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Is it just a fling or back to an old love.
A Bike with beautiful flowing lines
And the gentle growl of a beast
A strong heart for a long run And supportive dependable friends .
Yes my Meteor 350 looked the perfect baby on delivery. November 2021.
The short list
My son , wife were part of the short list discussions. I had never ridden a bike in the 50 + years of my life and only because of my son’s insistence of buying a bike, I started looking around for one. Initially went to KTM to see 390 ADV. Found it a little intimidating with the high seat height and was not sure whether to pay the premium price for the bike. Did not connect to the dukes but liked the Husqvarna Svartpilen . Was not sure about the ground clearance and 250 cc and wanted the 401 but for some strange reason Bajaj has kept it out. The Honda 350 was ruled out because of limited Honda wing service centres and was still new. Moving to Royal Enfield , My son wanted the Himalayan , I felt a little uncomfortable because of the tube tyres and wanted tubeless for safety and highway driving. (Scram wasn’t launched then) The interceptor felt broad in size for a bike and the classic looked dated so settled for the meteor.
The ride preparation & delivery experience:
Selected the DIY at the showroom and booked the base version with black silencer flat end . But the salesperson messed up the booking with a different configuration and I was surprised to see the different configuration in my email. It is tough to change a DIY booking as it cannot be changed and dealer agreed to change it when the bike arrives at shop as he would have those parts in shop. Few months later RE launched the new classic and I was wondering whether I should change my booking, but the only option was to cancel it and because it was DIY I would lose the booking amount or needed to sell the meteor after delivery. So decided to stay with meteor. Meanwhile I started watching a lot of you tube videos, some of my foreign favourites are DanDan the fireman for his driving safety videos ,itchy boots for her amazing courage, spirit and wonderful videos & for the science of biking it has to be fortnine. Besides these I have seen so many Indian videos but I like schumi for the way he presents and Anurag salgaonkar for his humourous take on Indian city driving. Anny Arun for his off-road trails and bikewithgirl for her efforts in showcasing so many different bikes . While waiting for the bike and watching videos , I also decided to take driving classes and enrolled at Anisha driving school in Nerul . The teacher there has an excellent you tube channel “Akshar Marathi “ where he teaches basics of driving in Marathi. I highly recommend the videos especially for beginners as there are so few good Indian videos on basics of driving . I and my teacher were surprised that at 50+ I could pick up driving a geared bike very quickly , soon I made my first hill climb drive on Parsik hills and was getting ready for my bike. The bike finally arrived 4 months later but the dealer did not have the silencer that I wanted in stock but it wasn’t critical so I let it pass . Delivery was normal with dealer explaining basics and only later on I read about PDI. However no issues luckily. Completed the free services with hardly 700 + kms on board . Dealer in Panvel does a good job but has limited staff and hence should go early , either way you end up waiting for atleast an hour if you want to convey your requirements personally else pick up at extra cost is available.
The driving experience:
Done 3500 + kms so far in last few months. Most of the running is office commute from Panvel to Vikhroli which is almost 40 kms one way . The commute is 35 km on the highway and 5 km in city. I have been using the bike 2-3 days a week including Friday the high traffic day. Other days it is my 7 year old trusty warhorse jazz automatic which still averages 15 + on this route. The meteor is a blessing on this route.It also a correct choice of vehicle for this route. It is heavy but doesn’t feel heavy while driving, and because of its weight and momentum it is stable on the highway and swallows typical Indian bumps and undulations and you don’t lose balance anytime. The torque is so good that on braking even if speed drops to 30 you don’t need to change gears. In the city in bumper to bumper traffic it becomes a little hot and on heating I found it was sticky and difficult to switch from 1st to 2nd . Then an easier solution was to not to go down to 1st gear because the bike picks up from standstill in 2nd gear very easily and so now city driving is also a breeze. I feel a royal enfield gets more respect on road by cars and other vehicles compared to other bikes. So driving this bike is a bit easier. Getting out On the mumbai pune highway in Navi Mumbai I am happy cruising at 60-80 kmph enjoy the wind whistling and the dug dug sound. The bike has enough torque at these speeds to easily overtake other vehicles on this stretch so I wonder what is it that the bigger bikes offer for the price we pay. Truly we should buy bikes we will use regularly with some capability to stretch our occasional need. If we need once in while fling for adventure can we not take it on rent ? This way It would be a good introduction to a new bike .
Safety & accessories:
Coming to accessories, I have bought all the basic safety stuff . I splurged on a full face Royal Enfield collector’s helmet costing 8 k . It is beautiful but a little heavy at 1650 gms. The other helmet is the stock free helmet from Royal Enfield. I am looking for a full face light helmet and see tivraa as a possibility but there is no store that I can try it on so I have reservations ( they should atleast put out experience centres). Is there any other helmet with similar features within the same price range ? I have two jackets one by Raida ( wroom store) and one by Royal Enfield( more mesh better for summer). I have solace riding pants ( tiger moto) and a rexel carbon fibre uk riding jeans with removable protectors ( sent by my son). I have scala viper gloves ( wroom store). These are excellent for summer. So mostly I am sorted and wear the jacket and gloves ( with stock open face helmet )daily to office . I am looking something light to strap on for knee protection which is easy to strap on and remove.
I wonder why people still take protection lightly ( some even had falls and fractures because a car nudged them in traffic). I strap on my laptop bag to my bike so that I don’t burden my neck and back also carry my lunch in magnetic tank bag ( wroom store). So getting to office sometimes seems like getting ready for a wedding . But once you are on the bike you forget everything. I am having a problem finding shoes. I have a problem with my feet around heel especially the right one and stiff shoes aggravate it so I have been wearing sport shoes. I have a special shoe from caterpillar which are ankle shoes with 200kn rated plastic toe guard so is relatively light weight with protection which I use sparingly. Would love to have shoes which we can wear to office ( clan has been advertising heavily).
Looked at some vehicle accessories and bought the barest . Put in screen guards on the ODO and tripper from Amazon and a bike cover. Other than the magnetic tank bag ( wroom store) bought some some extra straps , helmet visor wipes, chain lube cleaners. On the highway at night while returning the glare from opposite vehicles and street lights together interfere with headlight of bike and I cannot see the road properly. Don’t know whether aux lights ( which are not perfectly legal / could interfere with warranty) or the headlight from Vaishnav is a solution. I find many people are still riding bikes with stock lights so have not moved forward on this. I am uncomfortable with the stock tyres and feel the tyres lack adequate grip in wet / off-road conditions ( especially the rear) . Initially no other option was available and some people on you tube changed the rear tyre to offer better grip and reverse installed the front because front was not available from other brands. Now I find Hunter350 having possibly rear tyres with better grip but no 19” front. Any other options would be welcome. A recent incident happened while driving on the highway suddenly the gear indicator showed 0 and the gear appeared to be stuck. After checking I realised gears were ok only the gear sensor got misaligned. Had it fixed at dealer. Another recent problem appears to be increase in vibration felt on the seat and lower back. It is more on concrete part of highways than the Tarmac part. I then experimented with various riding positions and find a particular way of holding the back (bending slightly forward at hips keeping back straight )to be very comfortable in dealing with vibrations . Not many videos are available on good seating position / posture for biking. Then thought of changing stock seat to a touring seat. After seeing a video regarding the structure of the touring seat decided to add stiffer foam on stock seat . Added around 1 “ stiff foam and a new premium seat cover for 900 Rs. This has helped in a more comfortable and stable ride . This is a good cheap option compared to the touring seat. Now I find that rear suspension setup is at one end and six settings are available . I feel the suspension must have softened with use and should adjust preload to compensate. I adjusted preload by 2 and seems to have improved and seems ok so far. I have seen some YouTubers change the meteor shock absorbers to nitrox ones from classic. Don’t know whether it really makes that much difference. My longest rides have been to Lonavla and uran beach . Hope to take a long drive, with summer coming up any suggestions to increase driving range would be welcome.
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