The Royal Enfield Classic 350 is currently priced from Rs 1.84 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi), and rivals the Jawa Forty Two, Benelli Imperiale 400 and even Honda H’ness CB 350
The Classic 350 has been the heart and soul of Royal Enfield in the Indian market for as long as we remember. The Chennai-based two-wheeler manufacturer also recently introduced a new-gen version of the motorcycle in a bid to further expand its dominance in the segment that it has been leading for years now.
However, it looks like the new-gen version couldn’t do much to improve the motorcycle’s sales. Instead, the Royal Enfield Classic 350’s sales fell down by 65 per cent in September 2021, as compared to the same month last year. The manufacturer shipped 13,751 units of the bike last month, in contrast to the 38,827 units sold in September 2020.
The launch of the more-modern Meteor 350 last year could also be attributed to the reason for the Classic 350’s depleting sales. Another reason for the downfall is the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips, which continues to impact sales volumes of all automobile brands.
The 2021 Classic 350 is based on the same new J platform as the Meteor 350, and makes use of the same 349 cc engine as the latter. This engine puts out 20.3 PS of max power and 27 Nm of peak torque, and comes mated to a 5-speed gearbox. Royal Enfield claims that while the engine is the same as the one seen on the Meteor 350, the ignition timing, exhaust layout and fueling map are unique.
The motorcycle is now based on a brand new twin downtube spine frame that is suspended on 41 mm telescopic forks up front with 130 mm of travel, and twin shock absorbers at the rear that have 6 levels of adjustability for preload.
The braking setup consists of a 300 mm front disc brake along with a 153 mm rear drum brake. There is also an optional 270 rear disc. Single- and dual-channel ABS are on offer depending upon the variant.