ENFIELD CAFÉ RACER
ROYAL ENFIELD’S UNVEILED A BRAND NEW CUSTOM BUILD IN COLLABORATION WITH ANTHONY PARTRIDGE FOR THE SECOND SEASON OF GOBLIN WORKS GARAGE, THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL TV SERIES HE CO-HOSTS.
– MADE FASTER BY A GOBLIN…
Adrian Sellers, head of the Custom Program at Royal Enfield, gave the following simple brief: create “a thoroughbred racer”, based on the 650 Continental GT platform, and make it faster, lighter, and more exciting to ride, with a flash design.
The bodywork was designed to be the base concept for a body kit, allowing anyone to purchase their own for their Continental GT, and build a similar bike at home. They started by mapping the frame, and turning it into a 3D model (with the help of Paul Drake from Ziggymoto), and designed it to work with this frame, converted from twin-shock to a monoshock, as well as with the stock set up.
While the bodywork was in hand the focus moved to the bike’s frame; all the stock parts, bar the frame, motor, and any necessary wiring and electronics, were removed to strip off as much weight as possible, and Ohlins’ FGR300 forks and a TTX GP monoshock were chosen for the suspension. BST provided the superlight full Carbon Rapid Tek race wheels, Dunlop EU wrapped them in sticky Sportmax GPA soft compound tyres, and Galfer floating wave grooved CRW brake discs were fitted front and rear. Brembo nickel-plated GP4-RX billet race calipers were installed at the front, and a Brembo P4 34 axial at the back. Gavin from GIA Engineering made a new lightweight swingarm to take a 5.5” rear wheel, with 190 tyre, and Fastec Engineering machined a set of billet yokes to take the new front end and incorporate a pocket for a Motogadget digital speedo.
Anthony chose to run a Magura Hymec hydro clutch conversion to keep it both visually symmetrical, and an ally fuel cell was created to replace the OEM tank, fitting neatly under the carbon body work, with an alloy flange to bolt in the endurancestyle titanium fuel-filler provided by Racefit UK. As well as chopping the rear sub-frame, and welding in new rear downtube supports, and a brace to take the bike from twin to monoshock, the team notched the frame 20mm on the left to accommodate a custom drive sprocket that was moved outwards 12mm to step the chain out for the width of the rear wheel.
After trialling the bike, Anthony said: “I did a few laps on the stock bike with the head designer of the Continental GT there to watch, and then took out my new improved version – the difference was night and day. The custom feels like a proper race bike – lighter, faster, way more agile than stock, and heaps of fun to ride.”
For more information on this custom build, the Goblin Works episode is available on catchup on the Discovery
Channel or DPlay in the UK.