Goodbye, Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 – India’s first cafe racer motorcycle

Royal Enfield has discontinued its flagship motorcycle – the Continental GT 535 cafe racer. Only leftover stock of the bike at some Royal Enfield dealers is available for purchase. CarToq got in touch with Royal Enfield’s Brand Store in Pune, who confirmed this development. Most Royal Enfield dealers are not taking fresh bookings for this bike, which was India’s first cafe racer.

The Continental GT 535 was first launched in India during November 2013, and was sold in four shades – red, yellow, green and black. While in production, the bike was the most powerful Royal Enfield ever-built, with a 535cc four stroke engine delivering 29.1 Bhp-44 Nm. The Continental GT 535 will soon be replaced by a twin-cylinder model, called the Continental GT 650.

The Continental GT 535 was Royal Enfield’s most expensive bike, selling at Rs. 2.08 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi. The cafe racer featured period correct styling with a long fuel tank, a single seat, a sporty rear cowl in place of the pillion seat, rear-set footpegs and clip-on handlebars. It even used a air cooled, long stroke engine with hydraulic lifters.

Royal Enfield used high-quality cycle parts on this bike, like Paioli rear shock absorbers, aluminium spoked wheels to keep weight low, and Brembo disc brakes on both the front and rear wheels. Like all 500cc+ bikes from Royal Enfield, the Continental GT 535 featured fuel injection as standard. The engine was fitted with a lighter crank to help it rev faster, and a head with larger valves.

The replacement of the Continental GT 535 – the Continental GT 650 – will be in India by the middle of 2018. It’ll feature a newly developed 650cc twin cylinder four stroke engine with air and oil cooling. This engine will also get fuel injection but a key change will be that it’ll use four valves on each of its cylinders, and get an overhead camshaft.

The engine will make 47 Bhp-52 Nm. Torque transfer will be through a 6 speed manual gearbox fitted with a slipper clutch. With the new engine, Royal Enfield’s cafe racer will finally be able to go past 100 Mph or 160 Kph. You will have to pay a much higher price though. Expect the 650cc bike to be at least 1 lakh costlier than the 535cc model.