Royal Enfield Classic 350 long-term review like, dislike, ownership experience – Introduction

Sometimes, no matter how far you see an unpleasant situation coming, you can’t shake the bitterness and bitterness of it. I always knew I was going to have to part with my longtime Classic 350, and I didn’t have to spend too much time on the bike to realize it was going to be a tough ride.

Thanks to Royal Enfield’s good grace, the lovely little stroller stayed with us longer than expected, which turned out to be something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I’m grateful that we spent more time together. But it also meant that my connection to the motorcycle deepened, making it harder to say goodbye. And that’s despite the bike’s serious efforts to make it a little harder to love towards the end.

Smooth engines and lovely background music are great companions on long journeys.

In the last few months with us, the Classic has made its biggest journey ever – the 1,300km round trip to Goa, to attend India Cycling Week. In many ways, it’s excellent. The engine’s high tempo provides an excellent back-up as it winds through large stretches of highway with ease, and the excellent passenger seats offer the perfect balance between comfort and support. aid.

Seating of tours is more than work, even passing hundreds of kilometers on a stretch.

But Goa’s sleepy little lanes pierced the bike’s defence, quite literally. One rear tire punctured. Our surroundings couldn’t provide for a mechanic willing to take on the seemingly unconventional combination of spokes wheels, tube tires and rear disc brakes. That meant we had to remove the rear wheel ourselves (which, thankfully, you can’t do much more than a bike kit, RE’s YouTube tutorials, a bit of out-of-the-box thinking, and some grease). good fashion elbow). Installed new tube (old tube can’t be patched) and put back wheel, everything worked perfectly for the 600km ride back to Mumbai and everything since.

The combination of inner tubes and rear disc brakes makes repairing a puncture very difficult.

Our long-term classic and our long-term meteor both have sporadic sticking/stretching throttle issues. It seems to get worse over time, and during this Goa ride it got pretty severe on the Classic, with the bike often plunging for many meters with the throttle fully closed, almost as if it is in cruise control mode. Needless to say, this is a pretty big safety concern and we had the official service center take a look at the car as soon as we got back. It was returned after cleaning the throttle body and the behavior seems to have almost completely disappeared, to the point where it is no longer an issue. But we hope that RE can come up with a more permanent fix.

The gas jam problem got worse and became quite severe on a recent trip to Goa.

As always, running the Classic 350 for over a year has produced positives and negatives. And while it exposed some new flaws in the ending act, the old-world simplicity continues to be the cornerstone of the Classic. And that’s even though it has taken a significant leap towards modernity in the current generation, relatively speaking. The feeling of joy when holding a motorcycle, confident of successfully completing the task is a feeling that I have not felt for a long time, and it is also the last sweet taste that the Classic has left in my heart. my mouth when it went to meet its creator.