Highway Cruiser Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350

Hello guys…I’m Siddharth Lal, today i will be sharing my experience with the Royal Enfield ThunderBird 350 as a highway cruiser. Bikes generally do not fascinate me as cars but there are quite a few bikes like the sports bikes of KTM, Kawasaki, Yamaha and especially the Royal Enfield Bikes i love. The first bike I owned was the first generation Bajaj Pulsar 150 in 2003, at that time I was 15 years of age and my second bike was the Royal Enfield Bullet Electra in 2005. At that time Bajaj pulsar was recently launched and made a great impression in the market. First being the Hero-Honda CBZ, Pulsar was the second bike to enter the 150cc segment and ruled the segment ever since. Pulsar was known for its great pick-up, acceleration and the bike was very stable around corners and even the braking was very responsive. 

I loved the thumper beat, classic masculine looks and heavy built of the royal enfield bikes. Its been more than 50 years and there has been few changes in the overall looks of the Royal Enfield Bikes but still on road Bullets are capable of turning heads. 

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The experience i am going to share with you guys is of the pleasure i had in cruising Thunderbird around Rishikesh, Haridwar (Uttarakhand) last year in September 2015. 

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It was Friday morning (11.09.2015) when me and my cousin Jerish planned a short 2 days weekend trip to Rishikesh. We were two and we both travelled to Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) by my Mahindra-Renault Logan as we both love road trips by self driven cars. We left for Rishikesh the next day at 6 am early morning and reached there by 11 am. Checked in to our hotel and after eating our breakfast we both decided to go for the River-Rafting but discovered that its off-season and all the adventure sports like Rifer-Rafting, Flying fox and bungie jumping are closed. It was a big disappointment of us as there was nothing else to do in Rishikesh. Later on we both decided to hire a Bullet thought of exploring Rishikesh and the places nearby. We hired a black colour Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350cc bike from a local bike rental shop for Rs 700 per day. After lunch we filled up Rs 500 petrol in our bike and left for Lord Shiva Temple in Neelkanth which was 40 kms hill drive from from hotel and at a height of 1330 meters above sea level. 

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The hilly route to Neelkanth from Rishikesh had a Rough terrain with potholes and many small stones and our TB350 was unstoppable. It was 80 kms two and a half hours ride To-fro and the suspension of the bike was excellent and we both did not experienced any back pain or tiredness which is very commonly experienced in other city bikes that too even on plain roads. Our bike was so tough on the bumps that I didn't even feel the need to lower down speed and it could cross all obstacles with a speed of 40 Km/Hr at ease. Braking was also impressive as the bike didn’t skid on small stones thanks to the semi-disc rear brakes. Due to it enormous 28Nm @4000RMP torque the pulling power of the bikes during uphill drive was stunning, it could even pull steep elevations in 3rd gear with ease. 

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After returning back from Neelkanth we headed towards Haridwar (Uttarakhand) to worship the river Ganges. It was a 5 Km city drive and rest 25 Kms smooth single lane highway drive. We faced start-stop traffic for 3 kms in our city ride. Ride in the Start-Stop traffic was not bad, due to heavy handle and weight of the bike the ride was a bit inconvenient. But the highway drive was exceptional, the ride was very smooth; uneven roads or small potholes were unnoticeable and the road grip around corners of the TB350 was superb. The top speed I could achieve was 110 Km/Hr but honestly speaking maintaining a speed of 80 Km/Hr is good because keeping speed levels above 100 Km/Hr is uncomfortable as the vibration level increases. By the way Thunderbird is a cruiser and cruiser bikes are know for a smooth and comfortable long rides rather than speed, pickup and acceleration. Over talking cars on the highway was excellent and this bike pulls off well from low speed on high gears. Headlights offer good view of the road even on the roads where there were not lights. 

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On our next day we both went to Devprayag thats on Rishikesh-Badrinath highway (150 Kms hill drive from Rishikesh). Devprayag is one of the 5 confluences of Alaknanda river where Alaknanda river and Bhagirathi rivers meet and take the name of River Ganges. 

The experience was same on during this ride as stated above. 

The sitting position in Thunderbird is very comfortable, back remains straight and its comfortable for the person sitting behind. Even the height of the bike is perfect, its neither too high nor too low. Gearshift is smooth and Kick-starting the bike is also easy. One has to just smoothly kick without accelerating and the bike starts in one kick. I have noticed that the self-start of Royal Enfield bikes are not reliable, they stop working after a year or so. I have noticed this problem in 5-6 Enfield’s owned by my friends and even then self-start was not working on my hired bike. Here I come to the end of my post, all I can say is with all these qualities mentioned above in my post; ThunderBird is surely a very competent highway cruiser bike and not to forget this bike has a 20 Litres fuel tank. 

Guys do leave your valuable comments/suggestions below. Good bye and have a good day...!