Firefighter-turned-custom bike builder Chris Scholtka has a knack for constructing slick, and considerably hot-rodded, café racers. This Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 café racer epitomizes his fashion nicely—however it was nearly constructed utilizing a really completely different donor bike.
“It began two years in the past when an outdated buddy referred to as me,” Chris tells us. “She had obtained an enormous birthday reward from her household—a Honda CX650—and wished to have it personalized by me. We had a plan, however sadly the bike was stolen and we needed to begin from zero.”
Chris operates underneath the moniker Motocrew from his workshop in Cottbus, Germany. And contemplating the slick {custom} bikes he sometimes creates, he was secretly relieved that the CX650 and its gawky body had been not a part of the undertaking. So he received collectively along with his buddy to brainstorm potential replacements.
“She wished an outdated school-looking café racer and a dependable on a regular basis bike. As a result of she didn’t have a storage in her hometown, Berlin, and didn’t have the information to get a carburetor bike prepared for driving season, it needed to be a more recent fuel-injected bike.”
Triumph’s trendy classics rapidly rose to the highest of the checklist—till Chris noticed a Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 on eBay. “The RE form is so clear, and constructing on it’s merely enjoyable. Every thing is straightforward and dependable, and the aftermarket is healthier than I assumed.”
“She set the colour scheme on day one—as a lot black as attainable. However a ‘lil Motocrew design needs to be labored into it too, in fact.”
Chris began up entrance, the place he changed the Continental GT 650’s headlight with an ultra-modern LED unit from Koso. It’s mounted on a custom-made bracket that bolts to the underside yoke. Flanking the headlight are neat fork shrouds that Chris 3D-printed to buff up the entrance finish, visually.
For the reason that Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 comes with clip-on bars out of the field, its prime yoke is already devoid of riser mounts. That made Chris’ job simpler. With new, extra aggressive clip-ons in place, he merely shaved the unique ignition barrel mount to accommodate a Motogadget speedo, which got here from Crooked Bikes as a part of a plug-and-play equipment.
Slightly than relocate the ignition, Chris binned it in favor of a keyless setup. The NFC ignition, plus the bar-end flip indicators and glassless mirrors, all got here from Motogadget.
Shifting to the bodywork, Chris opted to retain the Continental GT 650’s OEM gas tank—which isn’t stunning, contemplating how good it seems to be. The gasoline cap was swapped out for a flush-mounted pop-up merchandise.
Regardless of sporting a solo seat and tail bump in inventory type, the Enfield didn’t fairly have the compact proportions that Chris envisioned. So he eliminated the unique components, lower and looped the subframe, and fabricated a brand new rear cowl. A pair of Motogadget LEDs, perched on 3D-printed carbon mounts, act as taillights and switch indicators, whereas the license plate sits decrease down.
One of many hallmarks of a Motocrew café racer is its stance—and this one’s as purposeful because it will get. Chris lowered the entrance finish by round 20 mm, earlier than swapping the shocks out for custom-built YSS gadgets which are 20 mm longer than inventory. He additionally re-laced the entrance hub to a second 18” rear rim, in order that he may match tires with matching widths.
The Enfield now rolls on 3.5×18” Shinko E270 tires, with a handful of even handed braking upgrades providing improved efficiency. The chunky vibe of the wheels and slammed forks is echoed within the burly exhausts {custom} items from Mass that embody dB killers and retain the bike’s catalytic convertor.
“Crucial factor,” Chris provides, “is that it’s all street-legal in Germany!”
Completed off in a mixture of matte and gloss black (which extends to the engine covers), this Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 café racer continues the Motocrew’s advantageous custom of constructing razor-sharp machines that ooze fashion. We’ve little question that it’ll assist its proprietor recover from the lack of her CX650.
Motocrew Instagram | Pictures by kylefx
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