Royal Enfield’s 650 twins have only been on the market for just over a year. But they’ve become a hit with both buyers and road testers—offering classic style, accessible pricing and just enough performance for a big section of the riding demographic.
Over the past few months, Royal Enfield has been keeping the spotlight on the twins via a steady stream of custom builds from all over the globe.
Right now, they’re focusing on the flat track vibe: a few days after the ‘official’ collaboration with Harris Performance, we have this very sharp-looking effort from Zeus Custom of Thailand.
Mooyong, the owner of Zeus, filled us in on the details. It’s his second project with Royal Enfield, after the ‘Prime’—a classic café racer based on the Interceptor.
‘Prime’ was a relatively conventional reworking of the 650 with clip-ons and Firestones, but ‘Moose’ takes things to a new level with a stripped back and more contemporary street tracker look.
“We took inspiration from the flat track world, and aimed for a stylish bike with elegant curves,” says Mooyong.
The major work is in the back half of this Continental GT, which is completely new. The rear part of the frame sweeps up to meet a waspish tail unit, and the twin shocks are gone—replaced by a YSS monoshock hooked up to a custom swingarm.
The lines are cleverly echoed by the exhaust pipes, which are bent with a millimeter precision worthy of Auto Fabrica and fitted with discreet brass tips. The engine cases are powder coated black to give the pipes extra visual ‘pop.’
To level out the stance, Zeus trimmed the forks by an inch, modified the internals to match, and anodized the tubes in black and gold. The wheels and hubs are powder coated black and now shod with Dunlop flat track rubber.
The bike gets its name from the bars, which curve up like moose horns to provide plenty of leverage for the rider—even though they are clip-ons, rather than one-piece units.
The bars are fitted with grips from Lowbrow, Motogadget m.blaze bar-end LED blinkers, and vintage chromed hand controls.
Sitting right ahead of the bars is a most interesting dual-layer cowl treatment, with concealed lighting between the plates. It’s an unusual styling trick that we haven’t seen before, and would work just as well with a road-legal headlight centered in the cowl.
The tank is essentially the stock Continental tank, and suits the tracker vibe perfectly.
But there are a couple of unusual modifications: a crash bar running the length of the top (there’s a matching mini bar on the tail unit) and a side-mounted gas cap.
We asked Mooyong what his thinking was, and he said: “It’s not a ‘perfect’ design—we needed this bike to unique, We can add gas to around 75% capacity, enough for a relaxing ride (or racing). There is no problem with spillage or overflowing because there is rubber sealing as well, which we have tested.”
The paint is an ultra-classy pearl white and grey, with the saddle finished in a dark chocolate leather.
Right now, ‘Moose’ is destined to be a show bike, but Mooyong’s intention is to make it streetable too. And it wouldn’t take much to make a road-legal version.
With an 865cc S&S Big Bore Kit installed, we could see a market for a production version of this bike—a smaller, zippier version of the Indian FTR 1200, perhaps. Hopefully Royal Enfield’s product planners are thinking along the same lines—or, should we say, the same ovals.
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