Well you still have the Honda Rebel 500 for a more traditional chopper/cruiser. If you ask me, I'd take the rebel over the meteor any day of the week. Yes it's more expensive, but more bike.

There are Chinese offerings like the 15k Benelli imperiale. Why the meteor 350 costs 10k over the Benelli is beyond me.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: May 22 2022, 11:39 PM

imperial locally assemble, + mforce purposely price it cheaper.
re in india is a low cost bike / poor man's triumph they say...lol
but here, they don wana make it too cheap la..
pretend atas abit mar.. lol
but i think used price will drop alot la,
so eyeing on used one day...

Nothing wrong with paying for style, IMHO. One thing I will never understand about many Malaysian riders is the scene of judging when products offered are not solely based on price-to-performance and trying to push other people toward that mindset. Overseas, this is not such a big deal and the 'tambah sikit dapat...' and 'baik beli...' crowds are almost non-existent - you can just buy whatever you like and are encouraged to do so. I really do wonder why this is the case.

I myself am not a performance-based rider, so I applaud RE for bringing in these bikes at a lower price compared to before. If we want a wider variety of bikes in Malaysia, then we have to start accepting that riding is not all about paying the least amount of money for the biggest HP and torque figures that amount of money can buy.

In the end, if the person who bought the bike is happy with it, then just be glad for them. It's their money to spend. But on the other hand, do criticise them if they complain about pickup and topspeed AFTER buying one of these 'gaya' machines lah, since that is proof of uninformed purchase.

Tampah sikit dapat is not of unvalid concerns. For instance before didi got it, RE is sold at 50k , 52k otr, with that price you have a whole range of products for you to choose from, heck you don't tampah sikit, you bayar kurang sikit and you could get Kawasaki and Yamaha.

At 60k you could get Z900RS with 3x the hp, nimbleness, and the reputation of reliability of Kawasaki and a sense of Made In Japan-esque feel. Its natural to make comparisons on the logical side (the specs) rather than purely emotional considering its still 50k worth of hard earned money. Overseas doesn't have this much concerns mainly because instead of investing a huge chunk of your income monthly for the loan, they are going to just strap on their belt, stop drinking starbucks for a month or so and they can make up the difference for the "better bike", you'll see their concerns when doing comparisons between bikes like "but the abs version is 300$ more, so if you are strapped in cash maybe you could skip it". For some reason they make the 300$ sounds like a big deal. Probably because they have nothing else to say.

I have no problem with buyers choosing style over function.

Its just me, I dont find RE a value proposition. Regardless if style or performance is what you are after. I actually quite fancy the Himalayan and the new Scram 411. Just that previously the price is something the side of madness.

Dont compare other countries lah. Bikes are relatively cheaper. You can have a few.

Would you chose a Continental GT or the Kawasaki 650RS?

Even with the example you presented: if a person wants to buy RE at the original 50k price, as long as they know what they are getting into, it isn't my problem, nor should it be anyone else's. Just honestly how I feel about that subject.

If you mean manufacturer reputation instead of specs then I agree, because Japanese brands are known for reliability and have a proven track record. But I think to compare Z900RS, which is more or less a sportsbike wearing old style clothing, to something that is actually retro is comparing two different riding styles. HP, torque and other figures are sometimes an emotional thing as well since Malaysians generally just love speed and big numbers.

Anyway, someone who will not use most of that power and prefers the RE/Triumph/etc., aesthetic will be better served buying one of those machines instead of a Z900RS. I do see your point, but perhaps a Triumph machine like the Street Twin or a Kawi W800 would have been a better comparison.

Hmm, this is true of developed countries with bigger purchasing power compared to ours, but what of other developing nations like Thailand, Vietnam and India? Do you think their bikers' general mindset, and variety of bikes they get is just because of the size of their bike market compared to ours, or is it also because they can accept more than just specs-based purchases? Honest question.

I'm also not sure how the financing in our neighboring countries works compared to ours. Maybe they get better deals in general.

True, but compared to before this is more acceptable. As someone else said above, the used prices will be even more attractive. We even get the 3 year unlimited warranty if purchased new. Only real concern is their dealer network and replacement parts.

I don't think that is true of all other countries, even if we only count among our neighbors. IIRC, we do get some models for cheaper here.

I'd prefer an RE Interceptor over those two since I don't enjoy the Continental GT's riding position (have sat on one years ago) and already experienced Kawi's 650 engine in a family member's ER6N and Versys. Love the Interceptor's looks and exhaust note.

This post has been edited by blackbox14: May 24 2022, 07:22 PM

For the SEA, its considered as "price sensitive market" and so yes, the people are very concerned about the prices of the products, that's why the most popular are the one with the most bang of the buck, the one with the most power, looks fast, and priced within means. Of course there's outliers that will buy for the sake of owning the style they likes, but that's the minority. RE is immensely popular right now in the west not only because its looks and feels, its also because its literally 50% the price of its symbolic competitor the Bonneville, and its still 30% cheaper than the newly renewed Kawasaki W800, you can see they can simply overlook some quality issues exactly because its 50% cheaper.

What RE did now is a great move, DIDI owns harley and from what I know, they are planning to acquire Triumph as well. This will make them cover the Ultra Premium Harley, Premium Triumph, and budget friendly RE for their retro-heritage products and they could organize bigger events for all three brands under the umbrella of retro-heritage events or something and thus boost the culture.

As discussed at the earlier pages, this price will attract tons of buyers and from the reception of the recent Distinguished Gentlemen Ride, SEA are having cafe racer/ retro craze as well. This should give RE handsome sales and incentivize them to bring in more spareparts and possibly penetrate into the sub-urban areas and thus support shouldn't be an issue. I'm really looking forward into the next few years, I can see the er6n/er6f era coming back again but this time, its a time machine that brings us retro bikes goodness.

Price sensitive yes, but even within SEA, I feel like Malaysia is one of the most obsessed with having the most power for the money. You can see what I mean if you read comments on Indian/Philippines/Thai/Indo motorcycle review videos on Youtube where they talk about different subjects like fuel economy and compare to the comments on similar Malaysian videos where the main complaint is not enough power.

Perhaps that's due to our law enforcement being lax and riding groups in general favoring speed and sportsbike style riding. I don't believe this is just because of the value of hard-earned money and specs being logical, but also because of the value that our society tells people to put on their money. Still a very interesting subject and something that I always thought about since I started riding years ago.

In the west, it is understandable. Their purchasing power is much higher as you mentioned previously. I've even seen videos of people buying cheaper 300+cc bikes to use for a mere 2k kms over half a year and then selling it off.

This I agree with fully. My real concern with RE at the moment is spare parts availability and after sales service.

Of course everyone wants cheaper price, but unless they CKD the bikes locally, that's unlikely.

But Thais are not sensitive to prices. I always check with Thai websites for prices.

www.royalenfieldthailand.net

z650rs price lagi mahal

They are very concerned about fuel efficiency because, you guessed it, fuel is not subsidized and cost 2x compare to us so it will be a major concern for them. Power comparison normally only limits to spec warriors that blow water at mamak shop but normally boils down to "but you can't ride that fast anyway." Its fun to be comparing specs and power and torque are the easiest to talk about, otherwise you'll do comparisons on comfort and quality that is really hard to describe without you seeing it in person, not even 4K videos are able to tell unless its really bad welding or paint chipping off.

Most SEA youtubers do their videos by reading the spec off the brochures anyway and less about riding feel because to be frank, bikes within the same class are more or so the same in build and performance and sound so theres not really much to talk about especially when you are trying out a press release bike.

Remember the guys that moan about not enough power in the comments sections in PT and others sounds the dumbest so they are always downvoted to hell and get pushed to the top of the comments.

I agree with you on the point of power. I once remarked that for the price, my 650 has about 70++hp while the RE Conti GT 650 only has a paltry 47hp due to its air cooled engine. He then asked me back something that made me think... "Can you fully make use of all those 70 plus horses you have? If you can't, you don't even need those horses. Just buy what you're comfortable riding and don't bother about the cc to hp ratio".

I guess we will see if this becomes the case here as well with the impending blanket fuel subsidy removal. And I admit that I do not ride in groups, which is probably another reason I can't really understand local riders' mindset. For me, this has always been a mode of transport and a solo hobby where I observe other road users instead.

Didn't know PT comment section was like this. They should really fix that and kick downvoted comments down instead of pushing them up. Adds absolutely nothing of value to the discussion and only enables trolls.

u can find some useful info regarding re bikes here..

https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.p...vo3j827lai3&#c2

This post has been edited by basilisk: May 28 2022, 01:17 PM

The comparison also applies with Honda X-ADV...its less than 60hp but the price is around 70k+

which obviously you can get other bikes with more horses when reaching that price bracket.

Malaysian buyers (mostly) do have concerns about their bike performance, after all, we in this region are the only one that has an "autobahn" like highway stretching within the peninsula... not soo much about fuel economy, but hey when it comes to big bike who cares about fuel economy? because I've seen many Thai big bike riders ride like maniacs on their Route 12 road or those Pinoys blasting through their EDSA Highway in Manila with their more than 400cc bikes

As long the buyer is happy with their decision.. by all means, do get the RE..

Anyone test ridden the Meteor 350 already? Any feedback?

buy buy buy!
more used bike in few years time! lol

this wobble at low speed, can happens to any motorbike,

even my kapcai does it, but its over 10yo oredi,

many re owners reported this issue,
so the re parts wears out faster n causes this??

My imperiale also has this issue, the bearing in the triple tree got worn out at a mere 16k km , probably from inferior china steel balls to cut cost. Now in mforce workshop praying for them to work on my bike.

This post has been edited by chantakzee: Jun 24 2022, 02:14 PM

Worn headstock bearings, unevenly worn front tyres, overcorrection by rider etc etc.

More aggresive tyres can cause or be more susceptible to wobble. It depends on the thread design if which part of the thread block is in contact with the road, or, you could have an on/off grip profile on different parts of the thread edge.