The Royal Enfield Hunter: The pony amongst stallions!
For a Royal Enfield motorcycle, the Hunter looks visibly smaller and feels extremely lightweight and easy to manage. That's thanks mainly to the smaller 17 inch front wheel, the shorter wheelbase, the lower ground clearance and the shorter seat height. Heck, the Hunter is the smallest Royal Enfield out there in every possible dimension. The overall fit and finish quality meet the new Royal Enfield standards, which are higher than what they used to be but still not Japanese or even TVS level. There are some cost savings RE have done in the switchgear and I don't understand why. Why compromise on something so trivial but something that the rider touches and feels so often? The cost of the switchgear would barely make up 0.2 to 0.3% of the cost of the motorcycle. Why compromise there? Thankfully, the offset analogue speedometer console is nicely finished and the overall view that you get from the rider's point of viewing is nice and pleasing to the eye. The clutch and brake levers are from the meteor and of good feel and quality. I like the paintjob, the alloys, the seat, the lights, the design is very cohesive and well put together and no part of the Hunter feels out of place or like an afterthought.
Crank up the engine using the retro circular shaped ignition button and you get a familiar thump with a hint of throatiness to the final exhaust note. To me, this is the best sounding Royal Enfield motorcycle on sale today. Bassy and raspy! Pull in the heavy clutch, slot it in first gear with that signature RE thud, release the clutch and voilà, it's not a Royal Enfield any more! No, seriously, the Hunter feels so light on its feet, so lively and eager that it makes you wonder, why did Royal Enfield take this long to just slap on a 17 inch wheel upfront? That's because, it's not just the front wheel that's making this big a difference. That J series double cradle frame to begin with, that front wheel, that sharper rake angle, that lower center of gravity and those innumerable weight saving measures that Royal Enfield engineers have put into this bike, they all come together and transform this Royal Enfield into....... well, not a Royal Enfield. The way this thing changes directions and filters through traffic is unimaginable.
The engine has good grunt in the lower and mid range but abruptly loses all steam higher up the rev range. The overall gearing is short and what that does is, it lets you get to 5th gear very quickly and you can then let the torque do the talking as you filter through fast moving traffic moving just your right wrist. The flipside? This RE runs out of steam very fast. At 80 kph, you already feel the stress coming into the engine and 100 kph and beyond is not a very pleasant place to be. Also, thanks to everything that makes this bike feel so lively at lower speeds, the Hunter feels jittery and kind of non confidence inspiring at higher speeds. This RE is best suited for the urban jungle then. If you want to "LEAVE HOME", leave the thought of buying the Hunter at home itself.
It may not go all that fast but one thing that the Hunter does pretty well is shed speeds. Although the same size as the Classic and the Meteor, the initial bite on the brakes is extremely sharp on the Hunter. There is a bit more progression left but honestly, with an initial bite that sharp, there'll be little progression that you would be searching for any way. Lets cover ride quality next. I've always believed that a 19" front tyre and a 17" rear set up works the best for our roads and I stand firmly with that belief still. The 17" front wheel of the Hunter dives too deep into a pothole to steam roll over it like how the bigger Enfields or the CB 350s would do. To make things worse, the suspensions at both ends are quite firmly sprung. The result? That insane flickability and handling that I keep going on and on about. The flipside? Back breaking ride quality. You'd do your back a favour if you would just get light on your seat or ride the pegs over potholes. If I have to describe the ride quality in one word, it would be: jarring. However, the stiff spings ensure that despite its lower ground clearance, the Hunter doesn't scrape its underbelly on tall and narrow speed breakers, even when riding two up.
Lets sum this up objectively and come up with a scorecard for the Hunter. Out of 10, I would rate this motorcycle in terms of:
Looks: 9.5
Quality: 8
Engine: 7
Transmission: 7
Ride quality: 6
Handling: 9
Fitment of purpose: 9
Pricing:9
Average score: 8.06
Not a bad deal honestly; and yet, there seems to be something missing. Something intangible. The character, the identity, the soul of a motorcycle. That feeling when you're riding the motorcycle and you become one with your motorcycle. A feeling that Royal Enfields of the past have been so successful in invoking in a rider. That seems to be missing in the Hunter somehow. What's a motorcycle without that feeling and that emotion? Just a tool. Personally, if I had to buy a motorcycle in the 2 lakh rupees price range, I would save up 40k more and buy a Honda CB 350 (Disclaimer alert: I own one). It sits head and shoulders above the Hunter in every aspect apart from flickability. In fact, the CB feels like from a segment above the RE Classic and Meteor 350s as well. But if you have only 2 lakhs to spend on a motorcycle and you wish to stand out from the commuter crowd or the "performance" crowd, should you go for an RE Hunter or should you be ronin to your nearest TVS showroom instead? We'll find out soon enough. Till then, ride safe!
Pictures courtesy: royalenfield.com
