FEATURE - Royal Enfield Cerra GT865

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Courtesy of Urban Moto Imports

Royal Enfields are fast becoming the new favourite amongst custom bike builders. Yamaha’s SR400 was once the king of affordable street tracker and café racer custom creations, but we’re now seeing a lot more bespoke builds based on Royal Enfield singles and twins.

Many of those have been factory-sponsored and plenty have come from Aussie builders, too, including the machine presented here, which wears the label of ‘Cerra GT865’ and carries much more than just a fairing and fancy finish.

Based on the current Royal Enfield Continental GT 650, the Cerra GT865 was designed and built by Carl Cerra of Skunk Machine in Melbourne, with the help of several Australian collaborators, including Hallam Cycle Works, Kaber, Revelry Cycles, Horsch Carbon and Mid Life Cycles, who hosted its official unveiling this October.

The Carl Effect

If Carl Cerra sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the makeover he applied to a Ducati Scrambler - under the Skunk Machine label - that JUST BIKES featured back in 2015. That café racer-style creation consisted of a bespoke tail unit and side covers designed and fabricated by Carl that could be added to the Scrambler without frame mods and was offered for sale as a bolt-on kit.

A year prior to that, Carl had built a street tracker - the ‘Indy Mile’ - based on the venerable SR400 that featured a Kenny Roberts-inspired speedblock paint scheme amongst other custom touches. That was back when Carl was occupied with Gasolina, the restaurant cum motorcycle design studio and workshop he opened in Melbourne’s Southbank precinct.

Go back further and Carl was a designer, modeller and fabricator for the automotive industry, with his conceptualisation skills, particularly in the area of clay modelling, applied to vehicle projects from a range of manufacturers, including Holden, BMW, Audi, Ford and Toyota. Carl spent more than 15 years at Toyota, mostly as the lead clay modeller in their Australian design studio.

Fast forward into the 2020s and Carl’s no longer connected to Gasolina, but he’s still designing, fabricating and releasing new creations and custom parts through Skunk Machine.

The Cerra GT865 isn’t the first collaboration between Carl and Urban Moto Imports (Royal Enfield’s Australian distributors), but it’s certainly the most comprehensive, with changes made to the engine and cycle parts, as well as the tinware and cosmetics.

TT Inspiration

The roots of this project go back more than two years, when Urban Moto Imports, reached out to Carl to discuss a new build, following a custom 350 Scrambler project that was done three years prior.

Urban Moto didn’t mandate any specifics for this project, so Carl was free to explore his creativity and really push the boundaries of what could be done with the Continental GT 650 platform.

For inspiration, Carl turned to race bikes of the 1980s – the kind seen at the Isle of Man TT and on the GP circuit back then. This creation wouldn’t be a slavish copy of those bikes, though; more an homage, with a distinctly modern feel achieved through the use of sleek surfaces and exposed carbon fibre.

Those 1980s racing themes explain the addition of a full fairing, which isn’t taken from any existing production bike, but rather was scratch built from carbon fibre specifically for this project, using a painstaking process to create the panels that allows replication for small-scale production – more on that later.

The aerodynamic front fairing and ducktail enhance the racy look, as do the clip-on bars, high-mount exhaust and deleted mirrors. Speaking of the latter, the addition of a rear-view camera allows 170-degree vision of the road behind, displayed on a monitor that’s tucked into the fairing above a Motogadget digital dash that replaces the factory instrumentation.

Big Bore Power

To ensure a racy performance to match its racy looks, the engine in the Cerra GT865 has been heavily worked over by the experts at Hallam Cycle Works. The 650cc twin has been increased to 865cc capacity with a big bore kit, while Revelry Cycles added a custom throttle body set-up.

Combined with other changes and upgrades, like pod filters and a bespoke, freer flowing exhaust system capped with SC Project silencers, the engine capacity increase means power is significantly greater. Carl hasn’t put a specific number on it, but believes the finished package almost doubles the Continental GT 650’s 47hp (35kW) factory output.

The factory six-speed transmission hasn’t been altered, nor has the rear sprocket, but there are significant changes elsewhere, starting at the front end.

A 2015 Suzuki GSX-R600 donated its USD forks to the project, which with their larger diameter tubes required new triple trees to be CNC machined to suit. The Suzuki’s brakes came with that front end transplant, meaning that instead of the Royal Enfield’s single 320mm disc with a two-piston caliper, there are now dual 310mm radial discs with Brembo monobloc four-piston calipers – that should rein in the extra horsepower!

Bolt-on Bits

While the Continental GT 650’s pillion pegs were removed for this project, the rider’s pegs remain in the factory position (instead of rearsets) but have been pushed outward 40mm to clear the fairing. Complementary pedals were designed in-house at Skunk Machine and, like the heel guards and selected other elements, have been painted black.

Replacing the high-mount factory clip-ons are lower, racier aftermarket clip-ons, fitted with custom grips and drilled levers that keep the competition theme going. The standard clutch perch remains, but the front brake upgrade means a bigger master cylinder has been fitted.

The fuel tank is one of the few items to pass through this project unchanged, although it was debadged, with Royal Enfield identification that normally graces the tank moved to the fairing instead.

In terms of lighting, a projector LED headlight nestles in the front end, with a super-subtle LED strip tail light wrapped around the lower portion of the Cerra GT865’s smoothly crafted ducktail.

Can’t see any indicators? Neither could we, but Carl explained that the front blinkers are in the ends of those clip-ons, while the rear LED stop/tail light strip houses the rear blinkers.

The saddle is a bespoke piece in the style of the factory seat, but custom trimmed in leather with an Alcantara centre section, while a small extension beyond the ducktail carries the number plate and also serves as a mounting point for the aforementioned rear-view camera.

In place of the factory rear suspension, premium Öhlins adjustable coilovers have been fitted, but the single-piston ByBre caliper on a 240mm rear disc is unchanged from the standard Continental GT 650.

Finally, the wheels remain wire spoke, but the rims have been upgraded to Excel units front and rear, fitted with Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa tyres. 

COVID, Clay and Carbon

Given this build was commissioned back in mid-2020 and took more than two years to complete, there’s no prizes for guessing what caused the biggest delay – COVID-19.

The pandemic meant that some of the specialty businesses Carl needed for things like CNC machining and carbon fibre fabrication were either closed or running on limited hours and with reduced personnel. As such, these COVID-related delays added more than six months to the project, specifically impacting completion of the carbon fibre fairing.

That fairing was worth the wait, though, as it’s a work of art in itself, especially when you take a closer look and see all the details, like the subtle creases, angles and compound curves. Limited use of paint shows off those curves, as well as the pattern of the carbon fibre weave itself.

To create this fairing, Carl started with clay, which may seem an oddity these days, but clay modelling is still used in the auto industry (albeit less frequently) and it’s a medium Carl particularly likes working with, allowing shapes and curves – and how they react to light – to be seen in a way that CAD can never truly replicate.

The aforementioned COVID delays allowed Carl to rework the design multiple times, probably moreso than he would have if the lockdowns that hammered Victoria didn’t occur. 

Once one full side of the fairing was completed to Carl’s satisfaction, the clay was scanned and refined in CAD, with various separation points and flanges added before being duplicated to create the opposite side. These were sent for CNC machining to produce master moulds in gelcoat and fibreglass, which in turn were used to produce the final carbon fibre panels. 

Obviously, this process allows the Cerra GT865’s panels to be reproduced, which is something Carl is intending to offer potential customers in the form of an individually numbered 25-unit limited-edition based on the Continental GT 650.

It’s early days, with elements of the package still to be refined and finalised, but the finished article will include all the carbon fibre body panels, aftermarket parts, LED lighting, rear camera and the big bore upgrade.

Pricing is still to be finalised, too, but Carl expects there are enough enthusiasts out there to fill the 25 unit run and pay the premium that these boutique builds will command.

Expressions of interest in the Cerra GT865 can be lodged at: skunkmachine.com

Less Weight, Worth the Wait

It should be noted that the Cerra GT865’s carbon fibre fairing and ducktail, along with deleted and replacement parts in other areas, have cut a claimed 30kg from the Continental GT650's standard running weight of 212kg.

Creating this bike took a lot of time and effort, with more than a few frustrations and delays along the way, but Carl says it’s been worth the journey, adding that he’s taken as much satisfaction from the assistance others gave to this build as the build itself.

“The thing I really loved about this project was the support I got from my network of creators; they believed in the project and didn’t hesitate to help out. They are real supporters of Australian design and manufacturing and were glad to be given the opportunity to let the world see what we have to offer down under. What a great ad for ‘Made in Australia’ this retro racer has turned out to be!

“I thank Royal Enfield for giving me this opportunity to unleash my creative potential on one of the most gorgeous motorcycles in the recent past.”