Call it pure coincidence if you’ll, however over the previous 12 months, each time Royal Enfield has despatched us a brand new long-term bike, I’ve had the possibility to go and choose it up. It was an identical story when the time got here to gather the brand-new Hunter 350. Needless to say, I used to be fairly enthusiastic about our new long-term bike. More so, as a result of the Hunter 350 is so uncharacteristically Royal Enfield.

Admittedly, I used to be slightly shocked to see how err… little this Royal Enfield seems to be, parked subsequent to their different bikes within the showroom. And, even after spending shut to 3 weeks with it, I’m nonetheless coming to phrases with the Hunter’s compact dimension. There are instances once I suppose it’s too small to be referred to as a Royal Enfield, after which there are occasions once I’m okay about it, contemplating the corporate needed to make a extra accessible Royal Enfield. That apart, I feel it seems to be actually good, particularly on this Ash Grey color. Although, it seemingly has a number of visible similarities to the Triumph Street Twin. 

As for the preliminary journey expertise, I discovered it to be fairly attention-grabbing. In the a number of workplace commutes, the mixture of a torquey engine and agile chassis translated into an easy journey. I’ve additionally begun to love its raspy exhaust be aware, bouncing off the constructing partitions within the concrete jungle I name house.

Then there’s its excellent manoeuvrability and tight turning radius, making gentle work of negotiating Mumbai’s horrendous site visitors. The solely drawback thus far, in the case of the journey, has been the stiff suspension set-up on the rear, particularly on Mumbai’s pothole-ridden roads. I bear in mind Rishaad flagging this as a possible problem, after using the bike in Thailand. But I’m going to have the remainder of the workforce take turns using the bike over such roads and see what they really feel concerning the Hunter’s journey high quality. A future report could have a extra conclusive opinion about the identical.

The different problem I’ve seen is that the left rear indicator has stopped working, which is shocking for a motorcycle with double figures on the odometer at the moment. 

Plans with the bike? Well, I’ve obtained a number of in thoughts. Apart from munching miles within the metropolis, there are a number of inter/intra state street journeys within the pipeline. On the aesthetic entrance, I’m itching to swap the rear fender and put the tail-tidy from the official Royal Enfield elements catalogue. In all, the upcoming months with the Hunter 350 wish to be fairly thrilling.