[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

They have taken on the Honda head on with the pricing.

True. H'ness looks to be competition to the base variant of Meteor - whereas the top variant at 1.9 lakhs seem to offer so much more. At least to my eyes - looks to be a much more premium and charecterful motorcycle than the H'ness.

Reliability will be a question mark - but I'd be willing to give RE a chance, thanks to the proven quality of 650 twins.

[surjaonwheelz]

Originally Posted by surjaonwheelz

Apparently, media rides are happening this week and some journos have the Meteor with them. RE being RE, will have bikes reaching showrooms by the time it is launched!

Bikes and merchandise are available in showrooms along with test ride bikes from today itself.

Avoid the rush and plan on weekdays till then you can have fun configuring on the RE MIY mobile application.

A new launch is always exciting and boy RE did it in style. The showrooms have to step up the game now. The way RE has integrated the digitization platform to the bike buying process with unique customization is another industry first. Like we have our names on TBHP t-shirts, you can have your name sticker on the bike. Minor things but counts!

I feel RE has moved away from pricing at this stage. If a customer moves to another product due to pricing in this range of bikes, it surely shows that they doesn't know what he or she wants at the first place!

Thunderbird never set the sales chart on fire so I don't see record sales for Meteor too. But for me the most important part is the new engine! Let's see if it lives upto its expectations!

Sid says, "Keep riding!"

/surjaonwheelz

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Reliability will be a question mark - but I'd be willing to give RE a chance, thanks to the proven quality of 650 twins.

Agree the meteor looks much premium. Happened to see this video where she is in Matt Black and the finish looks really good. The Welds and subtle styling seem to have improved by RE standards.

The rear seat rest much better than the apology of the grab rail they have put up in the twins. Anyways hoping to get a ride soon this weekend, will post my feelers in the engine performance.

https://youtu.be/NdlGHfmgrN0

Looks like the video has been taken off.

Posting a new video instead.

https://youtu.be/NxIhUKEN5AY

[arjab]

Autocar india has put up a review as well:

Link: https://www.autocarindia.com/bike-reviews

Source: Autocar India website

[girishv]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

They have taken on the Honda head on with the pricing. Hopefully i get a chance to ride it for a long extended session.

Looks like they have come up with lot of accessories and the focus on MIY is quite evident.

Attachment 2076994

Loved the yellow colour bike displayed at the end of the doc with all the additional accessories. Thank you for sharing.

Hope some of these accessories can be fitted on highness. I am specifically interested in,
back-rest for the pillion rider
Fly screen/Touring Screen
Seat (for reducing height)

Waiting for somebody to try these on the highness.

[girishv]

Originally Posted by texmonster

What's the weight of Meteor? Even the specifications pdf doesn't mention it!

The autocar review says the weight is 6 kilo less than thunderbird. That should put the meteor weight at around 191 kg.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by arjab

Autocar india has put up a review as well:

Link: https://www.autocarindia.com/bike-reviews

Source: Autocar India website

"For those of you wondering, 0-100kph took 17.8sec and the top speed was an indicated 120kph. Both those figures are lower than its rivals from Benelli and Jawa, but a typical RE customer will tell you that flat-out performance is of no consequence to them. "

"What I was most keen to see was how much weight has been lost, and with a kerb weight of 191kg, the answer is 6kg. That’s not a lot, especially when you recall that the fuel capacity has reduced by five litres. RE tells us that weight wasn’t an issue for its customers and that this bike manages its weight better."

Cheers, Doc

[Balaji31582]

https://youtu.be/edL80AgD5gs

Kartikeya singee says
0 to 100 in 15.1 seconds,
30 to 70 in 6.7 seconds, in 3rd gear,
Cruising speed 90 to 105 (without buzz)

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by ebonho

"For those of you wondering, 0-100kph took 17.8sec

Zigwheels claims 15.1 and that it Is almost 9 seconds faster than the Classic 350 BS6.

They also have a chai cup test.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Zigwheels claims 15.1 and that it Is almost 9 seconds faster than the Classic 350 BS6.

They also have a chai cup test.

Attachment 2077021

When I read 120 kmph I was in the familiar warm cosy comfort blanket territory of Royal Enfield. (... and Zigwheels managed to crank it up to a top speed of 113.8 kmph)

Everything else after that ceases to matter.

191 kilos is still a whole lot heavier than what our old Bullet 500s weighed in at. At least they had 25 horses. And regardless of how wildly the needle used to sway post 120, depending on the right road, many of us pushed them past an indicated 130 kmph on a good day.

In another article I read today (while Googling for what a Bullet engine weighed) I discovered that the Himalayan has somehow managed to (get this, I kid you not) GAIN 17 kilos from its launch to its latest BS6 avatar!

We've heard of price creep by manufacturers.

Now our Madras boys have specialized in "weight creep."

And we all know how exciting and peppy the Himalayan engine was to start of with, in its original "lean" avatar ...

Now its tipping the scales at 199 kilos. I mean is this funny or is someone writing a script here?

Let me dig out that article which says that RE to take care of all that ailed the original Himalayan (broken bikes, split in two, broken forks, frames, triple T clamps, etc) did what "RE engineering" does best ... throw more metal into the mix. And hope things hold together.

P.S. Here its is ...

https://bikeadvice.in/re-himalayan-weight-increase/

Launch 182 kg
BS3 to BS4 transition 191 kg
Addition of ABS 194 kg
BS4 to BS6 transition 199 kg

"From 182 kg as its original launch kerb weight, Himalayan has gained, wait a minute… as many as 17 extra kilos in all these months! From this transition of extremely unreliable BS3 to BS4 Himalayan gained 9 kg (it weighed 191 kg), dual channel ABS added 3 more kilos to the motorcycle and the latest BS4 to BS6 transition has caused another 5 kg of increase (price and details of Himalayan ABS). It now tips the scale at 199 kg which, in every technical book, is called as ‘heavy’ for a machine of this engine displacement and size."

200 kilos is the weight territory of liter class Adv's. In a parallel universe.

And the Meteor here starts out at 191 kilos. With 4 horses less.

Cheers, Doc

[nisshith]

The customization options are really good in this motorcycle will surely help in sales. I just hope RE provides similar choices for 650 twins in future.

[aravind.anand]

Royal Enfield has got this right. They played it safe by waiting for Honda to show their cards with the H'ness CB350, and then priced the Meteor 350 bang on. Also, the Meteor with the new engine which is a huge improvement over the previous UCE 350 in terms of vibration could not have come in at a better time. If not, every other magazine and Auto portal would have compared them both and written Royal Enfield off.

As an existing Interceptor owner, I have had no niggles or troubles yet (touch wood / hug tree). So I wouldn't think any less of the all new powertrain in terms of reliability as well.

Also, I will leave this meme to echo the sentiments of my fellow Interceptor owners!

[tharian]

They got the exhaust note spot on.

I heard it in person and sounds bassy. From the looks of it, the design of the exhaust pipe and muffler is such that the exhaust note works out well.
Heard it take off on the road as well and it was quite prominent in the traffic noise.

Bike looks better than the pictures and most importantly, looks comfy to spend hours on. I didn't want to sit on the bike and see how good/bad it was since there were a good number of people doing that one after the other.

It looks much better than the Thunderbird too.

[Engine_Roars]

The bike looks good and I have a feeling RE has reduced the price from what they actually wanted for this bike because of Honda H'ness launch. The price will increase depending upon the response which I think should be good for this bike.

[hellraizer]

My friend took the delivery of his Interceptor today. I happen to checkout the Meteor. I am impressed. The exhaust note is spot on and so much better than the previous one. The riding position is spot on.
The CB350 may be a more refined bike, but the RE Meteor is so much more likeable and loveable. It’s so much more prettier. It can only be experienced.

I am planning to test ride this in a couple of days.

I feel like buying this for myself

PS: I own an Int-650 already