This is a Royal Enfield Continental GT 650, but not as you’ve seen the model before. It’s been completely rebuilt by French custom house Bad Winners and now has a displacement of 865cc and a fully-functional nitrous oxide injection system.
This is the most comprehensive Continental GT 650 custom we’ve ever come across – every single part of the bike has either been replaced, modified, or otherwise improved in some way. It now produces 143 bhp – quite a bit more than the 47 bhp it originally came with from the factory.
Fast Facts: A Custom Continental GT 650 By Bad Winners
- The Royal Enfield Continental GT name goes back to the mid-1960s GT 250, a lightweight cafe racer marketed with imagery tied to Britain’s rocker subculture. After Enfield’s decline in the UK, the name resurfaced in 2013 with the single-cylinder 535 which revived the styling but lacked the performance many buyers expected.
- A return to form came in 2017 when Enfield launched the twin-cylinder Continental GT 650 alongside the Interceptor. Developed with Harris Performance in the UK, the GT 650 had a new 648cc parallel twin, steel double cradle frame, and styling inspired by the original 1960s model. It delivered 47 bhp, enough for highway use as well as A2 compliance.
- Standard equipment included 41mm forks, twin rear shock absorbers, and disc brakes with dual-channel ABS. The GT 650 had a curb weight of 202 kgs, top speed beyond 100 mph, and ergonomics suited to sports-oriented riding. It quickly became one of Royal Enfield’s strongest entries into international markets.
- The custom GT 650 shown here was built by French workshop Bad Winners. The displacement was enlarged to 865cc and it has Carrillo rods, big-bore pistons, and a high-lift cam, it has a nitrous oxide system, and it’s now producing 143 bhp. Weighing just 130 kgs, it has carbon-fiber bodywork, Dymag wheels, Öhlins suspension, Beringer brakes, and an S&S ECU.
History Speedrun: The Royal Enfield Continental GT 650
When Royal Enfield revived the Continental GT name in 2013 with the 535 single, it was much more than mere nostalgia – it was a very deliberate callback to the 1965 Continental GT 250, a lightweight cafe racer that gave British riders a taste of speed and style at a price they could (almost) all afford.
This is the 1965 Continental GT 250, a lightweight cafe racer that gave British riders a taste of speed and style at a price they could almost all afford. Image courtesy of Royal Enfield.
The GT 250 was marketed with images of London’s rockers and even a high-profile 24-hour endurance run from John o’ Groats to Land’s End. By the late 1960s, however, Enfield’s British operations were fading, and the GT name disappeared – until decades later.
Royal Enfield, by then firmly established in India under Eicher Motors, began to court international markets in the 2000s. The single-cylinder Continental GT 535 was good looking but underpowered, and while it certainly established the cafe racer aesthetic, it wasn’t the machine to win over Europe and North America – it just didn’t have the legs for it.
Those legs would come later with the introduction of a 650 twin. Development began in collaboration with Harris Performance in the UK, which had been acquired by Enfield in 2015. Harris contributed chassis expertise, while a new 648cc parallel twin was designed from scratch in Chennai with significant engineering input from Enfield’s UK technology center.
The Continental GT 650 debuted at the 2017 EICMA show in Milan alongside the Interceptor 650, with production beginning in 2018. The Interceptor was more upright, and the GT was the more sporty option, with clip-on handlebars, rear-set pegs, a longer tank with knee indents, and an optional single seat with a rear seat cowl. Styling cues clearly drew on the original 1960s GT and on the earlier 535.
At the heart of the GT 650 is its air and oil-cooled SOHC parallel twin, with a 270º crank for that distinctive exhaust note and smooth torque delivery. Output is rated at 47 bhp at 7,150 rpm and 38 lb ft of torque at 5,250 rpm, enough to meet A2 licensing in Europe while still offering genuine highway performance for riders around the world.
At the heart of the GT 650 is its air and oil-cooled SOHC parallel twin, with a 270º crank for that distinctive exhaust note and smooth torque delivery. Image courtesy of Royal Enfield.
The frame is a steel double cradle designed by Harris, with 41 mm telescopic forks up front and twin gas-charged shock absorbers in the back. Braking comes from a 320 mm front disc and 240 mm rear disc with dual-channel ABS, and the curb weight sits around 202 kgs (445 lbs), making it accessible without feeling insubstantial.
Perhaps most importantly, the top speed is over 100 mph – the fabled ton.
The Custom Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 Shown Here
The Continental GT 650 you see here was modified extensively by French custom motorcycle and parts company Bad Winners – they’ve built a slew of high end customs that have been featured on all the top sites on the web, and they recently built a custom for Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc.
This build began with a full teardown, the rebuild then began with one clear goal in mind – to create a motorcycle with brutal straight-line acceleration. The engine was disassembled and then rebuilt with a custom cylinder head, a high-lift camshaft, big-bore pistons, and titanium Carrillo rods – all designed to work with a nitrous oxide injection system.
The displacement was now 865cc and it has a dyno-proven 143 bhp – an astonishing amount of power when you consider the curb weight is now just 130 kgs (286 lbs). The bike now has exposed carbon-fibre bodywork, a gloss-black frame and front forks, and a minimalist black foam seat pad.
The Continental GT 650 you see here was modified extensively by French custom motorcycle and parts company Bad Winners – they’ve built a slew of high end customs that have been featured on all the top sites on the web, and they recently built a custom for Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc.
It rides on 17 inch Dymag UP7X seven-spoke alloy wheels finished in matte-black, these are fitted with sticky Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SC2 rubber front and back. It has Öhlins rear shock absorbers, a specially-built Bad Winners front fork setup, Beringer brakes, and an S&S Racing ECU.
The bike is now being offered for sale out of Paris, France on Collecting Cars and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.
Image courtesy of Collecting Cars
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
