Does the Royal Enfield Bullet qualify as a cruiser motorcycle?

I am sure a certain type of bike, or even car, is likely to have an effect on ride and handling characteristics. But in the end it is just about your personal enjoyment. Not about the technical label.

BHPian royalan3921 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Contrary to popular make believe, the Bullet is not classified as a cruiser at least for me.

Keep in mind I accept both the Meteor 350 and its newer 650 counterpart as cruisers. But, I think the Bullet and the Classic are both standard bikes, or modern classics.

I just want to know what everybody feels about this topic.

Here's what BHPian masterchief007 had to say on the matter:

Hi Alan, I was not aware if anybody called the bullet a cruiser, I have a bullet standard 350 (cast iron), a.k.a bullet. The name itself has standard in it. Btw cruiser or not it is a highway capable bike which can also do offroad if you push it (needs a bit work though). Personally I don't like the cruiser design, neither do I like the fully committed posture of sports bikes (reason is I like to saddle the rough patches/speed bumps). So standard/street/adv tourer bikes are more to my taste.

Here's what BHPian aargee had to say on the matter:

If you promise me not to ask the differences between Enduro, Dualsport, Trail & Cross {because, even I don't know }, then the below should give you a fair idea

Here's what BHPian Jeroen had to say on the matter:

Having owned only one motorbike in my entire life, I have no idea what the difference is between all these types of motorbikes. Or more importantly, how they affect riding them.

I did own a classic fully restored 1973 Royal Enfield Bullet 350 for four years and I drove about 15000 km all over India. I am quite tall at 1,93m. But I always felt very comfortable on it even during long rides. Not sure if my drives qualify as cruising, but it sure felt that way.

I am sure a certain type of bike, or even car, is likely to have an effect on ride and handling characteristics. But in the end it is just about your personal enjoyment. Not about the technical label.

I have a 4x4. Never take it off-road. Love it to bits!

Here's what BHPian navin_v8 had to say on the matter:

Ah! The Bullet and so many different perspectives attached to it. In essence the Bullet design is from the 1950's or even before that. It is a Standard Street motorcycle in its stock form. Also remember back in the 50's the roads weren't as smooth and did not have a wide network as it is today. Due to its hardy build, durable suspension and simple mechanicals it was/is able to tread off the roads as well. Was it built/designed for off roads? I don't know. Those days the options were fairly limited so a Standard motorcycle was expected to race, commute, off-road, cruise, commercially transport milk, etc.

In the modern world there are purpose built/defined motorcycles (then again one can argue that people define the purpose). We have cruisers/power cruisers, ADV's, Tourers/Sport Tourers, Enduro, Dirtbike, dual sport, streetfighter, sports bike, sports naked... and the list goes on. Gone are the days when one used to shoehorn/modify their motorcycles to make it look like a cruiser, tourer, ADV, etc.

IMO a cruiser is a laid back motorcycle with a big capacity unstressed (lazy) torquey engine (not necessarily more BHP) having plush suspension with forward set/mid set foot pegs coupled with comfortable handlebars, fairly low slung big seat and a dash of chrome.

There's plenty of reference material on the internet about these different class of motorcycles and it is a good read.

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