Best Middleweight Cruiser? Super Meteor vs Rebel vs Vulcan!

 now this year Royal Enfield launched this the new super meteor 650 and I think it’s a mighty fine motorcycle but does that make it good enough to beat the other lightweight cruisers on the market well I’m here at Superbike Factory today to ride them all back to back to find out [Music] [Applause] [Music] now before we get underway I just

want to say a massive thanks to Superbike Factory for supporting the channel by sponsoring this video now the Enfield that I’ve got is a brand new press buy from Royal Enfield themselves but the other two bikes the Kawasaki Vulcan s and the rebel 500 from Honda these are both part of Superbike Factory stock they’ve got all sorts on their website all different genres of bikes at all different price points and so you should be able to find something that’s your cup

of tea so I’d definitely recommend getting down to one of their stores to check out their absolute abundance of bikes but if you can’t make it down or there’s not one nearby then you can always check out their website loads of great

deals on there and they deliver their bikes as well some of them for free so there’s a link down in the description below where you can find out more information and once again a massive thanks to Superbike Factory for their support so let’s start with the engines and despite the fact that they’re all parallel Twins and roughly similar in

capacity they do actually all have their own strengths of weaknesses we’ll start with the Enfield for example this is slightly old school feeling because it’s air and oil cooled and the result on the way it delivers its power is that it doesn’t really rev as high as the other two bikes and makes most of its Grunt in the sort of low to mid-range so while

it does make a decent amount of torque and it sort of feels like it’s got a bit of guts to it you know it doesn’t keep on revving and revving and so it makes actually about 46 horsepower Peak this Rebel 500 on the other hand is liquid cooled so a lot more modern and so despite the fact that it’s quite a lot

Best Middleweight Cruiser? Super Meteor vs Rebel vs Vulcan!

smaller in capacity it’s 471 CC so nearly 200 smaller it actually makes pretty much the same Peak power and look it doesn’t feel anywhere near as gutsy but if you can keep it singing It’s actually quite quick and it’s about 50 kilograms lighter as well so under acceleration it feels actually a little bit quicker but the Vulcan s is probably the best of both

worlds it’s got the 650 capacity of the M field but also the liquid cooling of the Honda and the result is the most powerful bike of the bunch it delivers the most peat torque but also it has this sort of free revving feel and if you can keep the revs up you can actually get about 60 horsepower out of it for me out on the road this feels the most

satisfying to ride it feels the quickest it feels the most Lively and while the engine is a bit generic and not really very cruisery out on the road this is the one that feels quickest to me and I think it’s fair to say it delivers the most fun even if it doesn’t really have that classic Cruiser feel to it you see both this bike and the rebel 500 have a 180 degree interval on the crank and so that means the gap between the two cylinders firing gives it a certain sound and feel

foreign  and it’s a bit generic you know they use this engine in the z650 naked in the versus 650 adventure bike same for the Honda it’s in the cb500x The cb500 Naked the cbr500r sports bike and so neither really has the sound and feel that you’d associate with the sort of Cruiser scene the Enfield though combined with the air cooling has a 270 degree crank and that’s

known to give bikes a bit more soul and feel [Music] all right [Music] and that’s exactly what you get with this bike it’s the one out of the bunch that feels the most satisfying in terms of the grunt it gives you and also gives you a little shade of the 90 degree V twins that are most commonly found in Cruisers so yeah while it might not be the quickest

bike or the most revvy for me I think it’d be my pick because it’s got the most soulfulness and also that nice talky low end now from a handling perspective both these bikes feel pretty similar and pretty neutral to me they’re never going to be the fastest turning or the hardest braking bikes the geometry of a cruiser means that it’s quite relaxed and

biased towards stability but look both are perfectly good and actually quite fun to ride this one comes in at around 230 kilograms where this one 240 and so much lighter than your big mid to heavyweight Cruisers and you definitely feel that out on the road still if you come in from like a naked bike or something like that you’ve got to expect a little bit less ground clearance the riding position isn’t as sporty either and of

course with the oversized front wheels and the single disc up front there’s going to be a trade-off in terms of how quickly you can ride but generally I’d say they’re both quite enjoyable a sort of like moderate clip now the rebel is easily the smallest of the bunch it’s just 190 kilograms curb and it also sits the lowest and so in some circumstances

that’s definitely going to be an advantage I’m thinking about commuting picking your way through town traffic this is probably the bike you choose but I think out on the open road this is probably the one that’s the least engaging for me two things I think that affect the handling number one is that big balloon front wheel that needs a little bit more

Force to get it to turn in and then you’ve got the fact that it has the narrowest bars of the bunch and so you’ve got less leverage over that fat balloon tire so while it is a small petite bike and it is easy to maneuver it just feels like the least

responsive and engaging on the steering I can see why though it’s a popular bike I mean it’s so low in the seat 690 mil and like I say that curb weight makes it completely unintimidating so if you are a smaller Rider or less experienced then you want something that looks kind of cool but it’s

very easy to manage and get on with then this is probably the one to go for honestly it’d be a great little starter bike and a good little town bike as well but I think for me it’s just a little bit too cramped to call it properly comfortable I

mean I’m about five foot nine so not particularly tall and even for me this thing is a little bit cramped like I say you’ve got smaller more narrow bars the seat height means there’s not a great deal of space down to the floor but also with the mid position pegs I feel a bit cramped in the knee angle and I probably wouldn’t be super comfortable over

distance the other two though that are much more spacious and much more comfortable for me and I think they’re both right in that sweet spot of light small enough to say that they’re lightweight Cruisers and give them some advantage over the

bigger bikes but not so small that you’re all squashed up and cramped on them now they’re really quite similar in terms of riding position the bars are sort of wide and high the foot controls are forward set but they’re not super far to reach to because they’re not necessarily that big bikes and the Saddles are sort of a similar tractory shape which I

really like and I do find both of them very comfortable the key difference between these two bikes though is that the super meteor sits quite a bit taller that bike feels much more like what you’d expect for a cruiser low slung it feels quite badass in the riding position whereas the Enfield you know it’s a bit less typical Cruiser but in a way it’s quite a

nice compromise between a sort of retro like their Interceptor 650 and something like that the forward controls in those big bars do give it that sort of commanding position but your bum’s not right down by the floor and if you want something that does sit a little bit taller for whatever reason maybe you’re a bit on the tall side yourself or you find that lonest difficult to get on with then this is a really nice sort of halfway house

now for me there are two big advantages of this bike over the other two the first being Tech I mean they’re all mainly pretty simple we’re not talking a full Suite of Rider raids and riding modes just ABS on these three bikes but this one does get the best Dash in my opinion with the most information and also you got the option of that Tripper

navigation pod which hooks up to the Enfield app on your phone so you can get none navigation prompts right there in the dash and it looks nice and neat and tidy the other thing would be just the general level of finish I mean this one for me has the most cruisery retro look to it which I think is the most desirable but also I think it’s the most

impressive Enfield I’ve ever seen in terms of the level of finish and the attention to detail I love these chunky Harley style levers and they’re both adjustable as well which is a great feature at this price point you’ve got these really nice feeling Barrel shaped grips with the Royal Enfield logo in them there the paintwork looks great it really Pops in the

sun this metallic dark green the stitching looks great the design of the bike even things like the triple clamps and the headlight brackets make it look a bit more premium than the other two and so for me this is hands down the most stylish bike out of the three the others are a little bit more modern

kind of like a Japanese interpretation of a cruiser whereas this does the whole sort of Cruiser look much better now price wise it would be a bit unfair to use the used prices and the two bikes that we’ve got here because this one is

brand new but if we use the new price as consistent measure the Vulcan is the most expensive the Enfield sits in the middle and then the rebel is the most affordable and it’s easy to see why this bike comes in at the lowest amount of cash I mean you get the smallest engine the simplest finish the smallest bike but these two are quite interesting I

mean like I say the Enfield really impresses me with the level of finish and with the way it feels to ride it just has a lot more character to it and for me it’s a lot more memorable so which bike would I recommend buying well if you’re a smaller Rider

and you’re looking for something that’s really easy to get on with then this is a great option and as a starter bike as well it’s probably the cheapest option and so it really does make complete sense and it is plenty of fun if you do keep that engine sinking now the Vulcan is the one that gives you that nice low feet forward wide bars Cruiser position and

also it’s got plenty of pep in the engine and so it makes for quite a fun ride so if you want to go quickly that’s probably the one to go for but I think if you want the bike that really does deliver a bit of Cruiser character and soul and a cruiser riding experience and you can get on with that slightly higher saddle height than the Enfield of course is a

brilliant Choice as always though I’d love to know which bike you pick down in the comments below so do let me know another massive thanks to Superbike Factory for sorting me out with these bikes today we’ve got loads of great videos from Superbike Factory over the past year or so I’ll put a link to a playlist right here on the screen so you can see them all many thanks for watching today and I’ll see you in the next one