BARGAIN HUNTER
New £3749 Meteor 350 vs 500 Rebel & Imperiale 400
oyal Enfield are a company on a roll and the secret to the firm’s success is down to building bikes that while low on price, hit the mark in terms of the ride quality and fun factor. Unassuming but cool machines such as the
RHimalayan, Interceptor and Continental GT have really struck a chord with the buying public, providing the company with a rapidly-expanding new source of fans. And the latest addition is the Meteor 350.
Designed in the UK but built in India and costing less than £4000, this little single-cylinder retro
cruiser seems, on paper, destined to be another sure-fire success story. That said, it faces tough competition from another multinational company – Benelli.
With an R&D department in Italy but parent company Qianjiang building the bikes in China, Benelli have matched the Meteor in terms of price while also adding a bit of extra Italian retro flair. And finally we have Honda’s pricey, yet bestselling, Rebel.
Designed in America to appeal to the ‘generation Z cruiser market’, the Rebel is built in Thailand to ensure its price is kept close to the (cheap for a Japanese bike) £6000 mark. Will the pricier parallel twin Rebel do enough to justify spending a stack of extra cash when compared to the more basic singles? Time for the MCN250 to tell us. With the summer sun making an appearance, it is a joy to crack out the leather jacket and riding jeans for an MCN250. A hot day and three cool bikes to ride is a tempting prospect and, on the face of it, not being in a rush is a blessing as we are undeniably limited on power. “This could be a long day,” comments fellow tester Paul Berryman as we inspect the bikes. With both the Benelli and Enfield producing just 20bhp he has a point and there is certainly more eagerness to secure the 46bhp Rebel’s key for the initial section of the route. Being in charge I pull rank and set off on the Honda – which I quite quickly discover was an error.
I don’t remember the parallel twin being so vibey, especially at higher revs, and on a stretch of dual carriageway my fingers are numb and I can’t see out of the mirrors. But after a few more miles this is the least of my issues.
The Rebel’s old-school cruiser riding position puts a lot of pressure on your tail bone, which is