After months of testing and thousands of leaked images, Royal Enfield has finally launched their new Meteor 350 motorcycle. Point to note, the Royal Enfield Meteor 350 replaces the Thunderbird range and is positioned as an easy cruiser motorcycle in the brands portfolio. Pricing for the 2020 Royal Enfield Meteor 350 starts at INR 1.75 lakh for the Fireball version, INR 1.81 lakh for the Stellar version and INR 1.90 lakh for the Supernova version. Additionally, Royal Enfield will be allowing customers to get their desired accessories via the Make It Yours customisation platform. The Meteor 350 is an all-new motorcycle, and surprisingly, comes loaded with modern features which you do not see even on the Interceptor 650 & Continental GT flagship twin-cylinder motorcycles. Deliveries of the new Meteor 350 start tomorrow.
Powering this new cruiser motorcycle is an all-new 349cc, single-cylinder, air-cooled, fuel-injected, long stroke motor producing 20.2 BHP of peak power @ 6100 RPM and 27 Nm of peak torque @ 4000 RPM matched to a 5-speed gearbox. We wish the bike got a 6-speed unit for better highway cruising abilities. However, to make the engine advanced, the brand has made use of an oil circuit in the 2-valve head of this single-cylinder motor for better cooling. The new 350cc engine also gets a balancer shaft to reduce vibrations. The motorcycle rides on a newly developed double cradle chassis which is more stiff than the one seen on the Thunderbird and makes use of telescopic front suspension and dual rear shock absorbers. The front fork has a 41mm diameter with 130mm travel while the rear suspension has a 6-step adjustment for preload. For stopping power, the bike gets dual-channel ABS with disc brakes at both ends obviously. The front wheel bites on to a 300mm disc while at the back you get a 270mm disc brake.
This range of motorcycles from Royal Enfield first started their journey as the Lightning 535, then moved to the Thunderbird nameplate and now in the modern era are being sold as the Meteor. The Royal Enfield Meteor has a long 1400mm wheelbase, 170mm ground clearance and weighs 191 kg with a seat height set at 765mm. The new Meteor 350 rides on 100/90-19 front and 140/70-17 rear tyres which are sourced from Ceat.
Features of the 2020 Royal Enfield Meteor 350 include a round headlamp with LED DRL, teardrop style fuel tank, foot-forward typical cruiser riders triangle, round LED tail lamp, new digital + analogue speedometer cluster, Tripper digital screen with Google maps integration, bluetooth connectivity, split seat setup, pulled back handlebar, dark theme for the mechanical components (finished in black), full size exhaust, alloy wheels, tubeless tyres, dual tone paint option on the Supernova variant, etc.
