To fully capitalise on its latest J series platform which made its debut on the Royal Enfield Meteor, the Chennai-based company plans to launch a number of motorcycles in the Indian market. One motorcycle in the line-up is the Royal Enfield Hunter. A new name that appears in the patent files recently added by the brand. The Hunter is a new roadster with the focus on the young generation enthusiasts. The test mule of the motorcycle made its appearance on public roads revealing key details and giving us a glimpse of what to expect in the near future.
The test mule of the Royal Enfield Hunter appears to be in the near-production avatar and the brand will refine the motorcycle even further. But the instruments cluster appears very close to production. The Hunter features an offset mounted semi-digital instruments cluster with a never seen before design. The cluster comes with an Analogue speedometer on top integrating a digital LCD screen on the bottom. The bottom part of the speedometer could have the fuel indicator, odometer, trip meter etc. There could be a reason the brand has offset the position of the instruments cluster. The Hunter as well may get the Royal Enfield Tripper navigation system placed on the right-hand side of the instruments panel.
The Royal Enfield Hunter features an almond-shaped fuel tank, a rounded headlamp with a chrome dome, raised and upright handlebars, a bench-style seat, chopped-off front fender, telescopic front forks with rubber gaiters, rounded mirrors, a rounded taillamp, multi-spoke alloy wheels and an upswept short can exhaust system.
Powering the Royal Enfield Hunter will be the same new-generation motor that made its debut on the Meteor 350. The BS6 compliant 349cc air/oil-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke engine produces 20.2 Bhp of power and 27 Nm of torque matched to a 5-speed transmission.
The new Hunter will position itself against the Honda H’ness CB 350 and the upcoming Honda mystery motorcycle that was teased in the recent past.