Don’t ask “Are we there yet?” because we’ll be back at work on Monday. wish we were here in this mess. It was a mantra I had to keep repeating to myself as raindrops the size and weight of tears of sorrow fell all around us. The sandy clay of Utah’s backcountry exploration route achieve the consistency of used engine oiland even the most experienced motorcyclists among us lose control on terra solutam, and a little bit of their sanity. With so many water crossings and slippery roads it is difficult to walk let alone riding a motorbike on the streetIt was a rough day in the wilderness. But it was still better than a day at the office.
Full disclosure: Royal Enfield flew me to Salt Lake City, Utah, to test ride the all-new redesigned Himalayan adventure motorcycle. The company paid for my trip, fed me delicious food, and provided me with a nice hotel room.
This was definitely one of the toughest off-road rides I’ve ever done, and like the lip-syncing duo Milli Vanilli, we can blame the rain. Returning to our remote lodge after a day on the Royal Enfield Himalayas 450, I was sore, stiff, muddy up to my eyes, and stuck with the pain of a hard day’s travel and a well-deserved night in bed. The unanimous conclusion of all who completed the ride was that we would have had fewer spills and just as much excitement if the weather had been dry, or if the bike had been equipped with knobby tires, whichever you prefer. The bike was capable of more, but the tires let it down.
The upcoming Himalayan is Royal Enfield’s first valiant attempt at a bargain adventure bike. The little air-cooled machine had heart, and at a very affordable price, it was a very capable, albeit slightly underpowered, bike. The Indian brand has gone back to the drawing board for a second go and started with a blank sheet of paper. This time, the Himalayan gets an all-new single-cylinder engine, the brand’s first attempt at water-cooling, with more power, a better chassis and some seriously cool engineering at an affordable price. If the old bike was a bearded old goat that could climb over anything when it got its due, its replacement is a fresh mineral-hungry ibex.
The new single-cylinder Sherpa 450 doesn’t break any new ground, but at 39.5 horsepower, it’s a bit more powerful than the old one’s 28 horsepower. RE is proud of its new thumper. With this higher ground clearance, it’s now said to be capable of 105 mph at top speed, whereas the previous Himalayan’s 410 would struggle to pull at highway speeds. During the ride, we reached nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, and even in the thin air, it had enough power to keep pulling up steep inclines with nearly 300 pounds of rider and gear on board.
Visually, the new bike has lost a bit of its old-school simplicity, but the spirit is still there. Royal Enfield says it has infused the bike with a “kick it straight to the curb” spirit. It uses simple steel where other (more expensive) manufacturers are getting fancy with alloys and composites. If you’re adventuring in Mongolia, you want to be able to kick it straight, or weld it together with a battery from a passerby’s pickup truck.
And despite its simple build, its relatively small size ensures that the Himalayan is nearly 200 pounds lighter than some of the top adventure touring bikes. The Himalayan weighs just over 400 pounds, while the new BMW R 1300 GS Adventure tips the scales at a whopping 593 pounds! It’s a light, easy-to-handle bike on the trail, and if you accidentally drop the damn thing in the mud, you won’t need help lifting it up.
This is a bike built for everyone, with three different seat height options to suit a wide range of riders, and a tapered waistline to improve standover height. It’s built to be easy for smaller riders to hop on. The air filter is raised above the engine under the tank so the seat sits a little lower, and the brake lights are integrated into the side markers to give the bike an extra half inch of rear clearance. It’s a simple technical detail that makes the bike just a little better.
I really don’t have any major complaints about the Himalayan. At 6-foot-2 and a standard American size, I found that a bike designed to accommodate smaller riders still fit me well. I adjusted the seat all the way up and turned the handlebars as far forward as I could go. I would have liked a two- or three-inch riser to raise the handlebars a little higher when I was standing, and the pegs could have been a little wider to accommodate my size 13 shoes, but I could still ride all day.
The new Tripper Dash is a great addition to the bike, as it’s a large circular TFT digital display that can mirror your phone via the RE app. Using the Tripper Dash, you can control your music, run Google Maps on the screen, or take and end phone calls while keeping your phone in your pocket or in the tank bag. In working with customers, Royal Enfield found that most Himalayan owners use their phones on the bike with Ram Mounts on the handlebars or whatever, which slowly vibrates your phone from the inside. Rather than resort to ruining a four-figure smartphone or increasing the price of the bike to fit a high-end computer into the dash, Royal Enfield opted to mirror the display, and I think they made the right choice.
At the end of the day, the Royal Enfield can’t predict the weather, and if the trail is completely dry, the bike will handle it without hesitation. It’s only the deepest, wetest sections of trail that really gave us trouble. If you’re going to use the Himalayan as a more regular road machine, the stock tire choice will get you to Starbucks as easily as a BMW GS rider. That tire can even handle some pretty serious (non-wet) adventure riding. If you’re digging into sand, planning on going out in inclement weather, or just want to go a little faster on the trail, get yourself some more aggressive tread and you’ll be able to go anywhere that $19,000 adventure tourers can.
This bike starts at $5,799 and maxes out at $5,999 with optional wheels and tires. There is no bike on the market for that price that can go as far as this bike. I would be hard-pressed to find anything on the used market that can compete with it. I would definitely buy this bike over the Kawasaki KLR650 or Suzuki DR 650, and that’s before taking into account that both are over a thousand dollars more expensive than the Himalayan.
