I wanted a bike that well suits my needs as of now for my daily usage, 50% in city and 50% on highways, some blend of different roads or no-roads and can satisfy me with a smile considering the existing factors that I have.
I had a chance to test drive a Royal Enfield Meteor at Teknik Motorcycles, Iblur, Bengaluru. Here are the specific key points that I would like to concentrate and narrate them in a simple way. I would prefer to use layman’s terms rather than using much of the technical specification metrics in the blog as the later are already published in the bike specifications by Royal Enfield.
Looks:
Awesome and proportionate. From front, rear, side view and at angles I found the bike looks well balanced and I was tempted to image it in all directions. Hence, I have pasted a video link with majorly exhaust note and a quick review at the bottom of the thread. The bike looks good in real and in the picture frame as well. When you sit on it, you are welcomed by a muscular tank and an asymmetrical digital-analogue instrument cluster, speedometer has kmph as well as mph, The center part has LCD display has odometer, trip meter, service reminder, fuel gauge, a clock, gear indicator, neutral, ECO etc. The clock is also displayed on the right-hand side Navigation pod having a colour screen when there is no navigation through paired phone via Bluetooth.
Meteors in line ready for delivery: Power & Torque:
Magnificent
, far better than my older bullets, technically a high improvement. It has a good initial pickup. Power is seen with good bandwidth range of RPMs. Great pull in layman’s language.
Exhaust Note:
Throaty, feels a punch and not hollow like my Bullet Electra UCE. You have legal options too for many OEM slip-ons. Please view the video where I have recorded the exhaust note with special microphone, preferably it is recommended to use a set of headphones to have a precise feel of the exhaust notes.
Seat:
I am horizontally tall as well, no issues in long drives. Upright position is great and your feet rest in a relaxed forward way as it is a cruiser oriented. The riding triangle is well designed too. I did not experience any tail bone pain or any kind of inconvenience in my long test drive. Seats are exceptionally better than that of outgoing Royal Enfield Thunderbird.
Clutch:
Meteor has a right spot-on clutch. I did engine braking and it turned out to be very responsive in feedback and I could control the bike using gear and clutch itself (I am an old style rider). There was a debate in the biking community that why no slipper clutch. Technically speaking, we don’t need a “Slipper Clutch“. A slipper clutch is of no use for low RPM cruisers. Discussed this topic with my cousin who is a Mechanical Engineer, a core biker and called as Pune Wanderer, we concluded that the slipper clutch is most useful in sports bikes for rapid downshifts, hence it excels at a great extent for 650 twins.
Brakes:
The brakes are having larger disks and the bite is strong, you can heavily decelerate the bike during panic braking. A great improvement in the braking system with dual-channel ABS.
Engine:
Looks like designed by God, after eating a piece of Butter cake. I did not hear any unwanted noises (like tik-tik OR khich khich) from the engine. Vibrations are almost nil though due to overhead cams with counterbalance.
Technology and features:
USB Type A, Navigation Pod developed in conjunction with Google.
NVH (RE authentic vibration test included):
In NVH, our authentic vibration test was also done by me with a paper cup of coconut water on the fuel tank and it passed. Although, I never mind vibrations in RE, it is one of the smoothest 350cc RE has ever made in the history. It will make a history.
And finally, ASS (After Sales Service):
A wide range of service network in India. Wherever you drive, you have service centers in India and is growing. This is one of the important factors that is influencing me to select Royal Enfield Meteor as of today in 350cc segment.
Observations on improvements and scalability needed:
1. Expected that a Meteor would have a future ready headlights. Headlight should have been a LED over a Halogen bulb in the segment competition. Now a days, we do not have a luxury of changing it to LED headlamps as they are not street legal. On my Interceptor 650 twin, the halogen bulb is of higher power, 55/60W H4, I still feel that I need little more illumination over black tarmac highways and also blinding due to incoming trucks.
2. In electricals, the switch reachability from the handle-grips could have been better.
3. Most of the times on highways and on some unknown bends of roads, I use horn and pass switch simultaneously as on my other bikes the horn can be operated by a thumb and pass light using a forefinger, here the pass switch is on the retro-rotary dial switch, the same thumb has to travel for horn and pass switch, so operating them is mutually exclusive. It gives a retro feeling but my one need is not met. Probably need to get used to it.
4. For future market readiness as the engine is newly designed, a room for scaling into a slipper clutch should have been a future ready for the current and incoming competition. This is not a de-merit technically, a slipper-clutch is not needed for low RPM cruisers.
5. Some under-seat space would have been preferable.
Would I buy a Honda CB350 / Royal Enfield Meteor?
I love both the bikes, but if I had to strictly consider only one bike, that will be a Royal Enfield Meteor
only because of my below needs and the current existing factors.
With respect to me and my usage, Royal Enfield Meteor fits well at this moment. First thing is, I already own a Roadster which is an Interceptor 650 twin that has an aggressive riding position, fast and punchy, hence I will consider a well relaxed bike for 50-50 usage namely for city and as well as on highways, considering some bad roads as well. Although I owned 2 Royal Enfield bikes consecutively since 2012, my review is still unbiased, I had to do this because Late Shree Dilip Bam Sir, my Guru always used to mention me to make a right justice in bike decisions. If it was only city and smooth roads, I would have straight away booked a Honda CB350.
Here people compare Honda CB350 with Meteor which is unfair because they are from totally different categories. The comparison goes on thump, 350 cc, reliability, parts availability, slipper clutch, after sales service etc. Honda H’ness CB350 is a very good bike, I am considering it as well and I would love to own it in future because of its agile handling in city, low turning radius, excellent for maneuvering through narrow roads and it is a Honda.
Important note on decision making:
Please note that the final decision depends on your needs and factors that influence you and should not be based on any reviews. Reviews are only personal opinions what a reviewer or an individual feels. I suggest to take a proper test drive before you finally go for any bike.
Why I preferred a Meteor over CB350: Reasons:
1. Royal Enfield's After Sales Service network is great. Service, availability of parts and logistics are at ease.
2. Rear view mirrors on Meteor have better visibility because the stalk is longer.
3. Meteor suspensions are better for our roads because it is thoroughly tested and fine-tuned in India, whereas the CB350 is tested mostly in Japan.
4. Ground clearance of Meteor is 170mm whereas for CB350, it is 166mm.
5. Seats are better in Meteor, very comfortable on our highways. To re-mention again, I did not feel any issue of tail bone pain on Meteor seat.
6. Slipper clutch is not needed on Meteor, the reason I have mentioned in my upper section of this blog. The cost of the Meteor clutch is less as compared to the slipper clutch of Honda CB350.
7. The Navigation pod on Meteor is best, it has a colour screen too.
8. I can add an extra RPM meter, oil temperature console on Meteor of my own choice and that I feel will look sportier.
9. Although they both have tubeless tyres, the side look of the Meteor is well proportionate.
10. The colours offered by Royal Enfield on Meteor are well matched to the design of the bike. My favourite is Supernova Brown.
11. The comfort level provided by Meteor in a long-distance travel and on patchy roads is phenomenal.
12. USB Type-A charging port is very useful to change phones, action camera etc.
13. Handlebar positioning is fatigue free, no pain in shoulders, palms and at carpals.
Video link: Royal Enfield Meteor - Took a Test Drive by me and my friend, focus on key points