2024 Royal Enfield Hunter 350

Twenty Horsepower Is the Whole Point

I had low expectations. A used Royal Enfield making 20 horsepower, sitting on a dealer floor at $3,299, is not the kind of motorcycle that gets anybody excited on paper. I got on it expecting to be bored for two hours and then write something polite about value.

That is not what happened.

Somewhere in the second hour I stopped waiting for the bike to do something and just rode it. The Hunter 350 is not fast, it is not clever, and it has no interest in being either. What it is, is the least intimidating motorcycle I have ridden all year. Here's the thing: for the person this bike is actually built for, that matters more than anything on a spec sheet.

Performance Highlights

The 349cc air and oil cooled single makes 20.2 horsepower and 19.9 pound-feet, near enough a one to one ratio, and that tells you how it delivers. There is no hit anywhere in the rev range. You roll the throttle open and the bike gathers itself and goes, eventually. In the right gear it is punchy enough to keep you interested. In the wrong gear it bogs, and it bogs badly, sitting there thumping while you wonder whether something has broken. You will shift constantly on this motorcycle. I do not mind that at all. Busy is more fun than bored.

We did not get a 40 to 80 time. The first attempt died when a box truck and an electrical truck closed the lane. The second one was on a downhill and the bike still would not find 80 before the road ran out. So it goes down as a DNF, and that is the first honest data point about this thing. Twenty horsepower with a full-size adult on board does not produce a roll-on number. It will hold 70 all day. It will not pass anybody while it does.

The brakes were the surprise of the day. ByBre is Brembo's Indian division and I fully expected them to be awful. They are soft at the lever and then the stopping power shows up, and on a 399 pound motorcycle that is more than enough. It stops considerably better than it goes.

Handling is the best thing here by some distance. Wide flat bars, 399 pounds, 17 inch wheels front and rear, and it changes direction the moment you think about it. Threading through city traffic costs you nothing. The fork is soft, bouncy and non-adjustable, and that is the right call. It takes the sting out of bad pavement and it has no sport in it whatsoever. Nobody shopping at this price is hunting for a stiff front end.

Rider Experience & Tech

The seat is enormous. I sat on it for two hours and never once thought about it, which is the highest compliment a motorcycle seat can be paid. Upright through the torso, legs back slightly, arms draped low. At 5 foot 10 with a 32 inch inseam I had very bent legs on a 31.1 inch seat, and the pegs sit almost exactly where my feet wanted to be anyway.

Nothing on this motorcycle ever gets away from you. That reads like faint praise until you remember what being new felt like. I learned on an SV650 and got myself into real trouble because I could not work a clutch yet. The Hunter takes that particular anxiety and deletes it. If you have never let a clutch out in your life, this is about as forgiving as motorcycling gets.

The tech list is short and I am fine with that. Dual channel ABS, a gear indicator, a fuel gauge, twin trips and a clock in a small LCD inset in an analog speedo. At this money a gear indicator is generous. The switchgear is better than the price suggests, and I have ridden motorcycles at twice the cost with worse. Two real complaints. The mirrors shake hard enough that you cannot make out what is behind you, and the clutch lever has a long dead zone of free play before it engages anything. That would be the first thing I fixed if I owned one.

The Chase Score & Final Thoughts

With a Chase Score of 57/100, the 2024 Royal Enfield Hunter 350 lands in Meh territory, and that number wants a sentence of context. The score marks it down for everything it never set out to do. It cannot accelerate, it has no rider aids, and it runs out of top end early. Judge it on approachability, comfort and what it costs, and it does well, because that is the motorcycle Royal Enfield actually built.

Buy it if you are new, or close to it, and you want something that lets you learn without ever catching you out, or if you want a cheap second bike to scoot around town on. Skip it if you want something to grow into, because you will be done with this one inside a season.