The Royal Enfield Classic 350 | Special Enough to Change Your Life
In 2020 a bike came out that was in my mind so perfect i called it when i got to test it a few months ago the best bike i've ever ridden when you take everything into account because it had the magical mix of just enough performance for the real world a superb superb price point character looks style and feel good factor everything rolled in to one perfect package and that was the royal enfield meteor but what if i want to spend a little bit more money and have a little bit more style a few more shiny things and a little more head turning ability that's where this comes in the royal enfield classic 350. it is 4400 pounds it's 195 kilos it's a single cylinder it is 20 horsepower and it gets acclaimed well i tested actually better than claimed it gets a tested mpg of 78 that's 78 miles per gallon i've been testing it now for the past week from the very kind people at k moto in vilnius lithuania and let's give you a full front to back walk down because let me be completely honest i've been wanting to test this bike out for i think around about six to eight months ever since it came out after testing that meteor and hearing that the classic 350 was coming i thought very possibly this may be my favorite ever bike i have been unspeakably excited about this so the day has finally come for me to do a proper test review i've tested lots of situations so let's do it front to back and before we do let's start with the looks because it is bite the back of your hand stop in the middle of the street and collapse good looking it looks so good everything about it the proportions the detailing everywhere first things first this is what you would call relative to other motorbikes a fairly budget level bike at least price bracket-wise but don't let the price fool you because royal enfield have come on so so far with regards to quality this is a breathtakingly good quality bike i can't find any area on it that's not of the highest highest standard it is a stunningly well-built bike and it's as good as anything else out there on the market front to back finally beautiful spoked wheels with i love that that's the sound i want here metal front fender lovely spoke wheels single disc with a from a company i have no idea about but it's all that you need great looking chrome indicators with this little cap there is a specific name for that but i can't remember lovely little cap on the circular headlamp i'll just do a quick sit on just to give you an idea on my size before i forget about it because i'm six foot one and about 80 kilos and that's the bend in my leg and this is how i look size wise it is as close to perfect as you could ever possibly want the position to my hands there's there's no weight at all on there the bend in my legs when i'm changing or when i'm breaking and changing down the left-hand side it's all completely perfect it feels like a bike i could sit in all day in absolute comfort it's the most beautiful ergonomic position i've i've ever experienced and the seat that is one of the most comfortable seats that i've ever felt it's like an extremely comfortable sofa that you'd have in your living room with i mean look at that for a pillion seat that's a proper billion see none of these ridiculous ones are about that short that is designed for all day pill and comfort have a look here monica if i get you to just come into this bit this is what i will see it's completely simple if you go for the satin option that'll be integrated into there turn on the ignition very simple you get a fuel gauge at the top and a couple of trips milometer odometer and that's it nothing else at all but look at the quality of the chrome and the finish everywhere starter switch there that's how royal enfields do them on this and the meter all very nice the switch gear all of good quality lovely chrome mirrors it's got i'll just get you to zoom back out a bit monica single-sided pea shooter exhaust there with let me get the key out because i don't think i've seen this on a bike yet before i get to that lovely chrome inserts on the engine beautiful finned single cylinder engine with metal metal exhaust this is not metal exhaust metal rear mudguard this isn't a light bike at 195 kilos it's probably cast as heavy actually but it's reassuringly heavy because it's made almost completely out of metal apart from the side the side panels here and just the second i picked up this bike everything's made for ease of use for the rider it's also is you've got your two tool roll in there everything else that you may need to check on but it's all be made so beautifully and the fact that you just simply open it with a key don't need to carry a screwdriver around like i do with a bonneville to undo it it's just ease of use brilliant it's got a center stand there so you can work on it yourself without any issue at all it's got a lovely rear light cluster there everything about it just absolutely beautiful while i'm busy testing out the royal enfields in lithuania my bonneville's at home and i can make sure that i've got up-to-date tracking ideas of exactly where it is with my sizzat device there's actually been a recent story about two quad bikes that were stolen from latvia and driven on a trailer across the border to lithuania but because the owner of the two quad bikes had sizz-out devices on both of them he was able to get in touch with the lithuanian police track exactly where both of the quad bikes are and both of them were recovered so you've got completely up-to-date tracking of exactly where your vehicle is you can go onto the app always check where it is and of course if you figure out or find out that it's been stolen you can get in touch with the authorities and sit up also have a new business solution whereby if you've got a fleet of motorbikes or cars or vans you can track them all on the website see exactly where every single vehicle within your fleet is see the routes they've done and keep up to date with the maintenance schedules of of all of your vehicles so if you are in the market for a tracking device whether you're an individual or a business go and check out sizzap i've been using them for i think about a year now and i'm extremely happy with it it's always on my bonneville so highly recommended i was driving down the coastline i was just hoping it would make me was some kind of contemplation and i was checking every road well here we are in the beautiful lithuanian countryside and before i chat about what this bike's like to ride there were four things that i wanted to quickly discuss that i almost forgot number one there is as standard a usb attachment very very cleverly placed i'll just turn it there monica you probably would never have noticed that right there so you can see my phone usb quad lock attachment and that is a standard usb i'll just pull that out so you can see it how good is that just with a little latch there brilliant so usb comes as standard and something almost forgot the exhaust note before i turn it on this is one of the best sounding standard exhausts i've ever heard it is beautiful at at all speeds everything from from stand still that beautiful single throaty bubble and then when you get up to about 25 miles an hour and just give it a little bit of throttle nothing too much just some subtle throttle it's just just beautiful beautiful sound so full of character and just a lovely lovely throaty bubble exactly how a single should sound so get ready for this and it's a standard exhaust on tick over and with a few revs oh it's perfect i really hope that comes out on the microphone because that is as good as it gets for character pillion comfort tried and tested by monica i hope you heard that are you micked up no i'll just say in case monica isn't my tap 10 out of 10. she rates this as highly as any other motorbike she's ever been on as a pillion and i i see why it's just this better than some cruisers would you say you know like there's been some harleys you've tried that that haven't been quite as good as this aren't there yes as good as or maybe a bit better yeah it's as good as i mean it's i can feel that 100 the softness of the seat the bend in your legs as well it's one of the most natural feeling with two grab bars one of the most natural feeling pillion seats that i've yeah and on the back as well that's really really nice that's just about as good as it gets and for relatively speaking such a small bike superb one other thing i wanted to get to so i'll just plug my my usb back in okay practicality again something i noticed when riding around vilnius cut that moniker the one of the best turning circles i've ever experienced i will demonstrate you can turn i don't know if it showed up in the video but you can turn it at such a big angle that is a really really good turning circle one more thing i'll do i'll get straight on with you monica lean angle and general weight of the bike boy okay let me be honest you can feel that's a big oh you can feel that's a big big chunk of metal i don't want to lie to you and pretend it's light but it disguises it very well it may be heavy just as you're lifting it up but as soon as you get moving the steering the handling is very very light and responsive it's a well situated weight so it's beautiful when going left to right and just giving it a little bit on the twists and turns the brakes absolutely perfect the the exhaust as i said beautiful sound the power just as i get my breath back monica may just quickly speed this bit up this is what people will be asking 20 horsepower what are the limitations and i know this is what 90 percent of people really really want to know so the limitations everything well let me just explain the engine first it is it's a work of art and a revelation not specifically in the way it looks but the way it sounds where it delivers the power and the way it has completely changed the perception of what a single is in my mind because you should not mistake this for some some chinese some chinese singles which just never feel too strong they always feel too vibey through your feet and just you don't get that reassuring solidness and strength coming through it but this this is on a whole different planet to any other single engine that i've tried and that includes single engines that are bigger than this the 400 cc plus this is completely different don't discount this because it's a single cylinder this is exactly the blueprint of how single cylinders should be it feels strong it feels powerful it never feels over stressed you're never ringing it to get the most amount of power it feels borderline lazy but in a really nice way it never struggles it never panics it is a a revelation this engine it's completely changed my opinion on what singles should be i can't say enough good things about it but that power limitation of 20 horsepower if i'm by myself it is up to 70 miles an hour in the motorway no issue at all in reality it won't do much more than about 70 to 73 miles an hour it pulls extremely well up to 60 then 60 to 70 it will pull fine but not at the same speed as getting up to 60 but you can sit at 70 miles an hour the national speed limit on the motorway with no issue at all there are no unpleasant vibes it doesn't feel like it's struggling at all it's perfectly pleasant and with two people on the bike with monica no issue at all getting up to 60 miles an hour and it's fairly rare unless you're going touring that you're going to be doing much more than that most of the time for most people two up you're going to be doing coffee shop runs and stuff and if you're going anything up to 50 miles an hour so with two people it never struggles anywhere you almost forget that there's someone on the back so the riding experience everything about it it is it's first class it really don't you is know that i forgot what i was leaving i couldn't even tell you what road i was on or if i was only dreaming this single cylinder engine is unlike anything else i've tested at a similar cc capacity because often when i test out a bike of around about this level of cc whether it's between two and 400 cc for example and it's a single i am almost always not a fan of that single cylinder engine and i find myself thinking oh it's it's a good bike but the engine maybe slightly lets it down this engine is so good this single cylinder i don't know i don't know what kind of witchcraft well enfield have done but this single cylinder is so good that it's actually a selling point for this bike i would buy this bike because the engine is so good it's it's superb okay let me get on to the next bit now which is the classic 350 versus the meteor the meteor is 600 pounds cheaper it's about four kilograms lighter it's even slightly more economical and the seat height is lower so everything on paper tells you that the meteor is a better bike the only reason you would buy this over the media is because you prefer the looks it's purely based on looks nothing else tangible at all and would i part with 600 pounds extra for a bike that at least on paper isn't quite as good and after riding this now for a week and after having tested out the media a few months ago i can say categorically without even having to give it a second's thought absolutely yes i would pay the extra money for this it's the feeling that it gives you every time you add it it's like riding the media but you feel even more special i mean just coming to the coffee shop now just just parking it behind me just looking at it just looking at downstairs from from our apartment everything about it it makes you feel amazing yes you have to pay a premium for those looks but my god they're so worth it i don't know if there's another bike on the market that offers this amount of charm and character royal emp would have taken the classic 500 and they've made it more reliable and they've made it better yet all of the things that we love about that bike all of the charm and the character and the soul all of those things somehow remain completely undiminished in a thoroughly modern package it really is an incredible thing that they've done look the only thing the only thing with the classic 350 that you have to get your head around and you have to come to terms with is the fact that 71 72 miles an hour is the maximum and that is the only downside i can find but if you look at the bigger picture look at all of the positives that it offers the price point the quality the soul you just have to get over the fact that it won't go above 71.72 miles an hour
but there are so many other positive things with this bike you can judge enjoyment with regards to a motorbike as the adrenaline rush that doing a wheelie or getting your knee down gives you or you can look at it from a far far purer point of view the simple pleasure of going to a local coffee shop doing the the week food shop just poodling around town going on b roads at 40 50 miles an hour this bike turns every single journey into a genuine adventure it makes every journey the highlight of your day and more importantly and i really do mean this deep deep down this spike really and truly it makes you happy to be alive and i'll end it on that note i absolutely love it thank you so much everyone for watching please do give the video a like subscribe to the channel and let me know your thoughts on this bike and would you go for this or save 600 pounds and pick the media thanks so much everyone see you in the next one you
2022-07-24 03:48
