Royal Enfield cafe racer:

Royal Enfield cafe racer:

yal Enfield's factory cafe racer is "the most perfect modern execution of the cafe racer theme we've seen."

That's the opinion of Hell For Leather magazine, which illustrated its comments with a photograph from "Parrys" on the Team-BHP forum.  His photos were made at the Auto Expo in India, where the motorcycle was shown as a "concept."

It's obviously more than that. I'm told that "this is all but the final product for release in 2013."

Royal Enfield unveiled its new Thunderbird 500 at the Auto Expo. It's dramatic but not a look that is in short supply here in the U.S. It's the cafe racer I can't stop looking at.

Here's more of the high praise from Hell For Leather:

"This side-on shot provides probably the best idea of why this design is so remarkable in a sea of me-too cafe conversions and retro models.

"Of this bike, HFL contributor, motorcycle designer and industry analystMichael Uhlarik said, 'This Royal Enfield cafe racer epitomizes the look of the classic 1955-1965 British sport motorcycle. The best part is that unlike half-assed attempts like Triumph’s Thruxton which is heavily compromised due to production commonality considerations with the standard Bonneville, or the utterly pedestrian looking Suzuki TU250 or Kawasaki W650, this motorcycle adheres to the long horizontal line that characterized all the great motorcycles of the cafe racer era.'