How did you find the Meteor to ride
On the whole it was a nice bike to ride.
Very responsive. Feels lighter than its weight would indicate and goes where you look very nicely.
It’s a 350 without all that much power; will cruise all day at 60 happily, but don’t ask too much more of it because by 65 you are running out of steam. Will reach 70 at a push so long as you’re not on an uphill gradient.
I am 5’8” with a 29” inseam. Design wise foot forward riding position is a nice change to my sorts tourer BUT they designed the foot pegs flat and parallel to the ground so your feet are pronated and don’t feel naturally sited. Round pegs rather than plate style pegs would make it easier. I am sure if I was wearing sandals like most of the folks in the Indian marketplace will be, it would have been more comfortable, but in boots my feet didn’t sit naturally on the pegs in relation to the gear levers. This could maybe be ameliorated by moving the lever positions by moving it one spline around on the gearbox. The heel shifter takes a half hour to get used to and I could that by sticking a knee and toe out slightly for the change it felt easier.
Gearbox was nice and smooth.
Mirrors would need to be binned and replaced by bar end mirrors; they were a little buzzy at anything over 45-50.
Engine was sweet for a single, but as said it runs out of puff after 60mph, and dropping down a gear doesn’t help with that.
The seat needs breaking in. The scoop was about an inch in the wrong place for my dimensions. As it is such a low seat height my bet is that a slightly higher seat, or 1000 miles in the saddle would fix that. Would definitely go for the touring seat over the standard.
Clutch lever was really light and easy - it’s not a slipper clutch so that was a pleasant surprise!
I am being picky, but if I am not saying that something was wrong or out of place it means it didn’t stand out as having anything wrong with it!
Fit and finish is generally very good; plastic filler cap cover was a bit loose and tacky. Did I mention the mirrors?
On the whole I liked it. I am not used to the cruiser riding position but it’s a fun little machine that I can see being great for urban commutes and lazy backroad summer fun. Forget it if you need something to quickly eat up miles on fast roads - it wasn’t designed for that and it won’t do it efficiently.
