Royal Enfield Thunderbird, Classic 350 & 500 alloy wheels price revealed

Royal Enfield has officially added alloy wheels to the accessory package of Classic series and the Thunderbird series motorcycles. The alloy wheels are priced at Rs. 10,000 and can be bought from any Royal Enfield dealership or service centres across the country.

Until now, only the Royal Enfield Thunderbird X models offer the alloy wheels. As per the official website, the 9-spoke machined alloy wheels can be fitted on the bike in 105 minutes and all the existing components fit directly into the new wheels. The wheels are certified with a two-year warranty against any kind of damage. They are currently available only in a single black colour and will all the bikes including Classic 350, Classic 500, Thunderbird 350, Thunderbird 500, Thunderbird X 350, Thunderbird X 500. The alloy wheels available with the Thunderbird X models are slightly different looking than these alloy wheels. The aftermarket wheels look much more premium with its chrome finish on the spokes.

It is not known if Royal Enfield will offer any kind of exchange offer where the customers can return their old alloy or spoked wheels and pay a discounted price for the new ones. As the alloy wheels are of the same size as the spoked rims, the same tyres will fit on the bikes and there’s no need to buy different tyres. Royal Enfield is also expected to offer alloy wheels for the all-new Interceptor and the Continental GT 650 in the Indian market.

The alloy wheels will allow the owners to make the full use of tubeless tyres on the Royal Enfield bikes. None of the Royal Enfield bikes with spoked rims offered the feature to use tubeless tyres, which causes a lot of trouble to the long-distance travellers. Tubeless tyres are much easier to repair on the way and also makes the ownership experience somewhat better.

However, spoked rims are much more rugged when it comes to serious off-roading. Spoked rims offer much more flexibility on the rough roads and are very durable too. Even alloy wheels are durable but for extreme conditions, spoked rims are the preferred choice of professionals. The alloy wheels are very stiff and break under pressure but the spoked rims can bend and absorb any jerks on the road without any problem.

It should be noted that Royal Enfield-branded motorcycles are one of the most modified bikes in India. Most of the owners go for aftermarket alloy wheels soon after owning the bike because of the ease of use. Recently, a video shared on the social media platform showed how low-quality aftermarket alloy wheel disintegrates on the road, which can cause grave injuries to the rider. Now that Royal Enfield is officially offering alloy wheels in the market, the use of substandard alloy wheels may go down in the future.