In August this year, Royal Enfield began equipping its full range of motorcycles with ABS in a phased manner. Its latest bike to get this much-needed safety feature is the Classic 350 Redditch. The inclusion of dual-channel ABS comes at a reasonable hike of roughly Rs 6000, which sees its cost rising from Rs 1,47,464 to Rs 1,52,900 (ex-showroom Delhi). The bike now costs Rs 1,74,400 on-road in Delhi.
The 350 Redditch is powered by the same 346cc, single-cylinder, air-cooled engine found in the rest of the Classic 350 range. Output figures, too, remain unchanged at 19.8hp at 5,250rpm and 28Nm of torque at 4,000rpm. The bike comes in three colors inspired by the models built during the 1950s at the Redditch factory in UK.
Royal Enfield has now equipped most of its portfolio with ABS with only the standard-colour variants of the 350 Classic and the Bullet series yet to receive the feature.
The addition of ABS on the Classic 350 (Signals, Redditch and Gunmetal Grey variants) helps it further rival the Jawa and the Forty-Two which were recently equipped with a rear disc brake and dual-channel ABS. The ABS-equipped Jawa has been priced at Rs 1.73 lakh, while the similarly-equipped Jawa Forty -Two has been pegged at Rs 1.64 lakh (all prices ex-showroom), which is a considerable premium over the ABS-equipped Classic 350s.
Ved Janve
Dinshaw Magol
