Yamaha RX100 vs Royal Enfield Classic 350: 2 stroke vs 4 Stroke battle

It is said that Yamaha started the affordable performance motorcycle segment in India with the RX100. There were powerful bikes available in India before the RX100 too but they were either quite expensive (RD350) or too big and heavy to be put into the performance biking category (Jawa, Bullet). In the form of the RX100, Yamaha brought a light weighted and powerful motorcycle that appealed to the enthusiasts and started a new trend in India. Though the bike is more than two decades old now, it has become a cult classic and well-maintained examples fetch a lot of money in the market. However, how would the old school Yamaha RX100 compare to a modern Royal Enfield? The video below by Rev Rides answers just that. Take a look at the video to see which of these two takes the cake in this race.

In the video, we see a Yamaha RX100 being pitted against a Royal Enfield Classic 350. This drag race is about the old 2 stroke engine vs the modern 4 stroke engine. As seen in the video, the first round is won by the RX100 while the second round is won by the Royal Enfield Classic 350. However, a point to note here is that the second rider here seems a bit inexperienced as compared to the other rider in terms of handling a two-stroke bike.

Talking about the bikes here, the Royal Enfield Classic 350 is powered by a 346 cc four-stroke, single-cylinder, air-cooled engine that produces a maximum power of 19.8 Bhp and a peak torque of 28 Nm. The engine comes mated to a five-speed transmission. The Yamaha RX100, on the other hand, by a 98 cc, single cylinder two-stroke air-cooled engine which produced 11 Bhp of power and 10.39 Nm of torque. To let you know, two-stroke engines pump out power more rapidly than their four-stroke counterparts due to lesser movement cycles involved. This is also the reason why they can churn out more power from smaller displacement engines. However, modern four-stroke engines are pretty balanced units and have a strong top end too, some which most of the two-stroke engine can’t boast about.

Another factor involved in this race is the weight both these bikes. The Yamaha RX-100 is a pretty bare bones bike and weighs only 98 kg, which is one of the reasons for its agility. The Royal Enfield Classic 350, on the other hand, justifies its hefty looks with a weight of 192 kg. That makes the Classic 350 more than double the weight of the Yamaha RX100. Also, had both the riders been of equal skills, the result could have come out to be different and probably favoured the RX100 in the second round too. For now, in this video, the results come to a draw and the takeaway is that a good rider is more important in a race than a good bike.