The Susegad Bike

It is with a heavy heart that I'd put up my Vulcan for sale before I moved back to India. A good bike, a sound ride and a powerful engine. 650cc of displacement and 60 hp of peak output.  Just for fun, I'd gone to a Royal Enfield showroom in Mumbai. Hitherto I was a bit of a sceptic when it came to RE. I had never understood why the RE stable had such underpowered machines. But as soon as I test drove the Royal Enfield Classic 350 Reborn I knew this was the perfect bike for me. Now I know what you're going to say - here comes another moronic RE fanboy. Who says a 350cc downgrade is better than a 650cc cruiser? I know right!? To clear the air, I'm far from a fanboy. RE really does make only average machines with really old engine tech. As a manufacturer they leave a lot to be desired. 

But they have nailed one thing right - they've got the engine tuned JUST right for anybody who wants a relaxed ride quality with a lot of low-end torque and low peak output. If you fall even slightly outside these specifications, the RE Classic is simply not the bike for you. In fact in this situation it's niggles will outweigh it's USP. But if it's this specific ride quality you want - you couldn't ask for more (well you could if you upgrade to the Bonneville T100 but it'll set you back by 12 lakhs). And since it IS this ride quality that I was looking for, the RE Classic 350 was simply put, an upgrade for me. The Vulcan has the same engine as the Ninja 650. It's basically a sports bike disguised as a cruiser and that's why I was never truly comfortable and relaxed driving it. The engine just kept begging to be revved. It felt like a caged tiger. That's the character of the Vulcan. A split personality disorder - the spirit (engine) of a sports bike and the body (chassis) of a cruiser. As soon as I test drove the RE Classic I realised the difference. The Classic simply rides with you. It's a bike meant for the backroads of Goa or the winding roads of the mountain ghats or the green countryside where you just cruise along at 80kmph and think of life in general and contemplate on the nature of the universe. It's peak torque of 27 Nm is delivered really low at only 4000 rpm. This means you don't have to worry too much about shifting gears too often. It has ample oomph to tackle low speeds at relatively high gears and relatively high speeds at low gears. Not that it's advised to do that but it does make riding easy.  It gives you room to breathe and think of things other than mundane concerns such as worrying about your engine stalling. The engine purrs along at 80kmph and the ride quality just sets you in a philosophical mood. Not the caged tiger kind but the smiling buddha kind. With a kerb weight of just 195 kilos, it's pretty light too and you can maneuver it about quite easily. 

In many ways I realized that's what I'd been doing too before the RE epiphany came along. A split personality disorder. I was trying to be someone I was not. A simple test drive set me right and got me to realize that if one stays true to one's core essence, one is much happier. RE sales numbers bear that out too. The Classic 350 is it's top seller with 39% market share as of Feb 2023. In the 200cc-500cc segment too, it leads the pack with over 35% market share. That's because it knows what it does well and gives you exactly that. It doesn't pretend to be something else. Something to ponder on for my next ride!