Royal Enfield Hunter 350
I ride the Royal Enfield Hunter 350 down to India Bike Week 2022 to see if it's a good bike to tour on
As soon as you cover some ground, the Hunter 350’s short ride oriented intentions become very apparent
THE ROYAL ENFIELD HUNTER 350 IS a bike that has impressed everyone in the office. So much so that chief videographer Sachin Khot called dibs as soon as he saw the bike in Thailand during the first ride event. The last report you read was Sachin’s time with the Hunter 350 in the city. Most of which was for getting his wedding preparations done. Then Sachin was off to tie the knot and I flicked the keys to the Hunter 350 from him and started having a bit of fun with it myself. The bike is a real change of pace from what I’ve gotten accustomed to with Royal Enfield over the last few years. So much so that I wanted to know if this agile, sporty and youthful Enfield has the quintessential thumper characteristic to be able to munch miles in comfort. To test this, we decided to ride it down to the 2022 iteration of the India Bike Week festival which after a hiatus courtesy Covid was finally back in Goa. To add some perspective we also brought along the TVS Ronin, its only competitor and did a comparison test which you should see in the next issue of evo India. Now as soon as you cover some ground, the Hunter 350’s short ride oriented intentions become very apparent. The seat is not really the most comfortable for long days in the saddle. You begin to settle into it fairly quickly and your bum starts to become sore. This is further amplified by the stiff suspension setup and the far-from-perfect roads between Goa and Pune. Thankfully, the rider’s triangle is pretty conducive to standing up and stretching, which alleviates some of the soreness. But this same stiff setup really comes into its own on Amboli ghat. The bike is nimble, agile and handled the twisties rather well, putting a nice wide grin on my face. As far as cruising on the highway, apart from my sore rear quarters the only real complaint I had was the mirrors that were vibrating at cruising speeds. The rest of
the bike was rather refined and stress free. I could sit at 100kmph all day long and have a bit more left in store for a quick overtake. All this while getting roughly 33kmpl. So this definitely wasn’t the ideal bike for the trip to Goa and back but the bike definitely gave me the thrills of pure, unadulterated motoring and isn’t that what Royal Enfields are all about? ⌧ Karan Ramgopal (@karanramgopal)