Royal Enfield Meteor 350 is expected to go on sale next month and it will act as a replacement to the Thunderbird 350 in India
Speculations surrounding the Royal Enfield Meteor 350’s debut in India have been there for several months and we do expect it to reach showrooms across the country soon with a launch sometime in June 2020. The homegrown manufacturer has been preparing to replace the Thunderbird 350 with the Meteor 350 and we have seen spy shots of undisguised test prototypes giving you most of the necessary details.
The Royal Enfield Meteor 350 is expected to be priced at Rs. 1.68 lakh (ex-showroom) locally and thus it will be pricier than the Thunderbird 350 by around Rs. 12,000. To justify the possible price premium, Royal Enfield will introduce several updates to the design as well as on the mechanical side while new accessories could also be part of the options list.
Accessories like backrest, different seat options, windshield, footpegs and panniers could be made available. An online configurator revealed that Royal Enfield Meteor 350 could have the ‘Fireball’ suffix. While the legitimacy of it is yet to be determined, what we do know is that the Meteor 350 is underpinned by the new J-platform.
Moreover, it comes equipped with a new single downtube frame. A new powertrain is also expected to be featured and from what we have seen, it may have counterbalancers for reduced vibrations and the architecture itself looks identical to that of the Interceptor 650 in some ways, particularly the engine casing. The upgraded engine will more likely develop more power and torque outputs in the Meteor 350.
It could be paired with a six-speed transmission with improved refinement for an overall better touring experience but we will have to wait and see whether the five-speed unit will stick around or not. As for the styling, the Meteor 350 retains the same silhouette as the Thunderbird 350 but the changes can clearly be noticed.
It features split seat setup, split grab rails, halogen headlamp, Daytime Running Light, instrument cluster with digital inset and so on. It will compete against Jawa Forty Two and Bajaj Dominar 250 among other motorcycles.