New 2024 Royal-Enfield Bullet 350 Announced: Everything You Need To Know!

Welcome back to another MotoBob video and last week Royal Enfield announced a brand new update to their famous bullet name with a 350 added to their lineup for 2024. Now these little singles are a big hit here in the UK with a 350 Meteor, the 350 Classic and the 350 Hunter all having been amongst the best-selling bikes over the past couple of years. So here are all the details of this new one with the seven key things that you need to know about it and at the end I'll tell you who might want to buy one but also who might not. Now this bike is built around their J-Series engine which was first seen in the 350 Meteor when it was released back in 2021 and so while it is actually pretty recent the architecture is pretty old school. It's an air-cooled two-valve single with a five-speed gearbox and in terms of peak power it's about 20 horses at 6100 rpm and 27 newton meters of peak torque at 4000 rpm. This is not going to be an earth-shatteringly quick motorcycle and having had the pleasure of testing out both the Meteor and the Hunter 350 I can tell you it's just about enough to get away with on UK roads. The Hunter we tested pretty much exclusively in central London and it's perfectly fine in that context and it will get you away from the traffic lights and up to 20 or 30 or 40 miles per hour ahead of the majority of the traffic but the Meteor 350 I'm also tested out on the open road because it's a cruiser style bike and while it can get up to 50 or 60 miles per hour it does start to get pretty out of breath so if you're looking for quick accelerations at that sort of speed or overtakes then you might want to look at something else. What this engine is good at though is efficiency with Enfield claiming that 107 miles per gallon is possible on their spec sheet so despite a relatively modest 13 litre fuel tank you could still theoretically get almost 500 kilometers or 300 miles between fill-ups. These bikes are pretty damn cheap to buy and they're also pretty damn cheap to run and I think that's a big part of the appeal which helps them to sell so well just not the white knuckle g-force induced thrills. As for the chassis well again simplicity is the name of the game and it won't be a million miles from the other 350 bikes so you get a tubular steel frame wrapped around the engine that has that old school cradle look. There's also a steel swing arm at the rear and suspension is simple as well with a 41 millimeter right way up fork without any adjustability and a pair of twin shocks at the rear that offer just preload adjustment in case you fancy taking a passenger with you. I will say though they have done a pretty nice job on the styling of the suspension there with the fork covers and the chrome details on the shocks. Now as is common for this retro category of bike you get spook wheels and it's a 19 inch up front and an 18 at the rear so that extra bit of diameter will help with the classic looks a bit and it also might help the bike feel smoother over rough terrain so a big plus if your road surfaces aren't the best but I wouldn't expect it to feel as snappy or agile as the hunter 350 for example which is a very similar bike in many ways but it rolls on quicker turning 17 inch rims front and rear. Tires are from Seat and they look fairly basic but they'll do the job at this price point and while they are a bit on the skinny side with a 120 section at the rear you could argue it's not a great deal of power to deal with and so it really ought to be enough. Braking comes from Bybre which is the more affordable sub-brand of performance giants Brembo and it really seems to have done the trick over the past few years with nearly all the new Indian bikes rocking the Bybre calipers from what I've seen in recent press releases. Now it's a two piston caliper up front on a single 300 mil disc and then you get a single caliper at the rear on a 270 mil disc and of course both get ABS. Now these 350 bikes from Enfield do tend to feel a little bit dinky so if you're a larger rider you might want to choose one of the models with a decent seat height and this one is relatively tall at 805 millimeters. Now the cruiser style Meteor is the lowest of the bunch of course at 765 millimeters. The Hunter is a little bit taller at 790 but then at the top you've got this bike and the classic 350 as the tallest two options. The thing that really does separate this bike from the classic though is the big cushy looking twin seat as opposed to the single seat setup as standard on the classic although I do believe you can add a passenger pad if you want to spec it up later. Still if you're after a larger feeling 350 Enfield with the option to take a passenger as standard then the Bullet is the one. Otherwise it looks nice and upright and comfy and you even get a toe heel shifter as standard for a bit of that old school feel and riding experience. I actually really liked it when I borrowed the Meteor 350 although I only had it for a couple of weeks so maybe the novelty factor would wear off eventually. Now the tech section of this video is going to be pretty short because there's just a simple clock on the top of the headlight there with a digital display set within and also you get a USB charger up on the bars too. There is also the ABS that we just mentioned but otherwise that's it and I would suggest it's intentional keeping the price down and preserving the retro personality of the bike. On the accessory side there are a few nice little styling extras like mirrors and headlight surrounds and if you fancy taking it further afield and turning it into a little light tourer you can fit an Enfield made windscreen and also their little tripper navigation pod which gives you simple turn by turn navigation directions from a route you've plotted in the Royal Enfield app. There's also panniers, backrests and deluxe foot pegs to up the comfort levels and then you've got some engine bars and sump guards on offer if you want to add a bit of drop protection and resilience against rougher terrains. Now it does feel like they've done a nice job of turning this 350 platform into something that sort of resembles the bullet of old with similar details like the headlight nacelle and the seat design, the long mudguards and the shape on the tank and the side panels. It's a very nice looking nostalgic little bike indeed and it ships in some decent color options too with the basic military black and military red and then also some more premium options like the black, the maroon or the black gold finish. All three of which get a bit of classic bullet gold pinstriping. Now all five of those color options are on offer in India but I believe from the press release that in the UK we're just getting the more premium variants but I've got to say there is a bit of a price to pay for all this extra fanciness and finish and firstly that's with the weight. The bullet 350 tips the scales at 195 kilograms curb which is really very hefty for a 350 especially considering it can only manage that 20 horsepower. I think that's the only problem I had when I borrowed the Meteor that it almost feels like a big bike in terms of weight but it does feel like a little bike in terms of power output and you just want either a bit more pep or a bit less mass but still perhaps the antidote is the Hunter 350 which is a little bit simpler in the finish and it uses a little bit less metal and so that comes in at a bit more of an acceptable 181 kilograms 14 kilograms difference which almost certainly you'll feel on the road. The other penalty is the price you see on the one hand the premium color options we're getting in the UK are all sub five grand which sounds pretty decent but again that simpler Hunter 350 looks like a better buy because it's well under four grand so effectively with the bullet you're paying about a thousand pounds more for something that goes slower and gets bigger wheels that'll feel less nimble. Still I think this one is about playing on people's nostalgia and I'm sure they'll still sell plenty of bikes and the styling does look quite special so if that sounds like your cup of tea it's definitely the one to go for but for me personally I think 100% I'd go for the Hunter. As always though I'd love to know which bike you'd pick down in the comments below though so do let me know and if you want to see my full review of the Hunter 350 from the UK press launch in London then I'll link to it on the screen now so you can give it a click give it a watch and let us know what you think of it please do hit subscribe as well if you haven't already if you want to see more of the latest motorcycle news like this right here on YouTube many thanks for watching today and we'll catch you in the next video.