This Royal Enfield Continental GT535 by Barbara Custom Motorcycles Shows Off a RADD Front-End

Royal Enfield is a brand that doesn’t get a lot of action on the pages of Asphalt & Rubber. Despite its inroads into the US market, the machines from the Indian manufacturer just never seem to strike our fancy. That is not the case today.

Now granted, what you are seeing here is the work of pixel manipulation, and not a bonafide real motorcycle, but it shows the transformative work that can be done with a motorcycle as mundane as even the Royal Enfield Continental GT 535.

This concept is the work of French designer Barbara Custom Motorcycles, and it has a distinctive RADD front-end, first imagined by James Parker.

Just about the only thing that remains from the Royal Enfield is its air-cooled motor, with the chassis and bodywork being completely reworked to make a stylish café racer.

For those not familiar with the RADD front-end, you should take a look at Parker’s GSX-RADD concept, which was built with the hopes of replacing the conventional front fork.

The motorcycle industry, true to its conservative nature, has been slow to adapt suspension configurations like Parker’s RADD, though we do see some notable exceptions in BMW’s lineup.

Maybe that is why Barbara’s concept is such an interesting mix of something old and something new – it shows a brand that is stuck in a time from over 50 years ago, with a design concept that is still looking for its future.