Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

This is a seriously useful mod. Would love to ride the CGT with this setup. Great stuff man

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Always wanted to throw away the bulky stock exhaust. But all the after market options were loud poser pipes.



Then came this Indimotard Greasehouse Megaphone Exhaust. Promised 3.5 bhp boost and improved efficiency (yet to be tested). It's compact. Paid ₹3,600.00 and bought from Motorizer, Trivandrum, a shop that got decent stock of performance parts for most of the bikes. Only downside is, does not have heatshield. Caution if there are kids at home. Impressed with it once I saw it posted by @neil.jericho. Sound is bassy and old school thump, not the attention-seeking, annoying loud fart cans.





Installation is pretty simple, 10-15 min job. Remove heat shield above the joint. One bolt under head shield and one is the rear foot peg.




Size difference.




After install.






Most annoying part. Leaks leaks everywhere. 50 years of making different contraptions of the same engine and till date they could not fix it properly. This is just after 100-150 km since full wash.





Sore part of ownership. GT spares are scarce. There are 3 RE dealers and 2 exclusive spare shops in city limits alone, no one got any GT-specific spares. Running for a stock air filter for some time. No stock anywhere. One guy gave 500's air filter, which was entirely different and did not fit. Was supposed to be changed at 10k, bike is now 11.5k. This is gonna be the fate of Himalayan owners also. Performance is terrible now. Quickest RE ever cries to reach 80 and vibes are unbearable below 2k and above 3k rpm.

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Six-month-old breather pipe. Duplicate parts lasts longer.



Rear Brake Pad Kit - 594698/A - ₹ 278.00. Same as Thunderbird.



Old pads, which RE ASC (Concept) claimed to have cleaned at last service. Very much evident they did not even took a look at it. Charged 230 bucks in the name of cleaning it.



Old with new.




Other parts price:

Liquid Gun 15W50 - 2.5L - ₹ 772.50
Oil Filter with O-Ring Kit - ₹ 93.00
Clutch Cable - ₹ 97.00
Platinum Spark Plug - ₹ 399.99
Throttle Cable Set - ₹ 450.00
Breather Pipe - ₹ 74.00
Mirror Dummy Ring (Pair) - 585423/A - ₹ 26.00

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

This is sad. The flagship model, new and improved and all that. But quality of parts is a let down. The engine is possibly the weakest link in an otherwise good bike.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Quality of the bike is terrible. It is nothing less than a rust bucket. RE's attitude and customer loyalty adds to that. Once sold, they are not bothered about it and customer care is nonexistent. Dealers are rogues and RE supports them rather than helping out the customer. Buying an RE despite an RE hater was the biggest mistake done so far. Parts pricing is more ridiculous. 9k for brake rotor, 2k for brake pads. Checked Himalayan's light for GT, was close to 3k. Himalayan handlebar 4k. 22-24k for GT tyres, which retails for 9-12k a pair outside. GT air filter close to 500 bucks, rest of whole RE range airfilter 170 bucks. Even the paid service costed more than what I usually pay for a 70k km run Estilo. Service interval shown in service booklet and the ones shown by dealer to extort customer are entirely different. Cost of ownership is even funny. Wrote a multipage mail to RE regarding whole experience with dealer. All they did was forwarded to dealer and closed the chapter. No followups or anything. Dealer was not even sorry for what they did.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

It is really saddening the way they are extorting money out of the customers. Why not get the servicing done outside? I believe that is more economical and less time taking. After the free services are done then go your own way. Are the parts that scarce?

Cheers and regards.
Safe riding!

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Getting good mech with experience on GT was an issue, now got a couple of guys, but now getting spares is issue. All stocking only volume-sale fast-moving parts. Not much takers for GT spares. Ordering via dealer is joke. It took one and a half years with 7 repeat orders to get the mirror bar end mirror mounting clip. Till last fight they kept promising to deliver bar end weight assembly, which they gave up after knowing it is not made anymore and I have to buy full clipon for the handle weight, which costs around 2.5k per side. I bought RTR bar end assembly for around 200 per side.

Know a guy converting GT and 500 EFi to carb due to lack of/poor quality of OE spares. One of the xbhpians GT is currently in the process.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Finally got the air filter.

Part # 573139/B - ₹ 457.00






GT filter is wider then UCE500 filter, but smaller in diameter and one side is closed. It is black instead of orange and comes in a "premium card board box"

Installation was easy. One screw for removing side cover, 4 screws for filter box cover. Filter is press fit inside the box.


11.7k km old filter.



Bike will be going to mech this week to assess for what all parts to buy, god only knows how long it would take to procure all parts. Planning to switch to Motul 3000. Current Liquid Gun is just 1.8k old, but pitch black.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Have had the GT for 2 years now,has been a hassle free ownership but nothing great to be said about customer service. I followed up the the bar end weights as you for a year or so and gave up. Finally when I changed the handlebar,got the bar ends fitting them. Got the rear tyre replaced after a year or so under warranty with multiple follow ups. The rear tyre had cracks developing on them. The performance of the bike has been good,no issues on that end. I have similar mods - handlebar change,Greasehouse customs exhaust. After the change in exhaust,i find the bike vibes quiet less specially in the top end where I can hold on to 110-120 for quiet a while. Earlier needed to back off due to the vibes which were a bit too much at those speeds. Do you feel the same?

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Even after filter change, bike is not passing 80 kmph. The 0-60 oomph factor is no more. Shown to mech, he said hydraulic tappet adjuster is faulty, common in most UCE bikes. Costs 3.5k, but takes time to get. He said he will set it for the time being. I highly suspect RE SVC did not change engine oil. It is now pitch black than diesel engine and terribly rough. Going for service tomorrow.

I have cracks on both tyres

BTW 80s is the maximum I can try here, only 6-7 km of isolated and divided open highways and I am fear of speeds

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a total of 3 hours in my to and fro commute and on the way back, after switching off the bike at lengthy signals, I found the bike was finding it difficult to start (happened a couple of times) and then finally refused to start. Given the traffic conditions that permitted only first gear crawling, the engine was hot, though Im quite sure that it has been in much hotter conditions earlier. I pushed it to the side, waited for a few minutes and fortunately the bike started without a fuss. Anyone else faced such issues with potentially overheating?



Keep us updated on the performance with the new exhaust, the initial feedback I heard from my friend was very positive. If the Continental GT becomes my second bike, I just might do some more modifications and get the same exhaust installed. Part of me wants to make it a completely stripped out (less parts to fall off !) track bike , another part wants to stick nice knobbly tires on and get a new paint scheme.

Mine leaks much worse than this, hope to get it sorted out after the next service.

Didnt understand, are the Trivandrum dealers making customers go in for more items per service which contradicts the service booklet? Is it defined by dealership or are they updated items from the company? I remember wanting to do something for one of the services (as per the service booklet) but the service advisor said we should do it in the next service and shared some instructions / service action list given to them by the company. Your experience seems to be the opposite.

Not sure if it is related but after I changed the engine oil from semi synth (around 5K done IIRC) to fully synthetic, performance improved considerably, especially above 100 kmph. Maybe the engine oil is a big factor in your case. Check online, sometimes there are great deals on Motul engine oils.

What tires are you going with?

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Yes. They did tank and brake cleaning at 10k km and also changed spark plug without my consent. So I argued showing the service book and sent mail to RE. When I was called my manager to discuss this, he showed a service schedule card with RE logo and all, which looked genuine, which showed all the above jobs at every paid service (free service skipped all these). Replacement intervals were low compared to service book version like this spark plug every 10k and oil and filter every service. Even with this, they did not change the air filter. Morons. That schedule card made me strongly believe RE is supporting them to loot the customer.


I am a big fan of Motul using 5100 and 7100 on other 2 bikes for quite some time. After asking with mech about using 3000 or 5100, he said to avoid both. In the initial era of UCE, OE RE oil was Motul mineral with optional 5100 and both were causing very much trouble for them and they came up with Liquid Gun. So, asked him to go ahead with Liquid Gun. Liquid Gun is made by HPCL. He said other preferred oil for RE are Valvoline 4T Premium, some Veedol and Castrol GTX and always to stick with w50s. Old school REs like Castrol CRB.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

What would be your advice to one who is contemplating whether or not to buy the GT now ?(Or the ABS version)
Also, how practical is converting efi to cars for such a big mill ?

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Got back bike after service by the RE mech. Charged 2500. Oil, Oil Filter and all packings and rubber hoses changed. Also did something with the valve adjusters, sound is still there but not pronounced as before.



The screwup by Concept Motors continues. Drain Primary (drain) filter cap bolts were overtightened and the thread in engine casing gone. They put in a layer of tin sheet and tightened the bolt and to prevent leaks, sealed with gasket sealant. Morons. He insisted on complaining, but don't want to raise my BP and waste time.

He said next time, we will retread and put in bigger bolts.

Looks neat now without leaks. Gotta see how it goes.





OE plug was supposed to be Bosch Super WQR8DC, but was running on Bosch Platinum Plus WR8DP changed at last visit. Had hiccups after this service, was water trapped in plugs.




Made in Germany.




Never seen this type of tip.




I would never recommend any RE to anyone, more personal. First thing, the treatment you get after buying their flagship model. RE is more of a bullet guy kind of bike, not for poor souls like me who got used to the reliable fill-it-forget-it bikes. Secondly, RE first things. Whenever they launch something that they are doing the first time, wait for sometime till they nail the flaws. Unlike other manufacturers, they take long long time, 50 years and they haven't fixed the leaks yet, even in Himalayan, so would recommend to wait till ABS is 100% fail proof. IMO avoid one-off RE models like GT, getting spares is pain in ass unless you have a supportive SVC or spare shop. Getting spare for high-volume Classics and Thunderbird would be relatively easier. (All my personal opinion, can differ with person and location).

Carb conversion has been a common practice due to the non-so-reliable nature of the RE EFI systems (basically the fuel pump) and the incompetency of SVC to fix the slightest prob in the fueling system. Indimotard got a plug and play system, which is kind of hybrid one. Only fueling is via carb and ignition timing still managed by the ECU itself (Dunno what will happen with this kit if ECU fails). C500 conversion is usually with Bullet 500 carb and C350 wiring kit.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

Thank you for this honest opinion. Ill keep it in mind. Regarding the abs model, i was just trying to buy myself time to comtemplate as this will be my first major investment. I have been maintaining an rx 135 for 5 years now. So i believe i have some experience in high maintanence.

Re: RE Continental GT (Cafe Racer)

And regarding service, my friend is the pre delivery inspector in a re dealership in trivandrum. I think i can pull some strings with him in there.