The Royal Enfield Hunter 350 has become a runaway success, and is now the second best-selling model in company’s lineup, after the evergreen Classic 350. Now, we have laid our eyes on an updated Hunter 350, one which aims to address the big complaint we have with it – the stiff ride quality.
- New rear shocks use progressive springs
- LED headlight same as all other models
- Apart from shocks and LED headlight, bike appears the same
Royal Enfield Hunter 350: Will this updaet make it more comfortable?
The main issue we have with the Hunter 350 is its stiff ride over road imperfections, which are abundant in India. Royal Enfield seems to be listening because the rear shock absorbers on this Hunter seem to be new units. The current bike uses linear springs while this test mule is using progressive springs.
While a change in the type of spring used does not necessarily equate to a better, more absorbent ride, it is unlikely that Royal Enfield would go to all this trouble without some amount of improvement. The current Hunter 350 has 102mm of travel at the rear and a very approachable 790mm seat height, coupled with a manageable 181kg kerb weight. With the move to these new springs at the rear, it remains to be seen if the travel and seat height see any change.
Aside from the shocks, the bigger visual difference stems from the presence of the same LED headlight that nearly the entire Royal Enfield lineup is now equipped with. Aside from the Bullet 350 and the Hunter 350, every bike now in a Royal Enfield showroom uses this same LED headlight and it seems the Hunter will follow suit, at least on the top variants.
Aside from that, the Hunter 350 test mule appears to be near-identical to the existing model and we don’t expect any major changes to its fundamentals. To refresh your memory, the Hunter is powered by a 349cc, air-cooled, single-cylinder engine making 20.2hp and 27Nm of torque, with a 5-speed gearbox. The mileage we got in our tests was 30.6kpl (city) and 39.8kpl (highway).
Prices for the Hunter start at Rs 1.50 lakh for the base Factory Black colour, which runs on wire-spoke wheels shod with thinner tyres; it also uses a rear drum brake. The Metro variants of the Hunter will cost you either Rs 1.70 lakh or Rs 1.75 lakh, depending on the colour you pick.
All prices ex-showroom, Chennai
Rishaad Mody
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
