Pros:
-Easy Flickability
-Oodles of Torque
-Lightweight, when compared to its siblings
Cons:
-Impractical as a daily driver, but hey, this is a lifestyle vehicle!
-No proper fuel meter
I recently got a chance to have a longish test ride on this bike on a two-lane road. The road conditions were mixed, good roads, bad roads and sometimes no-roads at all. Also, this was the first time I was seeing an RE Trials on the road, I had only seen them parked inside the RE showrooms till now.
One of the first things I noticed as soon as I started riding was how flickable the bike is. The short handlebar and the lightweight nature of the bike, helped in this. Be it filtering through traffic, making tight U-Turns, quick manoeuvres or tackling bad roads, I felt confident.
Overtaking on the two-laned road were a breeze, the ample amount of low-end torque really and the weight reduction helped here. The throttle response was crisp, and the brakes were sharp. The bike had a sweet and bassy exhaust note. This was too good to be true for a 350. I mentioned this to the Ride Co-ordinator when we stopped for a break and he immediately pointed out that I was riding a 500. No wonder!
There was no branding saying 350/500 anywhere on the bike. Later, while googling, I found out that the differentiator between the 350 and 500 is the colour of the chassis. 350 gets the red coloured chassis and the 500 gets the green one. In addition, the 500 gets chrome finish on the tank, whereas the 350 does not.
The ride co-ordinator also said that the bike is based on the Standard version and gets a heavier crank. Off-roading was easy on this bike. The weight reduction, off-road handlebar, suspension, torquey engine, upswept exhaust the off-road tyres etc, greatly helped. Switchable ABS would have been a welcome addition along with wider mirrors and a proper fuel meter.
I had mixed reactions when I first saw the pictures of the Trials online, but in real life, it does not look that bad, and once I started riding it, the looks didn’t even bother me one bit, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. The Trials is indeed a good little lifestyle vehicle.
Regards,
LoneTraveller