A FRIEND of mine sort of mentioned he was thinking about getting his motorcycle licence and, I’d just hit my 45, and kind of was in the middle of a midlife crisis, whether I knew it or not, and decided that was a hell of thing to go and do. So we both went and passed our tests at the same time.

I didn’t know anything about bikes whatsoever — I’d done a bit of scrambling when I was 16 but those skills have long since passed — but I ended up at Revelry Motorcycles in Sydney and saw a Royal Enfield Continental GT. I wasn’t going to buy something brand new just in case I hated it, but, as I had no frame of reference, I didn’t know what was good and what was bad for me, I bought the Continental GT anyway. 

I was really pleased with the bike. It moves when it wants to, you know, plenty of grunt; and not having to change gears every five seconds (which I’ve discovered on my friend’s bike; he bought a Mercury 250) was really great.

But I was having problems staying upright. I mean, I dropped the bike four times; three times in one day which was amazing. And every time I dropped it, I did my hamstring. So yeah, I wasn’t exactly known for my expertise on a motorbike. 

Once I’d had a bit of time on it — and got all my drops out of the way and learnt how to ride the thing proficiently enough to stay up, all in one go, in a single ride — I wanted to get some work done to it. 

Now, luckily or unluckily enough, I had a bike accident where someone just pulled out in front of me. We were looking at each other. I was looking at her, kind of telepathically, telling her not to move; she was looking at me, going, I can’t really see you. Then she pulled out. The bike hit the side of the car; I hit the window. I was fine, I just sort of hit my chest a little bit. The bike did more damage to the car than the car did damage to the bike. These Royal Enfields are actually fully made out of metal. 

Anyway, as part of the process, I decided to start the customisation when the bike was being repaired.

Will Keith at Revelry Motorcycles gave me loads of options to switch things around and change. I was kinda looking for something that was a little bit Great Escape but not like the old style bikes. I’m very pleased with the end result. It’s not overly old, it’s quite modern, but it’s still got a lot of stuff that kind of makes it bang-on for what I wanted.

The wheels are original with just different tyres. They are desert tyres which are the perfect choice for Sydney’s roads — perfect for driving over cars on Parramatta Road!

 The original back shocks have been switched around so the little gold gas pump is at the top instead of the bottom just to give it a different look from the other Enfields.

The triple trees were painted black and raised up to get more height. The only downfall to that is my legs are still the same length. I might have to start wearing platform shoes.

The handlebars are very different. Instead of having those Continental GT drop handlebars, café racer-style, they’re now kinda like straight scrambler bars. It’s like riding down the road using a broomstick to steer the bike. And you’re sitting real upright as well which is actually quite nice; I think I’ll actually be able to do more miles as a result.

The front guard is from Baak Motorcycles in France. They do custom parts for Royal Enfields. It’s been a problem getting it to sit in the frame properly, despite the fact it’s actually made for a Continental GT. Maybe it’s for a Continental-Continental and they’re different for some reason.

The seat has been custom made. We used one of those Continental GT convertible seats which has a removable back section for a pillion. We just ripped the plastic off the top and had some motor-trimmer in Alexandria make up a nice leather seat.

Your paint job was done by Sam Muldoon at ColourFuel. He just seems to know his shit — even though he tried to talk me out that colour.

“We could put some pearl through it,” he said.

“Whoa there, tiger. I’m not Liberace. Just tone it down a bit. 

“Well, we could get some metallic in it.”

“Right, but I want it matte as well; I don’t want it shiny.”

“No, no, no. We’ll do it in satin.”

“No, just leave it plain. I didn’t want the logo or the accents or anything really bright coming off it.”

I just wanted it kind of army-looking and basic and I think even he was surprised how well it came out.

I guess that’s the story of the bike. There’s still a few little things that I think I’m gonna have a little play with but, I think, on the whole, it’s pretty much there. A huge thanks to Will and Santina at Revelry Motorcycles for helping me make this semi-ridiculous vision a reality. They’ve been important for someone with my complete lack of knowledge. The whole experience of having a midlife crisis has been eased nicely by these guys so, yeah, can’t thank them enough. They’ve been fantastic.

photos by George; words by Kevin