These are my first thoughts review of Royal Enfield Himalayan. Pre-ride of course. Photos and videos included. Go here for my initial thoughts and Specifications of Royal Enfield Himalayan.
Adventure touring in India has never needed (not wanted) high-end dual sports motorcycles. People who have actually toured properly, know that most times it is easier on a simpler vehicle that attracts lesser attention. Which is why Royal Enfield is pretty much the goto motorcycle for this. Decent torque, common enough, cheap enough. Now, RE is headed to the small dual-sport route with their Himalayan. What do I think?
Review of Royal Enfield Himalayan
Let me stop beating around the bush and get this out of the way. I think its a great start for Royal Enfield. I may put the money down, I may not eventually. But, I will take time out to and test ride this. While RE pitches this as the do it all motorcycle, I see it primarily as a replacement for my Bullet 500, HotFix. A commuter with occasional travel thrown in. Everything two up.
[GARD] I sure hope they will have a top box that is built well too in addition to the side boxes. Need it for efficient commuting with enough space for a couple of helmets. Not sure how it will perform in the mountains. But, I can see this as a good city bike if we can put our daily stuff in it. People who buy Royal Enfields for the “thump” or “hump” or “insert some other weird reason” may hate it. People who buy REs for travelling will like the move in this direction. Welcome change and about time one of the manufacturers moved in this direction.
What about the broken foot peg etc?
I am happy RE actually put out a video with the pegs breaking under extreme testing. Two reasons for that:
- At least, expectations are set correctly. Soft-roader and not really meant for the jumping.
- Most importantly, the fact that they have got someone competent to test. Breaking the motorcycle under testing conditions promises a better quality test on the production motorcycles. Compared to the lack of published testing of the previous models, this gives me some hope.
End of the day, it is a Royal Enfield. I will be surprised if it does not break down in daily use. Go ahead Royal Enfield, surprise me.
– Abhi Motorcyclin
Height, clearance, comfort
800mm seat height, same at the Royal Enfield Bullet 500. Low enough to make it comfortable without being too low. Not a problem.The clearance is 200mm, and the front wheel is 21″. Cannot wait to ride it on bad terrain.
The various underbody components look well integrated into the design. The frame has been designed by Harris Performance.
Console
I think that it is too noisy, visually. Do not like it at all. Too many meters, analog and digital meters mixing it up. And, if I am not wrong, I can see at least 14 data points.
Himalayan Trouble Shooting
I would have really liked it if Royal Enfield had reused an existing engine platform, rather than making yet another. The LS 410 is a smaller engine, probably shares nothing with the other motorcycles and is lower on torque. But, my biggest problem is that I will have to sell one or both of my Royal Enfields to make space for this. Else, the amount of spares unique to each motorcycle is getting a little out of hand.
Of course, a review of Royal Enfield Himalayan cannot end without service intervals talk. They have promised a 10,000km service interval. I sure hope RE can back that claim up in reality. That would be good!
Will wait around till I get a ride on it to make a post-ride review of Royal Enfield Himalayan.