Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 alloy wheels looks similar to that to the Thunderbird 350X’s units
A test mule of the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 has been spied undisguised for the first time with alloy wheels. It seems the Bullet maker has finally paid heed to the needs to the buyers who want their GT with factory-fitted tubeless tyres ‘without tubes’.
Though right from launch, Royal Enfield’s 650 twins came with great tubeless tyres, the spoke wheels forced the company to use tubes inside which lead to a lot of hassles faced by users after punctures.
This also turned out to be a great hindrance for touring in remote areas like Leh Ladakh where puncture shops are quite rare or costly. Even if riders found a shop nearby, the process of removing the wheels each time was time consuming.
But, with the arrival of the bikes with factory-fitted alloy wheels, touring should be a breeze. No longer the 650 twins will require tubes and fixing a puncture would be just a 5-minute work.
From the test mule, we can make out that the design of the alloy wheels look similar to that of the Thunderbird 350X’s units. While the Thunderbird had 9 spokes, the test mule here has only 7 spokes on each wheel.
This aside, the test mule also has round tail lamp instead of the rectangular unit seen on the current model. It gels well with the round headlamp at the front and looks like the Hunter 350’s tail lamp.
Royal Enfield might launch the bikes with these alloy wheels during the upcoming festive season. The company might retain the spoke wheels as well for those who don’t want to spoil the classic looks.
