Honda Rebel 300 and Royal Enfield Meteor 350 look quite identical on paper in terms of hardware and features, but engine specs set them apart by a fair margin
Honda 2-Wheelers India recently unveiled the Rebel 300 in the country. It will mark the company’s entry in the entry-level cruiser segment while positioned below the CB350 series of bikes in the Indian market. Honda Rebel 300 is likely to launch during the festive season of Diwali later this year in Oct-Nov in India. It will be locally produced in our country to ensure an aggressive pricing to take on the mighty Royal Enfield Meteor 350. Here, in this piece, we will conduct a thorough comparison of both these cruiser bikes with respect to price, features and engine specs.
Honda Rebel 300 vs Royal Enfield Meteor 350: Price and Variants
Royal Enfield Meteor 350 is available in four trims namely Fireball, Stellar, Aurora, and Supernova in a price range of Rs 2.00-2.11 lakh (ex-showroom). On the other hand, the Rebel 300 will be introduced in both Standard and E-Clutch variants. Due to higher degree of localization, we predict it to be priced between Rs 2.10-2.20 lakh for the standard grade (ex-showroom).
However, the E-Clutch trim could be even more expensive, but exactly how much is not known yet. We can expect it to attract a premium of at least Rs 10,000-15,000 over the Standard variant. Hence, as we can see, the aggressive pricing of the base variant puts it in the same ballpark as the Meteor 350. So, the customers will have a really hard time making a choice among the two cruisers in terms of pricing.
Honda Rebel 300 vs Royal Enfield Meteor 350: Engine & Hardware
The Rebel 300 will borrow the CB300R’s 286cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine with identical power and torque figures of 30 bhp and 27.5 Nm. As for the Meteor 350, it uses a 349cc single-cylinder air-cooled petrol engine which generates max power of 20.2 bhp and peak torque of 27.5 Nm. Both the cruiser motorcycles come with a 5-speed gearbox. On the paper, the Rebel 300 certainly is more powerful while the torque figures, more or less, are the same and won’t make much of a difference.
In terms of hardware, both the bikes get telescopic front forks and dual-shock rear absorbers. The wheel setup is also similar in the form of 19-inch front and 17-inch rear rims. However, the Rebel 300 is likely to be offered only with alloy wheels while the Meteor 350 offers multiple options to a buyer such as alloy, spoke, and tubeless spoke wheels.
Honda Rebel 300 vs Royal Enfield Meteor 350: Features
Honda Rebel is confirmed to come equipped with multiple upscale and premium features in the form of LED projector headlamp, front and rear disc brakes, dual-channel ABS, TFT instrument cluster with Honda RoadSync, and turn-by-turn navigation. The E-Clutch variant will ensure seamless downshift and upshift of gears while retaining the clutch lever for manual operation, whenever needed.
Royal Enfield Meteor 350 comes with a semi-digital instrument cluster, which has an analogue speedometer and a digital pod to display fuel level, time, gear position, trip and odometer readings. It also boasts of RE’s Tripper Navigation (turn-by-turn navigation) and dual-channel ABS. Since the Meteor 350 has been on sale for quite some time, we cannot expect it to match the bells and whistles of the Rebel 300 which will be the latest model in this segment.
