old guys like me. Who does that leave?

Me? And other crew who want a bike with style, handling and a bit of history. I've never been interested in buying a new bike before, just this one. It gets a lot of attention from the old riders on Triumphs, bevel Ducatis, Guzzis and stuff up in the hills. The tupperware riders shake their heads. I seriously can't imagine that those guys are anywhere near the target market, or have any interest in riding something that looks 40 YO. But who cares. It's not for everyone. I'm not crippled enough to worry about the riding position (compared with my Pantah it's like a touring bike) and don't have a need for 150mph performance. I'm more interested in the reliability factor than how fast it goes.
My 2c, YMMV, IMO etc

[lemming]

Wouldn't it be pretty easy to swap out the clip-ons for something that allows a little more upright position, and have a pretty fun ride for the twisties? I can only imagine skyline drive and the BRP on that....

[wildbill]

i also added the 3" hi-rise clip on bars and although position wise that helped a bit - it was still not to my liking. to go further i would have had to get a new brake line -throttle cables and all the other stuff.
in the end i had a bit of fun and as the saying goes 'better to try it once than drean about it' lol

[Sectorsteve]

moto ciclo must love you soooo much...

[wildbill]

sectorsteve

yeah - i'd say they have made a few $$$$$$$$$$ lol

[Sectorsteve]

you cant go wrong with a C5 and those burgundy cream ones look the biz.

[AgentX]

Sounds like India's motorcyclists are a bit more mature and responsible than most U.S. riders.

[Insert photograph of man texting on his bike while balancing his helmet in his lap on top of his toddler, with 4 more family members crammed on the seat behind him.]

[Ducati Scotty]

Nobody does that on a motorcycle.  That's what mopeds are for

[GreenMachine]

It's only money and if u have plenty to spare, why not get what works for you...Too bad the old body didn't fit with the cafe style..You're not alone in that perspective...I thought your upgrades were great and in the end someone got a super deal...Good luck with your new C5...

[Sectorsteve]

You know Wildbill, you could throw some different bars on the C5, small ape hanger type things. i hired an Enfield in India that had these. was very comfortable to ride. Like sitting in a Lazy boy chair!
im contemplating getting some.

[azcatfan]

You know Wildbill, you could throw some different bars on the C5, small ape hanger type things. i hired an Enfield in India that had these. was very comfortable to ride. Like sitting in a Lazy boy chair!
im contemplating getting some.

Those bars off of the T-Bird that is sold in India look nice too.  I'm going the other direction eventually myself, I like the flat ones, no rise-no fall...

[Blairio]

In the mid 70's I had a pal with a 350 Ducati Dezmo - a wonderful bike. Following a rather nasty 'off' on another bike which damaged a shoulder, this guy had to ditch the rear sets and clip-ons on his Ducati in favour of standard footrests/gear change pedal/rear brake pedal, and a set of shallow riser bars.  What he ended up with was a bike that still looked amazing and went indecently fast for a 350cc single, but it was also really comfy to ride over long periods.

Maybe Enfield could offer a 'kit' to convert the GT into more of a traditional (grand) tourer. It should have everything you need to revert the foot rests and controls to a more standard posture, and what ever is required to replicate the handlebar height of e.g a G5. It puts me in mind of the kits that Hitchcock offers to convert UCE's to trail bikes / hard tails / cafe racers.

Folk might say, why not just get a G5/B5/C5? But the GT had got the more rigid twin loop frame, uprated forks, rear disk brake, a (slightly) more powerful engine, and a great looking petrol tank! I reckon that such a machine might take over the slot in the range currently occupied by the G5 (Electra). It would still leave the Classic and B5 however, as each of those models has its own adherents.

[DanB]

I'm going the other direction eventually myself, I like the flat ones, no rise-no fall...

Hey azcatfan, I've got a couple of drag bars sitting in the garage. PM me if your interested. I didn't like they way they laid out the controls, but they sure looked good!  Like a Vincent.