[AzCal Retred]

https://www.webbikeworld.com/europes-royal-enfield-meteor-350s-price-and-specs-are-here/

Europe’s Royal Enfield Meteor 350’S Price And Specs Are Here
 CHASE HADDEN DECEMBER 10, 2020

The Fireball base model will come with a €4099 ($4965 USD) price tag and is offered in two colors; red and yellow. The next step up, The Stellar, brings some chrome accenting to the motorcycle, as well as a passenger backrest, and will be available in the same shade red as the Fireball with the addition of blue or black paint options and a slight price increase to €4189 ($5074 USD). The final top-tier Supernova includes an extra windshield and higher-quality comfort seat to combine with the Stellar’s extras and is priced at €4189 ($5074 USD).

[Keef Sparrow]

UK dealers are now taking orders for delivery in spring 2021.

[Keef Sparrow]

And it's now on the Royal Enfield UK website.
https://www.royalenfield.com/uk/en/our-world/media/news/product-launches/meteor-launch/

[AzCal Retred]

Estimating by KS's post:

https://www.royalenfield.com/uk/en/our-world/media/news/product-launches/meteor-launch/

"The Meteor 350 starts at an incredibly competitive price point of OTR £3749 "

3750 x 1.3 = $4875 USD in the UK

4875 x 0.8 = $3900 USD in the USA

If this 5/4 UK/USA ratio holds, the Meteor might be $500 - $1000 less than the nearest competition.

[RalphG]

If the Meteor can be priced in the USA at under $4000USD, it should be a runaway winner.  NBGTGC

[Keef Sparrow]

I'm not convinced about it being a winner in the USA regardless of price - I don't think there is the demand for a 350 single. Also, RE won't be able to produce enough for the US market to satisfy demand as nearly all production will go to their home market. I think the UK market will also suffer from them not being able to import enough bikes to satisfy demand.

[AzCal Retred]

If the Meteor proves to be reasonably reliable, I believe at $3999 they'll be OK. That's Chinese Bike territory. Even the economical SG250 is about $3K by the time it sees the inside of your garage. New bike buyers are buying the promise of reliability. A torquey, brand new 350 for about $4K should do well unless it gets a rep as a grenade.
 
https://cscmotorcycles.com/2020-sg250-cafe-racer-pre-order-deposit/
230cc air-cooled engine, overhead valve, with counter-balancer (It's a counterbalanced CG motor clone, 16-18 HP)
Fuel system: Keima slide carburetor
Long maintenance intervals and easy repairs backed by a full Owners Manual and online service tutorials
5-speed transmission
Starter: Electric and kick starter
Stainless steel megaphone steel exhaust
4-gallon fuel tank with locking gas cap keyed to ignition
LED headlight with halo ring
Dash with speedometer, tachometer, odometer, fuel gauge, gear indicator, neutral light, turn signal and high beam indicators
LED brake light
300-Watt alternator
Inverted front forks, front fork lock
Adjustable dual rear shock absorbers with reservoirs
Large diameter front and rear disc brakes
Front 90/71/17 spoked wheel with DOT tire and tube, black aluminum rim
Rear 120/70/17 spoked wheel with DOT tire and tube, black aluminum rim
Folding rider and passenger foot pegs with rubber inserts
Black low handlebars with bar-end weights
Dual rear-view mirrors
Comfort seat for driver and passenger
Side stand and center stand
The 230cc motor used in the CSC SG250 (and the CSC TT250 Enduro) is a modernized version of the world-design motorcycle engine first developed by Honda back in 1975. Honda and other manufacturers wanted to export motorcycles into the growing market of Southeast Asia. But the economies of these countries were far behind Japan at the time. The engineers noted the contrast in motorcycle usage in these countries, It was normal to see a child on the tank and the wife on the back, with two to four people riding together. And some people loaded vegetables, chickens, and pigs onto their motorcycles. We even saw motorcycles towing loaded carts. There were no motorcycle dealers in these emerging markets, only local repair shops which disassembled and repaired motorcycles that were broken down. Customers brought their motorcycles in only when they had stopped running. The concept of routine maintenance was completely foreign to the motor bike owners. To tap into these demanding markets, Honda developed a new motorcycle engine that was specifically designed to require minimal maintenance. The lightweight, short-pushrod overhead valve 125cc engine featured a gear-driven, single camshaft structure for both intake and exhaust. The shaft is located where one would find the cam-chain housing in a more conventional overhead cam engine. This engine was later manufactured in a new factory in Brazil for the growing market in South America. Honda introduced a new motorcycle for the South American market called the CG125 Titan.
Over 40 years later, the original CG125 patent has long-expired. Today, Zongshen, the manufacturer of the CSC SG250, has a modern factory that builds over 3 MILLION engines each year. Zongshen builds both a 125cc and a 230cc version of the old CG engine. CSC distributes only the 230cc version in its modern motorcycles, with the additional update of a counter-balancer. This dependable motor is available in both the CSC SG250 San Gabriel and the CSC TT250 Enduro.

Here's a new electric "Imitation Honda Step-Thru C70" for not too much less money.
https://cscmotorcycles.com/csc-monterrey-electric-scooter/
Max. Speed   32Mph / 52km/h
Max Torque                   120N.m / 88ft/lb
Range                              20-65 Miles (Depending on Rider/Road conditions)
Climbing Capacity           ≥10°
Battery Type                   Lithium
Warranty                           12Mo. Parts / Battery 12 Pro Rated
Battery Capacity           60V26Ah
Cycles of life                   ≥800
Weight of the battery           20lbs
Charging time                    (0-100%)   ≤7 hours
Type   Dc brushless
Max. Power                    2.4kW
Nominal Power                    1.5kW

[Nitrowing]

SG250 looks fine in grey 

[AzCal Retred]

Wouldn't these make a great Production Class racer? Keep them painfully stock except for tires, suspension springs & brake pads, separated into classes by rider tonnage, may the best man win. Have a claiming rule of $3,500 to keep down cheating. Now that would make for some affordable racing!

[axman88]

I'm not convinced about it being a winner in the USA regardless of price - I don't think there is the demand for a 350 single. Also, RE won't be able to produce enough for the US market to satisfy demand as nearly all production will go to their home market. I think the UK market will also suffer from them not being able to import enough bikes to satisfy demand.

I agree with your prediction of the US demand.  Even if it's more than $1000 less than the Honda Rebel, at least around here, I don't see much desire for street machines in that capacity range.

But, I disagree that capacity will be any sort of restriction, pandemic issues excepted.  Global exports (to 50 countries in 2017) of Royal Enfield's products is generally between 2% and 5% of their total sales for any given month, and monthly sales for most of 2020 were well below 2019 totals.  Coming out of the pandemic, RE has quite a bit of excess capacity.  Tripling demand, or even increasing it by a factor of ten in the UK and the USA, as unlikely as this would be in these generally declining markets, would still be a small fraction of total production. 

Some numbers for perspective.

In 2019, about     470,000 motorcycles were sold in the USA.
              about     108,000 in the UK.
             about  21,180,000 motorcycles were sold in India in the same year.

These numbers are totals for ALL makers.  RE's share of their domestic market was about 4%.  With their strong sales of the 650s, I wonder if their market share percentage wasn't higher in the UK than it was in India?   4% of 108,000 machines would only be some  4320 bikes, a drop in the bucket.  Didn't RE produce something like 700,000 machines in 2019?

[stefano_musica]

It's on the Australian website but no price yet.

One website says this "bikesales anticipates Australian pricing could fall anywhere between $5000-$8000"

That's quite a broad price range. I expect it'll be somewhere a little higher than the Classic 350 which is around 6,490 (Ride-away - that includes all government and registration charges). So I would safely assume around $7000 AUD.

Hey Warro. Have you bought one yet? I'm assuming you've already pre-ordered one months back.

[AzCal Retred]

At a nominal 0.75 AUD to 1.00 USD exchange rate:
 AUD                 USD
$5000              $3750
$6000              $4500
$7000              $5250
$8000              $6000

Much over $3750 USD and you're in Himalayan territory. At $6000 USD you're in Interceptor land.

[zimmemr]

Wouldn't these make a great Production Class racer? Keep them painfully stock except for tires, suspension springs & brake pads, separated into classes by rider tonnage, may the best man win. Have a claiming rule of $3,500 to keep down cheating. Now that would make for some affordable racing!

I'd let them change the pipe and air filter as well, just so they'd sound a bit lusty, but yeah, it'd be a fun class. I'd also stipulate that championship points have to earned on dirt i.e short tracks and TT, and pavement, and that the same bike be used for both disciplines. Hell, I might even come out of retirement to ride one. Or maybe build one for some kid with big balls to ride.

[AzCal Retred]

All the normal Lo-Buck stuff is great. Affordable production racing really advances tuning & riding skillsets. Cheap mods that decrease lap times are the idea here. Raw talent will become obvious. I've experienced this first hand, having an overall wearing farm boy from Wickenburg Az. on a stone-stock DT1 250 Yamaha leave me and my 250 CanAm for dead in the twistier, whoop filled trail sections. The straightaways were all mine of course, but any fool can open up the volume control. Humbling!
The high end cheaters (Titanium cranks, valves, hand made cams, over-bored carbs, custom gearsets, etc.) are kept at bay by the "claiming rule" - where after an event a competitor can "claim" the winners bike for a fixed amount - generally about the price of a new stock machine.