Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350X cruiser motorcycle: Clearest spyshots ahead of official launch

Royal Enfield will launch two new variants of the Thunderbird cruiser motorcycle on the 28th of February, 2018. Here are the first clearest spyshots of the Thunderbird 350X, spied days ahead of the official launch. Royal Enfield will also launch the Thunderbird 500X alongside the 350X.

Images courtesy Saad Bin Sadiq

Both new motorcycles are likely to be positioned above the current range of Thunderbirds, in terms of pricing and positioning. Prices of the 350X could start from about Rs. 1.6 lakhs with the 500X model going at about Rs. 2 lakhs. The Thunderbird X gets design and functional feature changes in equal measure, and a new set of paint schemes.

For the first time in the history of the Royal Enfield Thunderbird range, it’ll be sold in bright colour schemes such as Orange, Blue, White, Red and Yellow. In terms of other visual changes, the motorcycle gets a blacked out exhaust, blacked out wheels with red pinstriping and a revised tail design with a new grabrail design.

Other differences include satin finish for the instrument cluster and the headlamp housing. In terms of functional changes, the motorcycle gets a new handlebar and footpeg geometry. The Thunderbird X range will be the first Royal Enfield to get kicked out footpegs.

It’ll also be the first Royal Enfield motorcycle to have alloy wheels. We hope tubeless tyres make it to the feature list as well. Apart from these changes, the Thunderbird 350X and 500X are expected to be mechanically similar to the current models on sale in India.

This means a 350 cc four stroke unit construction engine (UCE) on the 350X, with 19.8 Bhp-28 Nm outputs. The 500 cc motor makes more – 27.2 Bhp-41.3 Nm, and like the 350 cc unit gets hydraulic tappets. While the 350 cc motor is carbureted, the larger engine gets fuel injection as standard. While there are disc brakes on both wheels, ABS is still not offered, even as an option. Suspension components consist of telescopic front forks and gas charged rear shock absorbers. Exact pricing and availability details of the new motorcycle will be revealed on the 28th of February, 2018.