Royal Enfield Meteor 350 vs Keeway K-Light 250V: Photo Comparison Gallery

Here’s how the recently launched cruiser fares against its desi rival in images

Keeway recently launched three new products for the Indian market. Among the lineup is the K-Light 250V, a 250cc V-twin cruiser. We pit it against its desi rival, the Royal Enfield Meteor 350 to see how the two cruisers fare against each other, through images:  

Design

The Meteor 350 has a classic, laid back design, complete with a windshield, chromed out mirrors and metal finish on the powertrain.

The K-Light 250V on the other hand looks every bit brawny. The wide drag-style handlebar and muscular front end give it a macho appeal. It too adopts the styling of a typical cruiser but looks sportier than the Meteor 350.

Headlight

The halogen headlight and indicators on the Meteor 350 do look dated in today’s day and age.

The all-LED lighting system coupled with the inverted forks make the Keeway look a lot more modern than the Meteor.

Instrument Console

The instrument cluster consists of an analogue speedometer with an LCD inset, with a gear position indicator, time, trip meter, service reminder, etc. The now optional tripper navigation looks like a bit of an afterthought and using it isn’t a bug-free experience. Unfortunately Royal Enfield decided to replace the Thunderbird’s massive 20-litre fuel tank with a much smaller 15-litre one for the Meteor. 

As expected from a typical cruiser, the K-Light 250V features a tank-mounted semi-digital instrument cluster, with a gear position indicator, tripmeter and a fuel amount indicator. It gets modern bits like an all-LED lighting system. One of the major talking point about this cruiser is its massive 20L fuel tank, which should ensure decent range for touring.

Switchgear

The switchgear quality on the Meteor 350 feels reasonably solid, and the old-school rotary design adds some much-needed character to the bike.

The switchgear on the Keeway looks exactly like the ones on Harley-Davidson motorcyles but its quality left a lot to be desired. The placement of the horn and the indicators too, will take some time getting used to.

Engine

Powering the Meteor is a 349cc air-cooled, single-cylinder engine. It produces 20.48PS and 27Nm, and is mated to a 5-speed transmission.

The juiciest part of this cruiser from Keeway is its 249cc 4-valve, V-twin engine. This makes it the only quarter-litre V-twin engine available in India. The engine is mated to a 5-speed transmission linked to a belt drive, which again is the only one of its kind in the 250cc segment. That said, the engine produces a rather mediocre 19.96PS and 19Nm despite the extra cylinder. The extra torque should make the Meteor 350 a much easier bike to putter around in the city, at least on paper.

Underpinnings 

The Meteor 350 comes equipped with a double-cradle frame suspended off a telescopic fork and twin shock absorbers. Anchoring the bike are 300mm front and 270mm rear discs with dual-channel ABS. It rolls on  100/90- 19 up front and 140/70- 17 at the rear. 

A 191kg kerb weight makes it a much heavier motorcycle but the 765mm seat should make it easy to maneuver at low speeds. The 170mm ground clearance is generous enough for Indian roads.

Suspension duties on the K-Light 250V are handled by a more premium inverted fork up front along with twin shock absorbers at the rear. Braking hardware consists of discs at both the ends with dual-channel ABS as standard. 

This cruiser rolls on smaller 16-inch alloys at both ends wrapped with a fatter 120-section front and 140-section rear tyres. Tipping the scales at 179kg makes it a relatively a lot lighter motorcycle than the Meteor. A comparable ground clearance of 160mm should keep its underside safe on most roads.

Rear

The Meteor again, looks every bit retro from the rear, thanks to the circular LED taillight. The cushioned pillion backrest adds to the comfort of the pillion. The only LED you’ll see on the entire motorcycle is the taillight. 

The Keeway K-Light 250V on the other hand has modern touches at the rear as well with LED indicators as well as an LED taillight. The stubby tail section and the vertically stacked twin exhausts  give it a brawny stance.

Price

The prices for the base variant of the Meteor 350 start at Rs 2,01,253 (ex-showroom Delhi), whereas the Supernova variant (shown in pictures) starts at Rs 2,17,469 and goes up to Rs 2,19,306 .

While Keeway hasn’t revealed the prices yet, bookings for the Keeway K-Light 250V have already commenced across the dealerships for Rs 10,000 and deliveries are expected to begin from June 2022. We expect it to be priced around Rs 2.6 lakh (ex-showroom).