Royal Enfield is usually associated with street cruisers, but a purpose-built adventure tourer built by the same company?
As crazy as that sounds, it is now a reality in the form of the Himalayan. According to the company, the bike can take on the Himalayas. So, we decided out to test out the bike in the Himalayan Ranges. We weren’t expecting the bike to be a true-blue adventure tourer, but what we found out blew our minds!
The Looks
The first thing that you will notice is that the Himalayan does not try very hard on the looks front. The paint schemes available are black and white in matte finish. The design is minimalistic as well, and the bike has a tall stance.
The instrument cluster has a unique layout and includes a compass, which can come very handy on your off-road trips. Being a mixture of analogue and digital, the cluster takes some time getting used to, but once you get familiar, it is pretty informative.
The rear tail lamps are LEDs and have a neat layout. The back end has almost no flex, which means that there won’t be any vibrations coming out of the back end any time soon.
The Good
The Himalayan sports a newly designed 411cc engine called the LS410. The ‘LS’ stands for ‘long-stroke’ and comes with a counter-balancer. Previous generations of Royal Enfields used to vibrate a lot, making them uncomfortable for long journeys. The LS410, though, has almost no vibrations and is also punchy enough, with 24.5 horsepower and 32 Nm of torque. The bike just loves to sits between the 3000-4000 rpm range, above that you will feel the need to upshift.
The front suspension has a 200 mm travel, couple that with the large 21-inch front wheel, and the bike eats up the pot holes and gets past almost every sort of terrain that you could throw at it.
High handlebars and a low seat height (800 mm) make for excellent riding posture. The fuel tank’s shape allows for quick change in sitting/standing position too, making it easy to manoeuvre through bumps.
The Bad
With the level of performance the bike offers, you end up pushing it harder. Eventually, you come to a point where you need to brake hard, and although the brakes are progressive, you would want an Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) so that your tyres don’t lock.There is no fuel-injection either, else the power delivery from the engine would have been even better.
But then again, the company says that the Himalayan is for those who are used to lower engine capacity bikes. In order to make it accessible to them, the price needs to be low, and this is where the cost-cutting can be seen. Some would say there isn’t any traction control either, but we didn’t feel the need for that as the tires were good enough.
The Rivals
Right now, the Himalayan does not have a major rival to go up against as there is no true-blue adventure tourer in this engine capacity segment. This gives the bike a major advantage as the riders who wished to own an adventure-tourer, would end up buying the Benelli 600 GT or Kawasaki Versys 650, both of which are priced way higher than the Himalayan.
Royal Enfield Himalayan Features:
- Engine: 411cc, single cylinder, air-cooled, 4 stroke, SOHC
- Transmission: 5-speed
- Power: 24.5 hp @ 6500 rpm
- Torque: 32 Nm @ 4000-4500 rpm
- Weight: 182 kg (kerb)
- Ground Clearance: 220 mm
- Seat Height: 800 mm
- Fuel Tank Capacity: 15 litres
Verdict
We rode the bike on almost every sort of terrain in the Himalayan Ranges, be it off-road, dirt, clay, broken tarmac and even tarmac. We rode it in different weather conditions too, like sunny, rainy and even snowy.
The Royal Enfield Himalayan took it all with confidence and towards the end of our test, we were sure that the company has actually managed to build a true-blue adventure tourer. You might not be drooling over its looks, but it will get the job done.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)