Royal Enfield Goan Classic 350 - First Ride Review

The Visuals

Lately, Royal Enfield has been experimenting and running various iterations for the colour options on its motorcycles. First, we saw it on the Himalayan 450, then on the Guerrilla 450, and now on the Goan Classic 350. It is quite evident that the form factor is in focus for the Goan Classic and the same is reflected in the bike’s appearance as well as the overall build quality. Circling back to the colours, there are four options - Purple Haze, Rave Red, Shack Black, and Trip Teal. All four paint schemes are quite attractive and unique in their way, thanks to the attention to detail.

The tall ape-hanger handlebar, the bobbed tail section, bullet-style indicators, and the white-walled tyres are some of the eye-catching highlights of the Goan Classic 350. Not to mention, the rims match the bike’s body colour and the brushed aluminium finish is an absolute eye-candy.

In terms of build quality, we feel Royal Enfield has chalked up the standards for the Goan Classic 350 in comparison to the Classic 350. Right from the paint quality and finish to the welds, the switches, and the small logos embedded neatly on the body parts, all of it screams premium. There are other neat and nifty details like the Goan Classic 350 badge on the seat, as well as the brushed finished air-filler valve on the rim which further accentuate the visual appeal of the bike. Fair to say, the Goan Classic 350 makes for a motorcycle to not only ride around town on a lazy weekend but also park in your living room under a warm light if you can.

The Package

Since the Goan Classic is based on a pre-existing platform, it uses the same 349cc single-cylinder engine that makes 20.2bhp at 6,100rpm and a peak torque of 27Nm at 4,000rpm. The engine is linked to a five-speed gearbox. Even the hardware for the Goan Classic appears identical to its donor bike and it includes the telescopic front forks, dual rear springs and a disc brake at each end. The Goan Classic 350 is the first Royal Enfield J-series bike to get cross-spoke wheels with tubeless tyres as a standard fitment. This reduces the hassle of dealing with punctures and eliminates the cost of installing a tube as well.

Along with the LED headlight and LED turn indicators, Royal Enfield has offered pretty much the same set of features for the Goan Classic 350 as its sibling. It gets a twin-pod instrument console that comprises the analogue-digital setup for the speedometer, odometer, LCD inset for the tripmeter, gear position indicator, and more. The smaller unit is for the Tripper Navigation that Royal Enfield offers as an accessory. It lets you pair your smartphone via Bluetooth and gives access to turn-by-turn navigation, as well as call and SMS notifications. Not to mention, the bike also gets dual-channel ABS.

Royal Enfield has made slight changes to the Goan Classic 350’s chassis to strengthen it, elongated the swingarm by a small margin and tweaked the rear spring to accommodate the same.

The Ride

In typical Royal Enfield fashion, the Goan Classic 350 has a nice, and enjoyable thumper character. The long-stroke motor accelerates gradually and packs oodles of torque throughout. The motor and the gearbox work in a sweet mechanical symphony and you feel a nice click every time you up or downshift the gearbox. The bike gets a toe-and-heel shifter and it has prominent feedback as well.

Just like the standard Classic 350, the Goan too picks up speeds slowly and does about 105kmph at max. The said speed is its threshold and post that, the motor loses steam with vibrations creeping all over from the handlebar, fuel tank, and pegs. That said, the exhaust and its note are quite new. The Goan gets a matte black finished slash cut exhaust which pops and burbles during downshifts.

Since the engine has abundant torque, it's quite forgiving even if you miss a downshift and ride at lower speeds. The engine doesn’t shudder and lets the revs build until you reach the idle speed.

One concern that we had before the ride was in regards to the Goan Classic 350’s handling because of the tall handlebar. However, having spent a few hours riding it in the narrow and winding streets of Goa, we have realized that the setup feels natural after just about five minutes of riding. While the overall handling is lazy, the weight balance and distribution make the Goan feel solid and planted while taking slight quick turns. Counter-steering makes it even easier at higher speeds so you don’t have to muscle around the 196kg mass. The turning radius too seems completely unaffected by the ape-hanger handlebar.

The only areas where I feel the Goan Classic 350 can and should do better are the ride quality and braking. The front end has a nice and taut feeling. It stays stable and has just the right amount of compression when ridden over bumps and potholes. But the rear springs seem to be set up on the stiffer side. I was being thrown off the seat when riding fast over broken patches. Moreover, we took the freeway towards the Goa airport and noticed the rear springs sending small jolts from the bumps on the uneven freeway. This got irritating after a while and wouldn’t be ideal on a long ride. The said issue can rob you off the touring aspect especially when the Goan Classic 350 has the ergonomics for it. Lastly, the braking bite kicks in a tad later than you would expect and want it to.

Now, we spent just a few hours riding the Goan Classic and the distance too was limited for us to comment on the bike’s touring capacity. But we will be able to get to that once the bike is at the BikeWale office for a proper road test.

Should You Buy It?

At Rs. 2.35 lakh (ex-showroom, Chennai), the Royal Enfield Goan Classic 350 sits above the standard Classic, Bullet, and the Meteor 350 too. Its colours, build quality, styling, features list, engine characteristics, and overall packaging is quite laudable. The ape-hanger handlebar, white-walled tyres wrapped around brushed aluminium finished cross-spoke wheels, and the bobber styling fetch more attention than we thought.

However, with the stiff ride quality at the rear and lack of braking bite, the Goan Classic 350 loses a few points and puts us in two minds of its ease to live with. But if these shortcomings can be eliminated, then the Royal Enfield Goan Classic 350 can be a big winner in its class.

Photography by Kapil Angane