Hunter 350 seems to be inspired by the Triumph Street Twin premium cruiser motorcycle in its design
Royal Enfield has had astounding success in India and the world recently – when it comes to 350cc to 650cc motorcycle segment. Their new-gen motorcycles like the Meteor are one of the turning points towards its success. Royal Enfield has also been lauded globally for its 650cc parallel-twin platform which offers incredible value.
Royal Enfield has experimented with various products and categories. Launching a good product at a reasonable price seems to be the mantra. It worked wonders with 650 twins which are now very popular in India as well as in Europe and North America. Royal Enfield is expected to stick with the same strategy with upcoming Hunter 350.
Royal Enfield Hunter 350 Accessories Spied
Unlike other Royal Enfield motorcycles which have a sense of size and proportions about them, Hunter 350 will be lean and athletic. Hunter 350 will be less bulky as seen in the latest spy shots. This might also be the lightest motorcycle from Royal Enfield and also most street-friendly.
In these new Royal Enfield Hunter 350 spy shots, you can see the motorcycle is near-production ready. It is seen wearing interesting accessories. The one here seems to be wearing the touring pack, that includes a windscreen, pillion backrest and panniers.
Even though the motorcycle has lost some mass, it hasn’t lost its retro and classic charm. It gets round headlights, round mirrors, round instrumentation and the classic, but lean fuel tank. The company is expected to launch the Hunter 350 in different styles as some spy shots of the Hunter 350 are with spoke wheels and some with alloy wheels. It also gets a single-piece seat and the ergonomics of Hunter 350 are expected to be quite upright.
The suspension on the front will be a telescopic unit. At the rear, it will get twin shocks. We can expect Royal Enfield to provide dual-channel ABS as standard along with the same braking hardware from the Meteor 350.
Royal Enfield Hunter 350 launch – 7th Aug
Hunter 350 will be a entry-level motorcycle by Royal Enfield. It is likely to under-cut their current cheapest motorcycle, the Bullet 350. With the Hunter 350, Royal Enfield will target the Indian masses looking for a reasonably priced modern scrambler with decent performance on tap. Hunter 350 will get the same engine as Meteor 350 and the state of tune is not yet revealed by the company. It will be mated to the same 5-speed gearbox found on Meteor 350.
Royal Enfield is gearing up for a slew of motorcycle launches. A lot of Royal Enfield motorcycles have been spied including different variants of the Hunter 350, Himalayan 450, Himalayan 450 scrambler, new-gen Bullet 350 and Shotgun 650 to name a few.
Of all these new launches, Hunter 350 is expected to be the least expensive and to act as an entry-level motorcycle into Royal Enfield’s portal. Given Royal Enfield’s pricing strategy, we expect it to be priced from around Rs. 1.5 lakh (ex-sh). In a market where a premium 125 cc street motorcycle costs Rs. 1.70 lakh (ex-sh), a cruiser motorcycle priced at Rs. 1.5 lakh, with a potent 350 cc engine is not a bad choice.
In India, the 350 cc market has been dominated by Royal Enfield. But as brands like Honda and Jawa launch competitive products in this segment, Hunter 350 will make sure that Royal Enfield will retain its over 90% market share in 350 cc segment for a long time. TVS is also getting ready to launch a scrambler cruiser in the Rs 1.5 lakh range. It is likely to be be called Zeppelin, Retron or Ronin.
