I bought a Meteor primarily as a commuter and occasional weekend cruiser. I've got about 1,300 miles on her now - the first 250 of which were the ride home from the dealer. Here's my impressions.
My ride to work is about 35 minutes in length, going 55-60 mph for all but the last 5 minutes of the trip. I mainly ride on two-lane blacktop which is akin to the UK's B-roads, with a small section that's somewhere between a UK A- and B-road. The last few miles are on a military installation, where the roads are all B and C, and a top speed limit of 35mph.
I test rode a Himalayan, Classic 350, and the Meteor. I'm 5'9" tall (1.75 m), and weigh 230 lb (104 kg) and a 30" inseam. For me, the Classic's seating has me leaning a tad forward. The Meteor is almost straight up, with a very slight lean backwards. Since I tie my backpack to the pillion, it serves as a backrest and works perfectly. I also installed the touring seat, which has a carve-out for the tailbone to nestle into comfortably, although the seat raised me up and forward a very small amount (less than 1").
My last ride was a Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Classic LT, which is a 903cc midweight cruiser with a very low seat height. The seat on the Meteor is a bit higher, but it doesn't make you feel "toppy" and likely easy to tip over to either side like you might if you were sitting straddled on a fence. I felt a bit of that toppy feeling when I test rode the Classic, but the feel of the Meteor is different. Where the Classic feels like sitting "on top" of the bike, the Meteor feels more like you're sitting "in" the bike - especially if you get one with a windshield. The weight is carried low on the Meteor, and it feels just as stable and planted as the Vulcan, but weighing so much less. This makes the bike easy to maneuver and handle.
The preload on the rear springs is easy to change, but I think the weights given in the owner's manual are a bit conservative due to the harshness of Indian roads. I like my ride to be a bit on the plush side (like riding in an old car that "rolls" around corners), so I have the preload set to the second notch. The sixth notch is way to hard for my comfort, and it was a choice between the second and third notches. Your preferences may vary, but I find the suspension to be just fine.
Power comes on much like a basic 4-cylinder car: as fast as it needs to in order to get the job done, and that's good enough. I feel like 5th gear is more like an overdrive gear than a torque gear. I find that if I'm going 60 and start going up a hill, I have to downshift to 4th and slow to about 55 to keep speed from dwindling too far.
The bike starts getting buzzy with vibrations above 65 mph, but it's not annoying until you're closer to 70. At 60 you don't feel hardly anything. However, when you slow down to stop you'll notice a "dug-dug-dug" sensation as the RPMs drop to idle. The "dug-dug" is always there, but at anything above 20 mph it just turns into a continuous smooth subharmonic sensation that blends together and becomes a subtle background after a while, and you don't really notice it until you slow down again.
There's an "Eco Gear" indicator on the bike. It's not a switch or program you choose, as you would on higher-end bikes. Rather, it's feedback the bike gives you - sort of like a tachometer shift light for your MPG rate. When you're riding the bike at an optimal speed for the gear you're in, the word "Eco" will show up on your display. When it does this, it means that you're riding efficiently in terms of fuel usage. Accelerate too quickly and the word goes away, or cruise at anything above 60 in 5th gear and it goes away, etc. It's helpful in learning to train your throttle hand and gear changes to the Meteor's engine for better fuel usage. I've been consistently getting about 80 MPG. The Classic has the same feature.
I've had no issues on longer trips (I take 4-8 hour cruises once a month or so) other than needing to slightly change my seating due to spots on my backside starting to go numb, but that's the case with every motorcycle I've ever ridden. In town the bike is just fine in traffic. I appreciate the lightness of the clutch in places where I have to do a lot of gear changes or have to hold the lever through a stoplight change.
I did find that compared to my Kawasaki, the Meteor's gear shifting was lighter in terms of knowing that I'm in the new gear. The tactile feedback through the heel-toe shifter is very light and smooth. Sometimes I'll find myself resting my toe a little too low, and the bike will suddenly drop down a gear or into false neutral because the downshift requires so little pressure.
I bought the bike with RE canvas saddlebags (waterproofed on the inside). These are narrower, slimmer, and taller than what you'd find on a Harley or other bagger-style cruiser, but they work fine for carrying things like raingear, thermos for work, etc. They were dark brown to begin with, but have now faded to lighter brown color. The pillion backrest is short enough that I have no problem leaning over the tank and swinging my leg over the seat to mount the bike.
I've found that working on the bike is easy to do. The center stand makes a lot of chores quicker and simpler than a kickstand-only bike. Doing my own first service work saved me a few hundred dollars and let me get to know the bike better.
There are three main complaints I have about the bike, all of which I was able to fix.
First, the headlight was misadjusted. The low-beam was elevated to a high-beam setting, and the high-beam was aimed at the treetops. The adjustment screw is under the rear of the headlight and was quickly fixed.
Second, there's a few spots of orange-ish rust appearing. The bike shop I bought it from was very close to the ocean, and the bike was on display outside quite a lot. The rust was on one bolt on a passenger grab rail, and a few small spots on the frame where paint didn't get into all the crevices and valleys of the welds. A quick cleaning and some WD-40 to clean it up, and some flat black touch-up paint took care of the problem.
Lastly, the relays were filled with white grease that sometimes caused the engine to quit. This is a problem with all RE motorcycles, it seems. I spent an hour cleaning out the relays and haven't had a problem since.
