I am following the xbhp forum for quite a long time ago and had read several experiences of my fellow bikers with their mean machines. Actually the fact is i started loving my bike from the time i started following xBHP, until that time the bike for me was just a machine to travel. Sorry for being off topic but i would like to take this oppurtunity to thank the moderators for allowing me to become a member at this forum and secondly to all of you my fellow riders who inspired me to love my bike more than to just ride it.
Now coming to the point of actually starting this thread. I had owned several small sized motorcycles in the past starting from a hero honda cd 100, to a mean TVS Apache RTR 180, to a smaller commuter range of Mahindra centuro and a pair of thunderbird 350/500. I am currently owning a Royal Enfield Continental GT ( yellw colour). Coming on the bike it was a really difficult choice of choosing this bike as there were two important reasons. The first one was that my previous motorcycles were second hand as i was not having enough funds with me to bring myself a new bike and second was this was my first brand new bike which i wanted to own and that too on loan. Before choosing this machine i was surfing the internet in all the time i got to choose a bike which should have all the good looks combined with loads of power. But to my dismay the reviews of this bike on several sites were not warming for me. So i decided to go with a classic 500. On 4th July 2014 i went to Soniya Motors, Bhandup an authorised Royal enfield dealer to book a beast for myself. The moment i entered the showroom saw several beauties lying up there from standard to a classic and thunderbird. There in the corner was sitting the most beautiful of the lot a GT with a red colour. On just seeing that bike one thought came to my mind " Do hell with the reviews i will buy a GT". Initially i was a bit worried on choosing it but decided to follow my heart and gave a booking amount of Rs. 5000/- to the dealer. My excitment got doubled the moment i heard that there was no waiting period for the bike and it will be delivered to me as soon as the loan is processed. But the very next moment my excitment fizzled through by breathe as i thought to myself that all the Royal Enfield bikes comes with a minimum waiting period of 2 to 3 months then how come this one is readily available. May be its not been more demanding and it would be a huge regret on buying this one. I tried to clarify my query with the sales person sitting there and he replied to me saying that Sir its your choice at the end of the day as far as this bike goes you are the first person who is booking this bike from our showroom and if you ask me i would recommend you to go for the classic or a thunderbird. I returned from the showroom without giving the deposit amount wanting some more time to think. I again started searching the internet about this machine and there was more of a negative response towards this bike from the owners of the bike. Several days passed by and i failed to see a single GT riding in my locality so that i can get some personal feedbacks. On 10th July i went to the showroom again and i dont know what happened to me at that time as i booked a GT yellow colour for myself and gave all the needed documents to them. I just followed my heart at that time and thought OK whatever the end result would be atleast i would regret of not buying this bike.
Need to catch up with some work. Sorry for my english and my grammatical errors. Will continue my love story with this bike very soon.

I so wanted to be a GT owner but there is a constant battle between heart and mind. Help in choosing between GT and bullet 500. I hear so much bad reviews regarding GT are they true @Kaushik Iyer?


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What bad reviews are you talking about?

Issue is Royal Enfield's overall reputation is what's hurting this amazing motorcycle. Thing is what most are not realizing is it's only the GT which is a real quality motorcycle coming out of RE factory.

Also they're judging this motorcycle either from regular RE perspective or from other naked bike perspective. This bike is not any of those! This is a proper cafe-racer a classic styled bike, bikes which were not practical urban neither were it touring bikes nor track bikes. These were machines for lone country side riding & atbest very light touring, and RE has kept the GT true to those Cafe-racer spirit. Thing is the term "Racer" is what is made fun of, but the racer in any cafe-racer refers to buddies just riding a bit quickly from one point to the other not exactly racing on the track.

As for mechanically this bike is terrific, there's absolutely nothing mechanically wrong with this bike. Only niggle in this bike is the stator/alternator on this bike is a bit small so battery charges at 14volts only beyond 2.5krpm.

Today morning when I had been out for breakfast, I saw a CGT parked near an ATM. Man, it just pulled the strings of my heart. I love its simplicity. Being a D390 owner, am now confused, whether to keep my duke or trade in for CGT or will it be considered as a downgrade or an upgrade. also the duke is juz 4900kms old. Or should I modify my duke as a cafe racer? It would lose both originality and its value but if the mod comes out well, the gamble pays off. Too much thoughts, just too much. :banghead: Or should I abandon all these thoughts and get a Jap 650 later on?? Mods kindly redirect the post if you think it needs to be posted in some other thread.

Sent from my SM-N750 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Anybody facing paint chipping issue?? Paint started going off as small pinpoint dots.

Finding it impossible to find 18 incher PSDs. Showroom people have no clue. Also fed up with the spare parts guys. Ordered double seat 7 months back during delivery. Repeated at every service. Last time gave assurance of 2 week delivery and call back. Been close to a month and no signs. Also ordered bar end and clip for mounting mirror, which is also clueless.

Today morning when I had been out for breakfast, I saw a CGT parked near an ATM. Man, it just pulled the strings of my heart. I love its simplicity. Being a D390 owner, am now confused, whether to keep my duke or trade in for CGT or will it be considered as a downgrade or an upgrade. also the duke is juz 4900kms old. Or should I modify my duke as a cafe racer? It would lose both originality and its value but if the mod comes out well, the gamble pays off. Too much thoughts, just too much. :banghead: Or should I abandon all these thoughts and get a Jap 650 later on?? Mods kindly redirect the post if you think it needs to be posted in some other thread.

Sent from my SM-N750 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Anybody facing paint chipping issue?? Paint started going off as small pinpoint dots.

Finding it impossible to find 18 incher PSDs. Showroom people have no clue. Also fed up with the spare parts guys. Ordered double seat 7 months back during delivery. Repeated at every service. Last time gave assurance of 2 week delivery and call back. Been close to a month and no signs. Also ordered bar end and clip for mounting mirror, which is also clueless.

There are no Pirelli distributors in TVM. The closest distributor to your place i can find is in Coimbatore or Chennai. Let me know if you want the contact details of either.

Not getting any issues on mine

of course the details would be helpful

Contacted the kollam stockist, he said only 17 inchers are coming through and hard to get 18. Combo pair is available on revz.co.in and costs whopping 16k without tubes. Wider than that pair for cbr costs only 9.5k.

Buy hero cafe racer as secondary motorcycle

[MENTION=77927]drive_angry[/MENTION] those are some beautiful looking machines.