Royal Enfield Hunter 350 was recently revealed by Sidhartha Lal, CEO and MD of Eicher Motors
Royal Enfield motorcycles are fueled more by nostalgia than petrol. We say this because we also have other retro classic motorcycles in 350cc spectrum itself. But they have never made a dent like Royal Enfield motorcycles have. For example, we have Honda H’ness CB350 which sold 3,308 units in May 2022 while in the same month, Classic 350 sold 29,959 units.
Even when we look at 500cc+ motorcycles sales charts, that whole segment is mostly driven by Royal Enfield 650 twins with 84.72% market share in June 2022. While every other big bike combined in India only accounts for just 15%. Such is the power of nostalgia Royal Enfield evokes. Now the British brand is making that nostalgia a little more accessible with the launch of Hunter 350.
Royal Enfield Hunter 350 – Specs
Hunter 350 will sit at the bottom of Royal Enfield’s portfolio in terms of pricing and also, weight. Hunter 350 is a modern interpretation of a retro bike and all design elements and finishes reflect just that. It gets all the retro bike credentials like round headlights, round taillights, round mirrors, fork gaiters, offset speedo like TVS Ronin, curvy and swoopy fuel tank and more.
Adding modern vibes is a blacked-out finish at the engine bay and wheels. Fuel tank and side body panels get contrasting colours though which complement the blacked-out engine bay beautifully. But personally, I’m not too hot for its large ‘Royal’ branding on one side and ‘Enfield’ branding on the other side of the 13-litre fuel tank.
But fret not. This style is specific to one of Metro variant’s colour schemes. We say this because we have spotted another Metro variant that has a chick white fuel tank with not-too-shouty graphics. Royal Enfield is clearly going towards ‘urban roadster’ kinda appeal, but with a set of block pattern tyres, it can also come off as a scrambler-style bike too.
Siddhartha Lal recently revealed a sneak peek at Metro variants which had a tripper screen. This will be offered as an option, though. We haven’t yet seen a Retro variant to understand how stripped-down it would look when compared to Metro. Both variants will be revealed at launch on 7th August.
Features & Pricing
Retro gets spoked wheels, drum brake at the back, single-channel ABS, older switchgear, basic speedo, halogen taillights and oval-shaped turn indicators. Both variants get 17” wheels, but Metro will get fatter rubber. Retro weighs 177 kg, while Metro weighs 181 kg and gets alloy wheels, disc brakes (300 mm / 270 mm), dual-channel ABS, LED tail lamp, round turn indicators and a modern switch gear from Meteor. Both get around 150 mm of ground clearance and a friendly 800 mm seat height too.
Both Retro and Metro get 41mm telescopic forks up front and twin shockers at the rear. Retro gets Factory Black and Factory Silver colour options. Metro gets Dapper White and Dapper Ash. And Dapper Grey is exclusive to MIY personalization platform. Royal Enfield Hunter 350 also gets the Metro Rebel variant with Rebel Black, Rebel Blue and Rebel Red (MIY) colour schemes.
Both Retro and Metro get the same J-series 349cc engine making 20.2 bhp and 27 Nm and is mated to a 5-speed gearbox with 114 km/h top speed and 36.2 km/l fuel efficiency. In terms of pricing, it is likely to hit the Rs. 1.3 to 1.5 lakh bracket which would make it the most accessible Royal Enfield in terms of price and weight. When launched, it will compete with TVS Ronin, Jawa 42, upcoming Bajaj-Triumph bike and Honda CB350 which is expected to get a Brigade variant soon.
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
