[cormodore]

I will keep it very short with respect to my initial review of my newly acquired Hunter.

I am in my mid 40’s and wanted to get back to riding motorcycles, as riding Jupiter’s and Accesses left me wanting for more. With Jupiter, Santro and Vento already in my garage there was no need for a bike, however, my heart wanted me to pick a bike for my rides which I currently do in Vento.

Started test drives of various motorcycles and my heart and head could not come to a common ground on a particular motorcycle. It was a three-year hunt and a lot of persuasion at home, that I could pick up the Hunter.

Test drive 1(June 2019): Triumph Bonneville: This was more of a window shopping, as I was near the showroom for some other work, went inside and asked for a test ride, and they provided the same. Loved the bike, the torque, and the looks. Fell in love with the bike at the first glance. Heart wanted to swipe the card and get the bike, but the calculations in my head paused me and let it go. Initial purchasing was okay but with huge service bills, and with all the complex gadgetry, and given the state of our vehicle services, it will be tough to maintain (I am coming from maintaining my Vento experience)

Test drive 2(June 2020): FZ25: Felt ok after riding the bike but could not connect to the bike due to its bulbus fuel tank shape and the weird headlight design. Did not pick up the bike, even after the dealer throwing in discounts.

Test drive 3(around the time when 4V was launched): Xpulse: Bike was a bit tall and did not feel any step up from a commuter bike, with respect to initial power delivery. At 1.65 lacs on road, I felt the bike was pricy for what it offers. The plastic parts and the sound of the bike did not make me look at the bike again.

Test drive 4(Mar 2022): Himalayan: The bike was tall, and I liked the suspension and the power delivery. Rejected as I had to spend around 2.6 lacs and the headlight was not moving along with the handlebar.

Test drive 5(Oct 2022): Hunter: RE has copied the design of Bonneville, and gave us a baby Bonneville, which I liked, and the initial power delivery is particularly good along with beautiful exhaust note. Its refined (J series engine) and the gears slotted beautifully which sealed the deal and made me overlook all other stuff which I going to write in cons.

Also, checked out the Dominar and N250, but neither my wife nor myself liked them. Apaches were rejected due to poor pillion rider seat.

Following are my observations after riding the bike for about 1500Km. Wish companies/showroom give us exhaustive test rides based on which we can make better vehicle purchases

The GOOD:

1. Baby Bonneville
2. Initial power delivery till 60KMPH
3. Nice exhaust note
4. Striking colors
5. Although head light is halogen, the throw and spread are very good.
6. Excellent paint quality of the petrol tank
7. Excellent riding triangle with slightly rear set foot pegs.
8. Gears slot exactly without any jumps or missing gears.
9. Amaron battery is provided as OEM fit.
10. Extra fuses provided by RE in the fuse box, incase anything goes wrong with the fuses in use.

The BAD:

1. Lots of plastic parts which are inferior in quality (especially the headlight, side covers)
2. No place to keep the documentations or any stuff
3. Inconsistent build. Especially the welding portions leave a lot to be desired
4. No discounts and waiting period for a newly launched bike.
5. Stock mirrors vibrate lot during lugging and once the speed crosses 80KMPH

Could be better:

1. Switch gear is okay but can be improved.
2. Feature set when compared to its peers (Ronin)
3. Although the stock MRF looks goods, it does not do justice to the bike. Need to replace with a grippy rear tyre
4. RE should have concealed the wiring much more effectively. (RE please copy the wiring stuff from Bonneville)
5. In the days of LED lights, RE is still struck with Halogens.
6. Clutch is on the heavier side and could have been lighter.
7. Suspension should be a bit softer. I feel it is on the stiffer side
8. Brakes are just ok.
9. Costly accessories. – RE accessories are priced very high

Things that will not improve:

1. High taxes on vehicles – Governments (central and state) have collected 60K taxes in the total of 2Lacs that I paid (on road price).
2. Service – Unless the technicians are paid well and we improve their dignity of work, the service will be bad. We as a society look down on the people working in services, and we get what we deserve. In addition to the technicians, the dealers also try to fleece the customers with unnecessary add-ons and extras. I do all minor repairs and fix punctures myself without depending on the service people.
3. Quality – Companies take customers for granted, as we have useless laws protecting the customer. The quality of Hunter is just about okay. Within a week of purchase, and after riding about 150 Km, fork oil seals broke, and fork oil was leaking. Bike was with the service center for two days (none of my vehicles went to the service center so early) and with all the front dismantled and attached once again.

More details about the bike:

1. Battery – 8 Ah (Amaron maintenance free)
2. Head lamp – 55 W
3. Fuel tank – 13 liters (low fuel warning at 4 Liters including dead stock of 2 liters)
4. Sprocket ratio – 2.8:1
5. Drive chain links – 104 links

On the first glance of it, we will feel RE has improved the quality of their bikes, but as we say, the devil is in the details, there is still lot of room for improvement. Let the pictures do the talking from now on.

Front View - Looks goods with the minimalistic design and a slight offset console


Side View


Rear View


side view - Notice the cover on the smoke pipe. Not sure of long term impact of doing the same. Its to protect my kids, if they accidentally touch the smoke pipe


View from top


Mirrors - Once your cross 60KMPH, they are of no use and vibrate a lot


Cockpit - Provides a very basic but all important information. Its very bright at night


Front Wheel


Wiring under the cockpit. RE should have concealed in a much better fashion. The tape applied by RE is very flimsy and is ready to peel off.


Bybre brakes - Stopping is adequate, but would have preferred some more bite.


Wiring under the right side cowl. RE should have done a much better job with respect to wiring here. Its a mess under the cowl. Removing the battery is pretty tough. If I had seen this before purchasing the bike, I would definitely dropped the idea of purchasing the bike.


Engine - Many have talked about the engine, I will not dwell much deeper with respect to engine. It serves me adequately, as I do not go beyond 90 KMPH.


Under the seat - there is no storage at all. I just kept the bike papers covered in a polyethene cover. Need to find a permanent fix


Right side switch gear - the quality is just about okay


Left side switch gear


Fuse box under the seat - good thing RE gave extra fuses


Rear brakes


Left side suspension setup - Its a free standing spring between the bottom and top base, and rotates 360 degrees. I have not seen this kind of setup in any other suspension. The suspension is a bit firm and we cannot perform any adjustments.


Rear tyre pattern


Right side cowl


Fuel tank - Took the bike to Kingkoti market in Hyderbad and applied PPF in one of the road side shops. They did a pretty bad job. Would never recommend the Kingkoti shops in Hyderabad for after market accessories.


Left side tank and seat view


Engine guard - although cheap, its flimsy - again never go to Kingkoti shops in Hyderabad for RE accessories.


Seat - Provides good cushioning. I did a 300 KM ride, without any issues.


Left side gear shifter position


Key


Sproket


Welding - RE needs to improve a lot in this aspect



Ride quality:

I am using the bike as of now in the city and did a 300KM round trip to a temple near Siddipet near Hyderabad. Based on my 1500 KM ownership below are a few pointers.

1. Although the bike looks a bit small, at 180KG, the bike is heavy when parked and takes a little effort to move from parking spots.
2. The handle bar is wide and the turning radius is a bit more than my expectation. Requires me to lean forward a bit when taking full u turns.
3. The bike does 0-70KMPH pretty quickly and starts taking time for the additional speed.
4. After a quick overtake or a quick maneuver, the bike takes time to come back to the straight line (may be because of the crappy MRF tyres).

Overall, I would say, we get what we pay for, and for 2 Lacs on road, this is a okay deal, considering how costly the vehicles have become.

Let me know, if you would like to know more about the bike, or if you want to any other information.

Mods: Please feel free to edit the post, incase of any errors.

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by cormodore

I will keep it very short with respect to my initial review of my newly acquired Hunter.
. The quality of Hunter is just about okay. Within a week of purchase, and after riding about 150 Km, fork oil seals broke, and fork oil was leaking. Bike was with the service center for two days (none of my vehicles went to the service center so early) and with all the front dismantled and attached once again..

Congratulations on you new acquisition.

I've also got my Hunter 350 in Dapper Grey and awaiting registration formalities. Have ridden only about 5 kms from showroom to home so most of your riding experience is going to be a yardstick for me. But it was sad to know that fork oil seals broke within such a short time in a brand new vehicle. How did you come to notice the leak. Was it behaving abnormally. Also I can see some sort of oil spill at the top of my engine near the engine head portion below the tank. My sales representative said it's not a leak as leaks don't occur at that area and only shows near the engine seal joints. Do you have any experience in these.

Wishing you many happy miles ahead

[cormodore]

Originally Posted by Carpainter

Congratulations on you new acquisition.

My sales representative said it's not a leak as leaks don't occur at that area and only shows near the engine seal joints. Do you have any experience in these.

Wishing you many happy miles ahead

Thank you for the wishes.

Unless I see a image, I cannot comment with respect to the leak you are seeing on your bike. Below is the image of the oil seal leak in my bike. When ever it went over the pot hole, oil used to spill out on the fork as well as on the mud guard from a small hole on the fork gaiters.



RE service center took two days and replaced the entire fork.

[Shobhitsaxena]

Thank you for a very objective review and congratulations for the new acquisition. I had a similar Rocky start on my Himalayan but no issues after a few teething ones.

Btw, your observation on Himalayan headlight is spot on (no pun intended). I was aware of this while purchasing, but this doesn't get highlighted in general reviews. I believe after a point, RE's make you consider an aftermarket upgrade, irrespective of the fact if steering moves or not!

[ProLearner]

Originally Posted by cormodore

I will keep it very short with respect to my initial review of my newly acquired Hunter.

Congratulations on your new bike! The Hunter does look very nice.
How stiff is the rear suspension? I have seen YouTube videos, but most youtubers like to exaggerate such things.
You are right about the expensive accessories. 3.3k for LED indicators!

Did you not consider the Ronin? It has an all LED setup, and a slipper clutch against the harder clutch on the Hunter. (Though all things aside, the Hunter might have better road presence ).

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Thanks for sharing, cormodore! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

[Carpainter]

Did Royal Enfield change the meter console for their 2023 models or is it because I've got Dapper variant that my console doesn't have the Mph markings and no engine temperature display in the digital MID. I thought Dapper and Rebel variants get the same display unit.

[bblost]

Very nice review. The bike looks very smart and I love the color scheme.

The fork seals going bad so early is very strange. But hopefully the issue is fixed and will not recur.

My Himalayan got a fork issue at around 25k kms. After fixing it, I have ridded almost 4000 kilometers and its held up well.

[cormodore]

Originally Posted by Shobhitsaxena

Btw, your observation on Himalayan headlight is spot on (no pun intended). I was aware of this while purchasing, but this doesn't get highlighted in general reviews. I believe after a point, RE's make you consider an aftermarket upgrade, irrespective of the fact if steering moves or not!

After certain point we might get used to the design of fixed headlight setup or owners might be forced to go the Scram front setup (which could be costly affair).

Originally Posted by ProLearner

Congratulations on your new bike! The Hunter does look very nice.
How stiff is the rear suspension? I have seen YouTube videos, but most Youtubers like to exaggerate such things.
You are right about the expensive accessories. 3.3k for LED indicators!

Did you not consider the Ronin? It has an all LED setup, and a slipper clutch against the harder clutch on the Hunter. (Though all things aside, the Hunter might have better road presence ).

The spring is a free standing unit between the fixed top and bottom base. RE must have given a hard spring so that it does not sag over a period of time and the same shows up when you ride. Its not supple and is hard and I can feel the road unevenness or potholes. The suspension becomes a little soft with a pillion because of the additional weight but not that much.

Regarding Ronin, the seating position was the main differentiator why I went with Hunter. You seat a tad low on Ronin than in Hunter, and with the slightly forward set foot pegs, it was not to my liking. Also, the fuel tank is very big for the size of Ronin(I didn't test drive, only sat on the same before booking Hunter). RE did not go overboard with the design of the Hunter and looks proportionate (my personal opinion). I got used to the hard clutch at the moment, however, need to access the long term impact.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Thanks for sharing, cormodore! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

Thank you for creating a new post. Onus on me to give regular updates now

Originally Posted by Carpainter

Did Royal Enfield change the meter console for their 2023 models or is it because I've got Dapper variant that my console doesn't have the Mph markings and no engine temperature display in the digital MID. I thought Dapper and Rebel variants get the same display unit.

Attachment 2419455

This is indeed bad move. The console is a bit bland, and now they have made it even more bland by removing the MPH counter. What baffles me is the removal of the engine check light indicator, as all the BS6 models(incl scooters) are coming with the same. Write to RE and seek a confirmation regarding the same.

Below is the latest pic of my bike's console with the engine check light and battery warning indicator(before starting the bike). I bought the bike in the first week of Dec 2022

[anaraman]

I'm turning 48 and i got the hunter 6 months ago. I'm no analyser but my experience so far has been amazing. my 73 yr old dad enjoys taking it out more. id give a 4/5. great road presence.

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by cormodore

What baffles me is the removal of the engine check light indicator, as all the BS6 models(incl scooters) are coming with the same. Write to RE and seek a confirmation regarding the same.

Below is the latest pic of my bike's console with the engine check light and battery warning indicator(before starting the bike). I bought the bike in the first week of Dec 2022
Attachment 2420576

The check engine light is there. I think it's mandatory for any FI vehicle to have this. I was referring to the engine temperature display and ECO display in the digital portion of the MID which I don't seem to have or may be I didn't notice the ECO display when I ride. Will check next time.

[cormodore]

Originally Posted by Carpainter

The check engine light is there. I think it's mandatory for any FI vehicle to have this. I was referring to the engine temperature display and ECO display in the digital portion of the MID which I don't seem to have or may be I didn't notice the ECO display when I ride. Will check next time.

Hunter doesn't come with engine temperature display as far as my knowledge goes. I don't have it on the console on my bike.

Regarding the ECO symbol, based on the image your have shared, RE might have removed the same from the 2023 version. As per me, its a useless feature as you cannot be looking at the small ECO symbol on the console and maintain your speed. I never bother to look at that.

With respect to the bike, completed 2000Kms and its performing well as of now, with mileage hovering around 35-37 KMPL (tank range is an approximate 350KM), be it city or highway rides.

[The_Medic]

Originally Posted by cormodore

I will

Test drive 3(around the time when 4V was launched): Xpulse: Bike was a bit tall and did not feel any step up from a commuter bike, with respect to initial power delivery. At 1.65 lacs on road, I felt the bike was pricy for what it offers. The plastic parts and the sound of the bike did not make me look at the bike again.

Test drive 5(Oct 2022): Hunter: RE has copied the design of Bonneville, and gave us a baby Bonneville, which I liked, and the initial power delivery is particularly good along with beautiful exhaust note. Its refined (J series engine) and the gears slotted beautifully which sealed the deal and made me overlook all other stuff which I going to write in cons.

First off, congratulations on your bike. I am always happy when the biker community gains a member. Now for the unpleasantries for which I apologise in advance as you have raised certain points that I find inherently misleading and I would like someone else thinking of getting into bikes make a better informed decision. I am usually not the one to nitpick and definitely not the one to compare minutiae of spec sheets but xpulse goes 0-60 in 4.8 secs and hunter has reports of anywhere between 4.9 to 5.2 seconds. And my test rides of both are indicative of the same. Xpulse feels a lot more brisk. Also the fact that it has better brakes and a very plush suspension on our roads is testament to it's better nature as a city bike. The fact that xpulse 200 is an micro adv and hunter the actual city bike makes it funny. What's even more funny is the fact that classic 350 and meteor both offer much better stability and a far superior ride quality making them better city bikes than the hunter. All this without even bringing the Honda 350 into the picture.

Hunter is a wrong kind of parts bin special. RE tried to make a good cheap entry level bike and they messed up. For anyone thinking of the hunter, the classic 350 is a far better proposition in the RE stable itself. That and the Honda 350 will hold their vaule and coolness far better than hunter. The Hunter is also a very very poor city bike (that's how it was promoted).

So, buy a hunter if you want to get into the RE brand for lesser than the price of classic 350. For everything else, there's a better option. Cheers and peace out!

[Ibanez_70]

A very great review. Recently got the chance to ride the Hunter on a curvy highway. From the reviews online I wasn’t too interested in the bike but after the ride I was delighted that Royal Enfield has made such an awesome product. Engine is refined ( I am an FZ25 owner), seat height is low and is easy to ride in the city. Not sure about the fuel economy but that’s the last concern for me.

Being cheap doesn’t necessarily mean the product won’t be a good one and Royal Enfield is proved that with the Hunter. Although I wish RE had given a bigger tank with this bike.

[GreenDay]

Congratulations Cormodore on acquiring a Hunter! I hope you enjoy many happy miles on it.

One of my friends is interested in joining the RE Hunter family. Although he is not an auto-enthusiast, he likes the bike because it is lightweight and fits his budget. Initially, I was inclined to recommend the bike to him, but after reading your review, I am having second thoughts. I would appreciate it if you could give me some guidance based on your experience and let me know if it's wise for my friend to choose a Hunter.