Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Motorbikes (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/)

-   -   Updated Royal Enfield Classic & Thunderbird spied (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/207930-updated-royal-enfield-classic-thunderbird-spied-7.html)

I haven't owned one since 2009 so I am not really knowledgeable about many new motorcycles plus the hideous bull look of modern motorcycles have really stopped me purchasing one. But in last 5 years after the resurgence of RE, I have driven many bullets courtesy of my friends and none of them have satisfactory chain link or sprocket and rear brakes. Every bullet 350 rear brakes are uninspiring over 100kmph.



I learned driving two wheeler on Priya scooter and motorcycle on Yezidi motorcycle. I have owned CBZ, Karizma, Pulsar 150, Suzuki Shogun, Suzuki Shaolin, Yamaha Rx100 and Ninja 6R and have extensively driven Yamaha rd 350, Splendor, Suzuki Fiero, Kawasaki 100, Honda CBR's, Bajaj caliber, Ninja 9R, Yamaha R6 and many more. Except in splendor and fiero when driven on high speed all the time, I have never faced such chain links and sprocket problem. Even Rx 100 which is prone to sprocket problems, accelerator and clutch cable problems have never shown chain loosening problems so often. But these are all old technology bikes and have been discontinued over a decade back and RE is now market leader, so I expect better from them. I have never ever seen more pathetic engineering be it electrical or mechanical from a mainstream manufacturer than Bullet. Never seen more complicated motorcycle than Bullet and to think of it I owned a ninja in 2005-06. I still clearly remember my drive from Belgaum to Goa in 2006 on a friend's bullet and how I wanted to throw it into the river from the ferry while entering Goa. A beautiful, scenic route marred by the pathetic performance from a bullet.

I have heard a lot about the legendary RE cast engine set ups where the power loss was huge due to the engine, clutch and gearbox being three separate parts and the transmission losses suffered therein. With the UCE, these losses were minimized to an extent. However, the clutch was still a separate unit. What about the set up in the Interceptor 650 and the upcoming meteor? Firstly is the meteor engine based on the 650 setup? (The engine covers look somewhat similar) Secondly, what about the transmission losses in these engines?

The biggest change is RE going the OHC way (INT and the Himalayan) as opposed to the Push Rod set up (UCE and CI) they had previously.

Got this image of RE Meteor. Sharing it over here.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CC5sTi0D...=1blvisv78e6z9

I love the large footboards, the bike seems to have been well thought-out for rider and passenger comfort. Quite excited about this bike, actually.

I hope they offer this plain-black as a color option without too much paint or bling on it. I am not a fan of RE's new color schemes and logo design, I think when you take those things away it actually looks better :). I may have to debadge and repaint a brand new one haha.

When every manufacturing company now have a flushed in fuel cap on the tank pad why is it soo difficult for RE to still continue with this design in all the variants on offer.Or is there some technical thing that i dont get:confused:

May be they want to retain the vintage or so called classic heritage by retaining such small things. Thankfully they have ditched their chrome treatments a bit recently, but i think that was to reduce the cost and not the other way.

Earlier this month, we had revealed the engine specifications of the upcoming Royal Enfield Meteor motorcycle. Now some more details of the bike have surfaced online.



A leaked images suggest that the Meteor will get a 15-litre fuel tank, a 41 mm telescopic front suspension with 130 mm travel and a 6-step adjustable twin spring rear suspension. The bike also gets disc brakes all-round with a 300 mm disc at the front and a 270 mm disc at the rear and a dual channel ABS.

Additionally, the Meteor gets 19-inch and 17-inch alloy wheels at the front and rear respectively. At the front, it gets a 100/90 section tyre while at the rear, it gets 140/70 section rubber.



The Royal Enfield Meteor 350 will be powered by a BS6–compliant 350cc engine that churns out 20.2 BHP and 27 Nm. The bike will be offered in three variants - Fireball, Stellar and Supernova. The bike will get a new twin-pod instrument cluster with a digital readout and Bluetooth connectivity. It has a turn-by-turn navigation feature and USB mobile charger.

Link to Team-BHP News Article


Source

Looks like they have been fitted with some of the official accessories, in the second image above. That sump-guard/bash-plate looks meaty, and so do the crash bars.

If they are going the OHC way with a new engine, then I wonder why they couldn't extract more power out of it. 20.2 bhp is not really a lot of gain over the older UCE. This was a chance to close the gap with Jawa, in terms of outright power.

They should've continued with the projector setup from the thunderbird, don't know how this single bulb setup will fare. Otherwise looks great. Also one area they downgraded is the fuel tank capacity, from 20 to 15, and as they have upgraded the rear tyre to a 140 section, the range would be significantly lower than the Thunderbird. Hope the new engine is more efficient.

I don't understand why they reduced the fuel tank capacity. That bike would not only be more functional with a bigger tank, but also look better with a bigger tank shell.

The reduction in the fuel capacity is surprising to me as well but Im guessing that Royal Enfield has done user feedback workshops and learnt that not all of it's users necessarily need the 20 liter fuel tank but instead are focused on a 500 + km range. Im just taking some example numbers for the sake of discussion since the low power output of the Meteor 350 points to a continued balance on mileage and power from the powertrain.

If we assume a 20 litre capacity and a mileage of 35 kmpl for the old bike, that would work out to a theoretical range of 20 * 35 = 700 kms. Now if the new Meteor gives a higher mileage of say 40 kmpl but with the fuel capacity of 15 liters, the range now becomes 600 kms which is still huge and should be more than enough for and this is my guess, over 98% of it's target audience. Yes we all want to be able to cover long distances on rides without wasting too much time for petrol breaks but what is the real distance we cover before we stop for a break, be it for petrol or mental or physical? It is usually 200 to 250 kms for someone like me. Nobody I know feels that a range of 550 - 600 kms before stopping for petrol is limiting their riding.

It's quite simple actually. I had push start my Versys 650 once due a dead battery. Just push it up an access ramp (basement parking), roll down the ramp at speed and put the bike in 4th gear and release the clutch. The bike started promptly and I could get the battery charged fully after a 15 km ride.

After all the deliberate leaks, RE is surely waiting for Honda to make the first move before they announce the pricing for meteor. Honda definitely pulled out a surprise out of thin air with a thumper(while RE is slowly drifting away from the classic thump due to stricter norms)

Really hoping for Honda to surprise us with sub 2L pricing (high hopes !!) and then RE will have to rework on their strategy to price the meteor lower. Hope it becomes a win win for the consumer :)

[quote=rajshenoy;4894337
Really hoping for Honda to surprise us with sub 2L pricing (high hopes !!) and then RE will have to rework on their strategy to price the meteor lower. Hope it becomes a win win for the consumer :)[/QUOTE]

Honda would not be in a position to match royal Enfield pricing. With the proposed Honda rebel model, the twins will look more VFM for the customer. Meteor in reality will kill the Thunderbird brand for sure. They will want to use the J platform to check the waters before they release it in the classic avatar since it's their bread and butter model.

Only possibility is leaving the 500cc market open. But the pricing of twins is good enough to urge people sitting on the fence to upgrade slightly to purchasing the twins.

On the long run I will be keen to see the royal Enfield kill the classic brand n build a new one.