I can see Triumph taking a lot of sales from Enfield with this model, in many ways the Enfield is the more practical bike, center stand good mud guards easy to work on and other things but, its let down by two problems , poor front brake , and most problem power , it needs an other 20 bhp.
Plasma
I can see that, too ... but only to some extent, i.e., not overwhelmingly.
The Triumph 400s have gotten some pretty nice reviews -- I've read a bunch of them -- especially the oomph and handling of the street-oriented one. And I think that one looks pretty nice, too.
However, if I were in the market again, the way I was last summer, I would STILL get an M350. What that RE bike has going for it -- for me -- is:
- Feet more forward than either of the Triumph 400 models. (Not so big an issue maybe for younger riders, but a big issue for me.)
- Significantly cheaper out the door than the Triumphs. Besides having a higher MSRP, the Ts also have something like USD 600 setup charge, and freight, and yada yada. When you're comparing OTD prices of, say, $5K vs. more than $6K, you're starting to talk real money, i.e., when you add 20% or more to the cost of one bike vs. another. I have a Triumph dealer about a mile from my house, and I visited there, and confirmed these additions. I think it will be years, if ever, that you're going to see this stuff vanish for leftover stock (if any) of the T400s, compared to some of the deals you can get at many RE shops.
- The 20 HP / 72 MPH of the M350 is perfectly fine to me, for the back-road jaunts I do on it. I don't think any of the 350 REs or the T400s are bikes that you'd really like to do an all-day superslab day on.
- I wonder about the ease of maintenance of the T400s. I don't really know jack about that, but it might be something to consider, especially in the realm of valve adjustments.
But that's me.
I wish Triumph well, because what I think the USA needs is more of these smaller and lighter bikes. If you do a lot of criss-crossing the USA, get a 'Wing or an RT or something like that, for a second bike. If you mostly do goofing-off back-road trips like me, either of my 350s -- the M350 or my C 400 GT -- works fine (and I use the latter for the once-or-twice-a-year out-of-town superslab trips).
