My sorta brief assessment of my (long gone) RE 350 Classic.

[BSA Biker]

Well Vlad you've been somewhere I would love to see - Lake Baikal the biggest fresh water lake in the world, I'm very envious.
Being in my mid 70's I've done the speed bit years ago and now I go at my pace, don't have anything to prove to others.

 

[Vlad252]

Thank you, my friend, for the kind words. I've worked all my life on big heavy and slow cars. And that's probably why I like beautiful, not fast motorcycles. Yakutia is 90 km from my house. Our summer is short , and the first snow will probably fall in a month . Regardless of the weather, I ride motorcycles every day, even if it rains heavily. Does it seem to me that there is no winter in Spain?

 

[BSA Biker]

I live in northern Spain/Catalunya and being up in low mountains (approx 350 ms) we do get snow. Maybe not every year but it can be over a foot deep at times and temps down to minus 10 have been known.
This was back in January 2021 the last time we had a big snow fall (maybe not to your standards) over 300mms it was over the top of my wellies and my dog was 'bunny hopping' in the snow.

 

[beowulf]

I have just passed 3000 miles on my 2024 Bullet 350 so I'll add my 2 cents.

I absolutely love this bike.
Yes, it is heavy for a 350 and yes she strains going up hill in 5th gear but I'm still amazed how this single thumper has no vibration at any speed.

If I were asked, there are just a few things that I would gripe about:

1) Oil drain by two-bolt plate instead of a proper drain plug.

2) Way too much work to adjust the valve lash (remember those 1960s Triumphs and Hondas that you just remove a cap on the valve cover?).

3) Nearly impossible to remove the rear wheel without help or a lift. On the road side? No chance.

A kick starter would help if the battery dies--but it would add weight. And I would prefer an analog fuel gauge. But those are minor issues compared to the superb preservation of classic British design sensibility and joy of riding.

I can't think of another bike I'd rather own.

 

[BikerBob]

When I first saw a photo of a UK dealership's metallic bronze and chrome RE 350 Classic, I promised myself that I would have it as soon as one arrived at my local US dealer.

It took a while, but one found it's way here and I immediately bought it.

Good lord, that thing was gorgeous.

I was all agog for the bike, loved EVERYTHING about it...except.......for all of it's visual attractiveness and mechanical refinement, it's very meager 20 hp output soon had me leaving it in the garage while I took one of our other bikes out for whatever the day's ride was to be.

With only about 300 miles on it, I sadly traded it back in to the dealer I bought it from.

I understand that 20 hp pushing a 400+ pound bike with a 230 pound rider in hilly country may be enough for some, even many, but it simply wasn't going to work out for me.

I tell.people that if it only had another ten hp, I would very likely still have it, but....it doesn't.

I can only blame myself for the situation because I had test rode an RE 350 some months before buying one, and I knew that the 350 single RE engine was marginal at best for my riding needs in our area, but put on the proverbial rose-colored glasses and bought one anyway, thinking that I would be able to adjust to it's power shortcomings(?), after all, one of my favorite bikes in our garage is a Vespa GTS 350 scooter, but the performance differences between the two machines is substantial, and not in the RE's favor.

So there it is.

But just LOOK at that beautiful little bike, eh? (Almost the same physical size as the 650 Interceptor)...
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I bought my Classic with 1800 miles on the clock. It was the time I'd ridden one and was happy with the performance. A friend of a friend bought a brand new one and asked if I would like to give it a road test as he was concerned about the brakes. I was suprised how little power the bike had compared to my own. Having read a few reports and watched various YouTube reviews I advised him to finish running it in properly and see how it went. The brakes just needed some hard use to bed them in and were fine. My own bike has now completed almost 3k miles and imho its taken most those miles to be fully run in. His has now done 2k miles and has loosened up beautifully. Whilst these only have 20hp, the torque is enough to carry a pillion without a problem and my the speedo on my GPS reads 73mph. These engines are in such a mild sense of tune they should run forever.

 

[JBacklund]

.....These engines are in such a mild sense of tune they should run forever.

They'll have to if you want to get anywhere.

(Just a little good-natured sarcasm there )

When I bought my Classic 350, I had hopes of possibly riding it on an 850 mile round trip run to my home town in Minnesota, and although my 350 could go 60-65 mph on the two-lane highways I would take, I soon abandoned that idea due to the bike having so little in reserve from those speeds to deal with the hills and almost certain headwinds that I would encounter, especially on the westward return trip.

I did make that trip, but rode my Vespa GTS300 scooter instead, and due to it's higher horsepower and significantly lighter weight, handled the trip better than the RE could be have done.

 

[JBacklund]

I should mention that I covered 840 miles with that Vespa in two days, out and back, and had a great time doing it, too.

There's a tremendous sense of adventure recaptured when using a smaller CC bike for a 'long' road trip like that. With only about another ten-fifteen hp, that beautiful RE 350 would have been an ideal low-effort, fun, and reasonably capable little machine to set out upon the open roads with.

I have two BMW 1200's (a boxer twin and a K-bike four cylinder),Triumph 1200 Speedmaster (wife's), and a monstrous Triumph Rocket 3R in the garage, as well, but chose the Vespa for that trip, and couldn't have been happier with it.

I just found out last Saturday that I should be able to place an order at our local RE dealership for a new Classic 650, which I've wanted ever since I first saw the model over a year ago, but hasn't been available in the US as yet. I'll probably go for the black/chrome version, though I'm quite fond of the teal model too. If I could, I'd buy both.

As a child of the 50's and 60's, this bike pushes absolutely ALL of my 'retro-bike buttons' and then some. It's irresistible, has almost all of the stylistic charm of the Classic 350, but with the added 'oomph' to make it a truly versatile and practical performer out there in 'the real world'.

 

[2LZ]

I say black/chrome. It's stunning.

That doesn't bode well for the C350, when a guy would rather take a scooter. What year and displacement is your Vespa?

 

[wspollack]

I say black/chrome. It's stunning.

That doesn't bode well for the C350, when a guy would rather take a scooter. What year and displacement is your Vespa?

I'm obviously not @JBacklund , but I'm in a similar situation. That is, I have a scooter and an M350 (both 2023 models).

Last year (2024), I rode the scooter, a BMW C 400 GT, from my home in Albany, NY, to Asheville, NC, to visit one of my daughters (and, once down there, to ride the Cherohala Skyway and Tail of the Dragon, and the Back of the Dragon on the way down).

Like the M350, the Beemer is powered by a 350cc single. However, the Meteor has 20HP and a top speed, per my GPS, of about 75; the Beemer has 34HP, a top speed of about 90, water-cooled, better wind and weather protection, more storage, and is only slightly heavier.

Mind you, I would love to take the M350 down there, but I'd have to trailer it (and I don't have a trailer or hitch, plus we only have one car), or take two or three weeks' leave of my wife (instead of the eight days I was gone). The kid is about 900 miles away, and I did two days down and two days back on the scooter, mostly superslabbing.

And on those roads, I mostly hung out in left-lane traffic, going way above the posted 70mph limit (like everyone else) for much of those roads. Alas, even the right lane would be a problem on the M350, and I'd have to pin it the whole day (which can't be all that good for the engine, as well as not being a whole lot of fun).

That's a trip I try to do every couple of years, and have done the two-days-down and two-days-back on Burgman 650 scooters, a standard BMW 850, a Valkyrie Interstate, and a Victory Cross Country Tour (and on the first Burgman, in my younger days, I once did the trip home in one day). But I can't follow that system on the M350.

Mind you, I enjoy the M350 immensely for non-superslab rides. At home, I pretty much just alternate the two bikes, for my back-road goofing-off day trips.

 

[JBacklund]

I say black/chrome. It's stunning.

That doesn't bode well for the C350, when a guy would rather take a scooter. What year and displacement is your Vespa?

Both machines are no longer with me, the C350 was soon traded back in on a 650 Continental GT, and the Vespa was traded in for my '13 R1200R.

The Vespa was a '22 GTS300 HPE model. I bought it at Sturgis BMW after it was traded in there during the '23 Sturgis rally.

I owned it for a little under three years.

That model Vespa is actually 278cc's, and puts out 24 hp and weighs about 350 pounds, so it's hp/weight ratio is substantially higher then the RE 350 single.

I like it a lot.

 

[JBacklund]

I say black/chrome. It's stunning.

I think that the black/chrome 650 IS the way to go on this one.

I envision it with somewhat lower handlebars and chrome bar end mirrors, the optional rear passenger seat...maybe a chrome parcel tank rack like I had on my Interceptor 650. I would also install a 16 tooth countershaft sprocket like I had on my Interceptor to give that top 6th gear a little higher cruise speed on the highways with a little lower revs.

 

[StefArmstg]

For someone like myself, stuck in the past with no interest in modern tech or high performance, an RE 650 is close to perfect. Old timey style, without high maintenance. Enough motor for a run up the Interstate. And gobs of character. That undefinable feeling that makes you want to be riding. To go somewhere, or nowhere, just to be on the bike and rolling down the road.