Royal Enfield Himalayan

Expert Review by Maxabout

Himalayan has been through a lot of testing and Royal Enfield has finally unveiled its first out of the league RE motorcycle. The negatives about the test mules have definitely gone down with the production ready version of the newcomer at its time of display. It comes in a single body design and offers practical living, wherever on the earth you are actually living.

Design and Style

Himalayan is a friendly bike with very few panels, making lesser chances of noises between the gaps and vibrations between the same. It comes with a standard round headlight at the front and a raised mudguard for further prevention of dirt into the headlight unit. It comes with huge wheel at the front whereas the rear can be called fat instead of calling it as huge.

Its overall stance matches a modified scrambler whereas the crash guards make its purpose clear to the audience. It comes with an excellent fuel tank design and a step up design with divided seat. Truly a purpose built bike, it uses no panels at either of the sides and provides a neat LED tail lamp. The exhaust design is the best thing a person can see when seen from the right side of the motorcycle.

Instrument Console

RE offers a great combination of digital as well as analogue instrument console to the Himalayan. The bigger dial gets analogue speedometer at the top and a screen in the bottom area. On the right is a beautiful tachometer, placed above the analogue fuel gauge and apparently a digital compass on its right.

Dimensions and Weight

Being a true RE, the Himalayan weighs 182 kg. It gets a clean 220 mm of ground clearance, even after having a comfortable seat height of just 800 mm. It gets a long 1465 mm wheelbase. It measures 2190 mm in length, 840 mm in width and 1360 mm in height. The overall height is measured at the windscreen's top point. It comes with a 15 liter fuel tank, even providing spare accessories for storing emergency fuel and other needs.

Engine and Performance

The Himalayan is powered by a newly developed, single cylinder, air-cooled, 411 cc engine producing 24.5 Bhp @ 6,500 rpm and 32 Nm @ 4,000-4,500 rpm. The new engine line of the Royal Enfield is more efficient than the existing series, making way for new products with higher power values and a really tough competition for other manufacturers.

Till date Royal Enfield's are one of the favorites of those who believe in brute power, even though Harley and other manufacturers are coming with some more power options, the cost effective power of Royal Enfield seems unchallenged by time. The Himalayan gets 5-speed manual gearbox and comes with carburettor fed fuel assembly. Surprisingly, the RE Himalayan uses only electric starter, thereby making the bike's electrical much more reliable than the older models.

Braking and Suspension

The braking is handled by a double disc arrangement, with the larger 300 mm 2-piston floating caliper disc at the front and a smaller 240 mm single-piston floating caliper disc at the rear. First time ever, a mono-shock has been provided on a Royal Enfield which clearly shows that adopting the new technology by keeping its vintage essence is a true possibility. The front gets 41mm telescopic forks with an extended 200 mm of travel for ease while off-roading. The tyres are rough and huge this time, making it a true by heart explorer in the wild. The front tyre is 90/90-21 whereas the rear uses 120/90-17 tyre with spoke wheels on both ends.

Variants and Shades

The Himalayan has been unveiled in a single variant. The available shades include Granite Black as well as Snow White for the most possible body parts. It looks solid in both shades and provide a mean look from its first sight.

Verdict

The scenario for the Royal Enfield has totally changed with its introduction, making way for new fans to add up to the royal club of motorcycling. Himalayan is offered with a lot of accessories like saddle bags, side mounts, windshields and many other off-road accessories. In short, it defines the modern approach of Royal Enfield among others in the wild.

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