2023 Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 Review: Sweet Shot Of Torque

Form vs function, a conundrum that every manufacturer has to contend with when making their product, especially lifestyle ones. Give form too much priority, then it might just become a super niche product. Make it super functional, then it might not stay true to its form. Hence, when the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 did come out in 2018, it struck almost a neat balance between the two. 

Its predecessor, the Continental GT 535, as lovingly beautiful as it was, was a bit more form-centric, a more true-blooded cafe racer. Hence, while I was joyous the Conti GT 650 was back, reminding me of just how much fun cafe racers can be, I just felt it wasn’t quite as emotionally charging as the 535. That was until earlier this year.

Right Rubber

Virtually, 95 percent of the Continental GT 650 is unchanged from its 2018 self. Yes, there’s new colours, new levers and a fancy LED headlight, which do heighten the premium feel of this bike. What makes the racer in the cafe racer experience better are the new Vredestien Centauro NS tyres and the presence of alloy wheels, making it a tubeless setup.

Unlike the pitiful Pirelli Sportcomps and utilitarian Ceat Zoom Cruz-es, these Centauros are keeping up with the performance potential of the 648cc parallel-twin mill. Whack the throttle open and you don’t feel any form of squiggliness at the rear. 

Around our favourite set of twisties, the Conti was swaying beautifully from side to side, swiftly dodging potholes and carving corners. Just after a few runs for the camera, I was shocked to see just how much lean angle I was able to carry. 

And while there were no chicken strips to speak of, the Centauros also held up well in hard braking. There’s no front end squirming under hard braking, something that the Ceats didn’t do so well on the old Conti and still don’t on the 2023 Interceptor 650.

• 2023 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 Road Test Review: Chasing Perfection
• Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 10,000km Long-term Review: 2 Likes And 2 Dislikes
• Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 Interstellar vs Celestial: Which Variant To Buy?

Loss In Form Factor?

Let’s get something straight: spokes have their charm but so do alloys. And with the dark treatment of the mechanicals, contrasting well with the Apex Grey colour scheme of the fuel tank, the alloys do justify their presence well. Does it look any less stunning? Not to my eyes, no. 

Not Bidding Adieu

The bike is so wonderful that I am genuinely smitten by it once again. So much so that we’ve requested Royal Enfield if we could have it for a couple of months for a long term test. And we got a ‘YES!’ So expect an initial long term usage report in the coming few weeks where we let you know how the cafe racer experience and the tyres hold up in the monsoons.