Why didn't they warn us about this?

Do motojournalists warn us about problems with motorcycles?

 Oh, sure, NOW they tell us. 

A year ago, or so, the critics praised the new Royal Enfield Hunter 350. Maybe it had a drawback or two, but you should BUY one now anyway, they seemed to conclude. 

And what do they say now? The recent YouTube review by AutoCar India welcomed improvements for 2025 models, improvements you might have wished you'd waited for. 

The video introduces itself this way: 

"The Hunter 350 has been a runaway success for Royal Enfield ever since it came out in 2022 but that's not to say it was a perfect machine. Recently, Royal Enfield updated the Hunter with changes that kept customer feedback in mind. So, are the Hunter’s drawbacks a thing of the past now? Dinshaw Magol has the answer." 

I could not find a 2022 review of the Hunter by Dinshaw Magol but, to be fair, his AutoCar colleague Rishaad Mody was honest about the Hunter in his 2023 comparison of it with the Triumph Speed 400.

"The rear dual shocks are too firm for this bike’s own good," he wrote. "The result is a stiff and jittery ride on anything but smooth and well-made roads."

Dinshaw Magol was happy to report the good news for 2025: Royal Enfield has replaced the linear rear shock absorbers with progressive units and "the effect they've had on ride quality is landmark," he announces.

You're no longer getting "tossed out of the seat" over road imperfections, he enthuses.

And -- this really is good news -- he states that it is possible to retrofit the progressive shocks to earlier Hunters. That's the kind of reporting readers appreciate.

Dinshaw goes on to report other improvements: lighter clutch action, handlebars closer to the rider, more foam in the seat, and slightly more ground clearance.

As for the new LED headlamp, it looks good, he allows, but, frankly the old halogen bulb was actually better.

Oh well.

What he really applauds is the fact that Royal Enfield was willing to listen to user feedback, and improve the Hunter as needed.

Motojournalists like Dinshaw and Rishaad deserve thanks for pointing out problems, where they exist. Watch the video.

Royal Enfield's Hunter 350 Metro Rebel

Royal Enfield's Hunter 350 is meant for the chaos of urban traffic.

 Royal Enfield introduced its new Hunter 350 motorcycle to the world with a video of Hunters cutting through thick traffic in Bangkok. It even added a speeded-up segment of that wild ride to its website. 

The video put the emphasis on the neon-lit  metro scene and the Hunter 350's great maneuverability (at least compared to other Royal Enfields). 

Adam Child of Motorcyclist was there and caught the vibe: 

"In Thailand’s seething capital of Bangkok, Enfield’s carefully selected location for its first test, the Hunter excelled. It was punchy enough to surge ahead of the traffic, chassis perfectly balanced at low speeds, a breeze to steer through the gridlocked cars and taxis," he wrote. 

Lighter than other Royal Enfield models, with smaller wheel size and steering geometry to add maneuverability, even the Hunter 350's fuel injection "has been tweaked for a sharper throttle response in urban riding," noted Mercedes Streeter in The Autopian.

And, yet, the Hunter 350 packs only 20.2 brake horse power. Reviewers are saying the Hunter 350 tops out at 71 mph, and "might" get to 75 downhill, with its rider tucked in.

The driver's foot pegs are set back (probably due to the low stance of the smaller wheels). Some reviewers have found that this can cause a passenger's toes to interfere with the driver's heels.

So the Hunter 350 is not the motorcycle you and your significant other will choose for a long cross-country cruise with full luggage. It's pure Metro Rebel.

"Can you believe that Royal Enfield is trying to sell our nation's youth the joy of urban motorcycling?" Maynard Hershon asked me in an email.

He shared a column he wrote about a year ago for Motorcycle Sport and Leisure magazine. Here's an excerpt:

"The buzz about urban bikes has never been louder. Everyone’s talking about, writing about and making YouTube videos about urban bikes, bikes with fewer horsepower than the 250cc Honda CB72 I bought 60 years ago. Is that remarkable? I think so.

"If you buy a 20-hp bike you are committing to urban riding. You’re buying a limited-performance motorcycle - for real motorcycle money. Real two- or three-year-old capable motorcycle money." 

He remembered when Americans bought small motorcycles to learn on. The underpowered motorcycles were light and unthreatening. But riders were expected to move up to "real" motorcycles.

"Why? So they could ride out past the madding crowd to the hinterland where the riding was good. So they could escape the mean streets of their cities and ride on the blissful, sparsely trafficked country roads that motorcyclists have favored for more than a century.

"Selling city riding as somehow edgy and glamorous is the idea of some guy whose boss makes 20-hp motorcycles. The boss needs to sell thousands of them to urban young people with jobs who’ll get caught up in the glow the marketing guy manufactures."

In actual fact, riding in the city is tedious, Maynard wrote. Worse, it's dangerous. 

"You ride in the city because you have to, not because it is joyful, cool or X-treme. You go there to make a living, not to enjoy riding. Riding in the city isn’t enjoyable. It’s a damn minefield."

He's not wrong. I know. I racked up a lot of miles commuting in the city on my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet, a motorcycle slower and less maneuverable than any current Royal Enfield.

Incredibly, I paid as much in 2001 for that Bullet as a vastly more capable, brand new Hunter 350 would cost me today. If I had a job to go to today I would be in line for a Hunter 350.

Royal Enfield Hunter 350 now in U.S.

The Royal Enfield Hunter 350 is here at last.

 Royal Enfield introduced its new Hunter 350 to the U.S. April 20 with a slow-paced, composed video shot in San Diego, Calif. No wheelies, no carving through city traffic, no ripping through tunnels, no show-off stuff in this video. 

No nonsense. I like it. 

Finally here in the U.S. (after experiencing huge popularity around the world) the Royal Enfield Hunter 350 promises to win American hearts as a comfortable, accessible, low cost, urban commuter. 

"Agility without Fragility," the website promises. 

Being a Royal Enfield 350, the Hunter naturally offers vintage appeal, clearly being a motorcycle you sit on and ride instead of tucking into a rocket pod or stretching out as though it's a lounge chair. 

I think it's going to be a winner in the U.S. because I've seen this before: the Hunter 350 will remind U.S. riders of the simple, dependable, no-frills Japanese motorcycles that were hugely popular here 50 years ago. 

That was back before every new motorcycle seemed to promise you could act like a racer or a hooligan.

Simple motorcycles taught you to ride, took you to school, to a job, out for a ride in the country on the weekend. You were looking to go places, no frills, few thrills and, most importantly, for pennies.

Old folks like me will recognize the vibe. Riders too young to remember the 1970s will instinctively "get it."

I'm not the only one who thinks so.

"The Royal Enfield Hunter 350 is an unabashed standard motorcycle that if it weren’t of Indian descent, I would compare to the Universal Japanese Motorcycles of the past," writes Evans Brasfield of Motorcycle.com

"The design is one of functional utility. That’s not to imply that the Harris Performance-designed twin down tube spine frame doesn’t support nice-looking bodywork. It does, and that is part of the Hunter’s appeal."

The Royal Enfield North America website refers only to "Metro Hunters," cluing you that the U.S. gets only the "Metro" version, not get the less expensive "Retro Hunters" model also available in India.

Colors are Dapper White, Dapper Ash, Dapper Grey, Rebel Black, Rebel Blue and Rebel Red. None shows off shiny chrome. Dapper White is the innovative one, incorporating the word "RIDE" into the tank.

Royal Enfield Hunter 350 in Dapper White. R!DE.

Power comes from the long-stroke 350cc J-Engine familiar in Royal Enfield's Classic 350 and Meteor 350. The website claims the motor gives "the right amount of power and precision for revving up the city streets." There is no claim to doing more than just keeping up on the Interstate.

"For the massive multi-lane freeways of San Diego, it can leave a rider feeling a tad vulnerable when most of the flow of traffic is doing above 75 mph," writes Jen Dunstan of RevZilla. "Out on the backcountry portion of our route, the little Hunter huffed and puffed its way up the hills, feeling to me like it was exhausted from the effort."

Features touted by Royal Enfield include a "Digi-Analog Instrument Cluster." 

"A shoutout to the analogue era but perfectly in sync for modern day riding, the Hunter features a retro-style speedometer along with digital LCD."

There are alloy wheels with tubeless tires making it "the only Royal Enfield in production to feature super maneuverable 17-inch front and rear tires and striking cast alloy wheels. The tubeless tires let you ride uninterrupted for as long as you want minus the puncture paranoia."

Likely to go unnoticed are the "Analog Switch Cubes" that make hitting the starter a matter of rotating a "retro-inspired" knob rather than pushing a button. Not quite as retro as a kick start lever would have been, but those days are gone.

Dual channel ABS with front and rear disc brakes is more likely to be appreciated and low seat height is even more likely to be noticed.

And there is a USB port.

I'm glad to see the USB port, but even happier to seen the center stand on pictured Hunter 350s. That simple, practical device will make the Hunter 350 easier to live with; like the simple, practical bikes we loved 50 years ago.

In fact, I am just nostalgic enough to wish the U.S. could get the "Retro Hunter" version from India, with wire spoke wheels, rear drum brake and tubular rear grab bar. 

Hunter 350 reminds U.S. of first love

The new Royal Enfield Hunter 350 looks like a standard motorcycle. 

 What will U.S. buyers see that's special in the coming Royal Enfield Hunter 350? 

After all, if they want a Royal Enfield 350, the Classic 350 is a better reminder of vintage Brit-style motorcycles, and the Meteor 350 is closer to the cruiser-style seating Americans seem to prefer. 

With its smaller wheels and tidier chassis the Hunter 350 is being called the best Royal Enfield for urban commuting. 

But Americans largely do not commute on two wheels. 

Look: America is not Florida alone. Commuting north of the 26th Parallel calls for a car at least half of the year. 

So why will Americans hop to buy the Royal Enfield Hunter 350 (besides its likely attractive low cost)? 

I think a recent review of the Hunter 350 gives the answer. 

Americans will buy the Hunter 350 by the ship load because it will remind them of a variety of motorcycles they loved as youngsters: Universal Japanese Motorcycles. (Or UJM, not usually said as praise.) 

Heresy? Not at all. 

"One thing Royal Enfield does very well on the Hunter 350 is to capture the classic design elements established way back in the '60s and '70s," wrote T.J. Hinton in TopSpeed.

"This is the classic standard build, and it also falls under the UJM umbrella as well, which just adds to its old-school chops." 

All those cherished memories of British motorcycles of the 1960s, so thoroughly mined in Royal Enfield advertisements? That was one decade. And the numbers of British motorcycles sold in the U.S. were never huge.

In contrast, Americans for decades bought enormous numbers of Universal Japanese Motorcycles that started, arguably, as copies of British motorcycles. Sometimes they were even license built copies, but more often they were just similar in character to the  relatively inexpensive, reliable, naked motorcycles British motorcycles once had been.

The difference was that a Japanese motorcycle had electric start, you could leave it out in the rain and the Japanese motorcycle companies did not go out of business.

A quick story: years ago, bicycling with my wife in the Florida Keys, I came upon a motorcycle lying on its side in a heap of garbage left out for bulk trash pick-up.

A hole in the crankcase attested to its fate. No branding remained to identify the make, and I did not recognize it. It had the legally required side marker reflectors, meaning it was not an ancient motorcycle.

But it was a naked motorcycle, with wire wheels and single-cylinder motor that reminded me a bit of my own Royal Enfield Bullet.

What really got me, though, was the center stand. This otherwise unadorned little motorcycle, so unloved it was tossed in the garbage, had a rare feature distinctly reminiscent of vintage British motorcycles.

Those Japanese motorcycles that took over the American market from the British in the 1970s were a lot like the Royal Enfield Hunter 350.

Agile, unadorned and affordable.

We strapped milk crates to the backs of the bikes and headed to college, or work. Took them off road. Beat them up. Never washed them. Had fun. Loved them. It will be nice to have them back.

Royal Enfield Hunter 350 combines retro style with appeal to youth

Royal Enfield in a nutshell: Young woman with a film camera.  

 Royal Enfield introduced its new Hunter 350 last month with a launch video shot on London streets, and meant to simultaneously showcase the heritage and youthful appeal of the new model. 

How'd they do that? 

The Hunter 350 is a simplified version of Royal Enfield's Meteor 350 and Classic 350, the brand's new single-cylinder offerings that are themselves simple, approachable, retro-style motorcycles. 

The Hunter 350 could end up being Royal Enfield's least costly model in the range, so young people are obvious targets. Royal Enfield Americas confirms that the Hunter 350 IS coming to the U.S.

But that retro thing. Where's the youthful appeal in that? 

Royal Enfield's new Hunter 350, a retro appeal to young riders.

In an interview with Little Black Book online, FAMILIA director Adriaan Louw describes how he tried to capture that ingredient by showing authentic moments, in a documentary style. He saw retro appeal as an advantage, not a problem. 

"I loved the challenge of getting a new generation of riders into motorcycling," he is quoted as saying in the interview.

"Using Royal Enfield's heritage in the UK struck me as a smart way to do this, and with brick lanes, deep history with Indian culture, it felt like a perfect marriage."

The result was a cast that behaves like friends getting together for a ride, rather than racers assembling for a grudge match. There is a little tire spinning, but no stunts. Theme music composed by Richard Hawley, is upbeat, not pulsating.

"A lot of marketing aimed at this generation is cool and edgy but can often come across as uninviting. So with this spot I wanted to convey that the community welcomes people with open arms," Louw said.

As for retro style, the spot opens with a young woman photographer loading a 35mm film camera. (The back-story documentary shows her seeing how to do this.)

Here's the launch video:

The commercial was shot on 16mm film and in only two days, without closing London streets. When the sun moved, the production took advantage of it. Certainly a very retro procedure.

Energy with authenticity, the article claims. Will it sell motorcycles? Ask somebody young, not me. But I enjoyed it.

And here is the backstory documentary: