Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 2022

Continental GT 650, the full chrome one that RE calls Mr Clean. Took delivery in Kollam in March 2022 after two years of telling myself next year. Nobody at home understood why a grown person needs clip-ons. Still nobody does.

18,000 km now. Fly screen and bar-end mirrors went on in the first month, everything else is stock, including the exhaust, because the whole lane already knows when I leave.

About the chrome. Kerala has two seasons for a tank like this: the monsoon, and the months you spend cleaning off the monsoon. There is a microfibre cloth under the seat and a tin of polish in the kitchen cupboard where the pickle jars are supposed to go.

Sunday route is NH 66 up towards Alappuzha before the lorries wake up, or the small roads round Ashtamudi where nobody is in a hurry and neither am I. The clip-ons are perfect for the first hour. After that every hour is a negotiation with my wrists.

Picture is from a bridge on the way back one morning. Too good to ride past.