[Indraneel Bhat]

The RE website has gone psychedelic with this launch!! I LOVED the Shack Black colour, those white walled tyres and the mini ape-hangers...

[Boringrider]

Originally Posted by FireBlade

Anyways, bike looks beautiful and better than Meteor 350 or even Jawa Perak to my eyes

Disagree with you here, for all the things Jawa does wrong, they never went wrong with the bobbers. The Perak is the benchmark in true bobber aesthetics.

This looks like a weird and whacky mod job and I doubt it will have the sales success of the regular Classic 350.

Originally Posted by b16h22

Find it a little bit confusing that this very niche product based on the 350 platform gets tubeless spokes but the more expensive Bear 650 and Classic 650 doesn't?

It's driving me mad trying to figure their rationale behind it and why are none of the journalists asking this question? If RE somehow has magically found out the solution to provide tubeless spokes on the Goan while still keeping it profitable, what stops them from repeating the same on the bigger models. Laziness? Some weird kink?

[Axe77]

The single most important takeaway for me from this launch is the tubeless wheels and what it means as a sign of times to come. I am loving RE for broadening the tubeless wheel set up in more offerings and that too at a palatable price point. Over time I would really love it if they can create this as a post purchase option too for owners.

Other than that, that teal color combination with the colored sidewall tyres is pure ...

[offroad]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

For those who remember, in the 80's a lot of foreigners used to buy Bullet's in Delhi, tour the whole of India and end their trip in Goa. They used to sell the bikes and lots of other belongings like Cameras, Audio equipment etc. at the Flea Market in Anjuna. Some of these bikes were modified by these guys. The locals bought these bike and used. Other locals also began modifying their bike in a similar manner.

True that, and there also used to be this thing, if you pay in dollars then you get bike instantly or something or exported variant etc. My uncle who used to live in US always asked me if i wanted to pay in dollars then let him know. Well now i feel bad not to avail the offer, but in the end i did end up owing a 89 model one .

Royan enfield and bullet model do has an history of its own. You can spend lakhs for modification still have something for a new mod.. many garages ran their business successfully with just these modifications. Now RE as a company itself took it up to its sleeves to modify (paint job) these bikes.

[PreludeSH]

One thing I wish RE could do is change the angle of the cylinder. This would in turn result in lengthening the bike a bit. Would help in keeping the CG lower and its weight then would be easier to handle for everyone.

[Senotrius]

Credit where it's due; RE is democratising Tubeless spoke wheels. Salute to them for doing this. They should offer these instead of alloys going forward for all their models. Spokes suit RE's better than alloys (aesthetically poor that is).

[skviknaraj]

Originally Posted by Senotrius

Credit where it's due; RE is democratising Tubeless spoke wheels. Salute to them for doing this. They should offer these instead of alloys going forward for all their models. Spokes suit RE's better than alloys( aesthetically poor that is).

Democratizing tubeless spoke, yes. But it should be on versions where they really make a difference.

Finding persons to true a spoke wheel is very hard and if the correct torque and technique is not maintained one will have to get a new wheel set only.

Lets see how it plays out.

[AulusGabinius]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Other than that, that teal color combination with the colored sidewall tyres is pure ...

Seconded! The 350s have never really appealed to me all that much, especially not after my FZ 25, but this I love. And tubeless wheels just is the cherry on the cake. If the price touches 2.3 or 2.4 L ex-showroom, it's on my hitlist for my dream garage as a putterer in extreme style!

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by AulusGabinius

If the price touches 2.3 or 2.4 L ex-showroom

The regular Classic 350 range tops out at 2.3L ex-showroom.

With the niche positioning, more customizations and the tubeless spoke wheels as standard- expecting something between 2.6 to 2.8L pricing for this Goan Classic would be more realistic.

Anyways the pricing should be out tomorrow or the day after!

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Axe77

The single most important takeaway for me from this launch is the tubeless wheels and what it means as a sign of times to come.

To clarify, what I meant by this was hopefully this will force the market to move towards spoked wheel set ups that are tubeless by default or at least as an optional choice.

Just like tubeless tyres have become par for course in the car world across price points, I am hoping in the near future bike makers will offer these as a default set up and its good that RE is normalising this even in their 350 cc segment (although disappointingly they didn’t oblige in the Bear).

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Axe77

To clarify, what I meant by this was hopefully this will force the market to move towards spoked wheel set ups that are tubeless by default or at least as an optional choice.

Just thinking out aloud- Would be a bit difficult for the market to follow IMHO.

Do we know any other manufacturer who has the volumes that Royal Enfield has for tubeless spoke wheels? Most of the brands do spoke wheels as a niche whereas Royal Enfield does most of the mainstay volumes with such bikes.

Tubeless Spoke wheels for the Africa Twin cost more than a lakh - Transalp owners have been paying up this cost for their bikes. Not sure which brand Honda uses, but Triumph uses Akront for the Tiger range which is the same brand that RE has brought in at a fraction of the cost. I guess the main reason for this would be the volumes they have been able to negotiate.

Let's wait and watch how competition will respond

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Just thinking out aloud- Would be a bit difficult for the market to follow IMHO.
…
Let's wait and watch how competition will respond

Once an RE has offered it on a Himalayan, I hope it’ll give brands like KTM, Hero and BMW reason to consider solutions on the same lines when they launch spoke wheeled avatars of their 400 cc offerings and if they too will feel the need to offer a solution. Some like KTM or BMW may feel their customers have the budgets to at least pay for this as an optional extra.

I am also hoping that once the wheels have a market of scale from an anchor brand or across a few brands, some balance may come on overall volumes to pricing.

I don’t know whether there is any difference in the wheels that RE is equipping the Himalayan with and what’s on the Tiger or Africa Twin (I just don’t know - haven’t gone to that depth of research). Maybe there are solutions that can calibrate across budget ranges, not sure.

Of course it’s a wait and watch, no doubt. But I’m happy that it’s becoming more mainstream so it slowly normalises the expectation that customers can have.

[FlankerFury]

Price starts at ₹2.35 lakhs for the Goan Classic 350.

Reviews are out now.

https://youtu.be/MRfPSpqx2bA?si=NIPgPpaiZXRNweip

https://youtu.be/KgYqw0znWkY?si=0AaO2mGWJ2fKIwiu

Four colors on offer,

Purple Haze at ₹2.35 lakhs ex showroom Chennai


Shack Black at ₹2.35 lakhs ex showroom Chennai


Trip Teal at ₹2.38 lakhs ex showroom Chennai


Rave Red at ₹2.38 lakhs ex showroom Chennai
__

The rear is a 16in rim so the tubeless spokes wouldn't be a direct swap for Classic/Bullet owners.

Here's how the bike looks like with a pillion seat,


Apart from the usual touring mirrors, bar end mirrors, touring handlebar, engine guards, sump guards, oil filler caps, parking covers, larger footpegs, different color seats and grips, there's fog lights in the accessories list as well.


All images sourced from official Royal Enfield website

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by FlankerFury

Price starts at ₹2.35 lakhs for the Goan Classic 350.

2.35 to 2.38 lakhs! That's actually almost the same as the top-end Classic.

Well priced

[AulusGabinius]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The regular Classic 350 range tops out at 2.3L ex-showroom.

With the niche positioning, more customizations and the tubeless spoke wheels as standard- expecting something between 2.6 to 2.8L pricing for this Goan Classic would be more realistic.

Anyways the pricing should be out tomorrow or the day after!

Aand that's a bullseye!