Installing multiple upgrades to my RE Continental GT 535

Post the monsoons, Ill swap out the Osram for the Night-Eye LEDs and see if there is any improvement.

BHPian neil.jericho recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I'm breaking down the work done at F Motors into separate parts with self-explanatory pictures.

First off, we decided to finish the work at the front end, since it appeared to be easy enough. This is what we planned to do

1. Replace the stock headlight
2. Dechrome the tall Royal Enfield visor
3. Install the Anti vibration mounts

I had done quite a bit of research on all the parts procured, except the Anti vibration mounts (speedo), from Hitchcocks. Those looked to be plug and play, so I didn't break my head over them. We opened the packet and assumed that they would sit below the clocks. So we removed the tall visor and got to work. I say we, but I limited my contributions to sharing my wit and free advice while taking a lot of photos. Sanju and Vishnu from F Motors did all the hard work.

Visor removed

Here is what it looks like

Removing the clocks

Lifted up and confused

Once we started looking at the bottom of the clocks, we felt that something didn't add up. The anti-vibration mounts didn't come with any instructions either. Puzzled, we went back to the Hitchcocks website where we saw this.

Aha! This made a lot more sense. The moment we read the basic description, we laughed and realized we had unnecessarily wasted 5 minutes in brainstorming about how this was supposed to fit. Lesson learnt - always read the instructions, even if it is the simplest of changes.

Loosening the instrument bracket

Loosened

One done, tightening the second piece

Almost done

Now for the other side

Since the visor was removed, we checked how the bike would look as is, and without the chrome. I preferred the de-chromed look and thought it would be a welcome change from all the other Interceptors and GT 650s on Kerala's roads.

Kept aside safely while we installed the anti-vibration mounts

Here is what the inside of the chrome lip looks like

Lovely

The final step here was to replace the stock bulb that comes with this Minda manufactured older Thunderbird headlight. The output of this unit was better than the stock one. Since I had the extra Osram Night Breaker bulb with me, it was an easy swap. One thing to keep in mind, is that the size of this Thunderbird headlight is a tad smaller than that of the OEM Continental GT 535 unit. Also there is a small bend on one side of the metal dome, that wasn't there in the stock headlight. So it's a tight squeeze to get everything in place and get it shut. I remember the mechanic at Republic of Bikers had a tough time with it. We too had a slightly difficult time but with some deft manoeuvring, it was done quickly.

Minda headlight unit

A closer look at the bulb

The OEM bulb that was removed

The messy internals

Thanks to the rains and the weekend lockdown, I could only do half an hour of very careful night riding. So this is just my initial feedback on all the changes. I'll update this thread as I log more miles.

Results:

• The headlight performance feels better than stock bulb in the Thunderbird unit. I need to ride it a bit more to check the alignment of the low beam and the high beam.
• I'm really digging this look. The chrome lip accentuated the gap between the smaller headlight and the visor. Now it's a lot more difficult to see that in the night.
• This was unexpected but at idle, the otherwise rock solid clocks, were bouncing around! However, when the revs were raised, the clocks appeared to be absolutely steady. So the modification seems to have inverted the earlier behaviour of the clocks. This was when the bike was on the centre stand. While riding, I felt that clocks did move a bit more than before but that was probably down to the stiff suspension setup that we are experimenting with.

Next Steps:

• Post the monsoons, Ill swap out the Osram for the Night-Eye LEDs and see if there is any improvement.
• No changes expected. If anyone from Royal Enfield is reading this, please come up with an even taller windscreen / visor. The introduction of the Ice Queen and Black Magic windscreens are welcome but the bike (and its owners) are crying out for something more effective.

Next up, I'll be jumping around the timeline without invoking the attention of the TVA. And lastly, Ill share the detailed post on the preload adjusters and the overall suspension settings that we incorporated.

Continue reading about neil.jericho's upgrades for more insights, information and BHPian comments.