2017 Royal Enfield Himalayan launch review

Only Royal Enfield could lob such a ridiculously basic machine into the popular and tech-heavy adventure bike segment in 2017 and get away with it. And when I say ‘get away with’, I actually mean ‘be met with considerable acclaim’. Because you know what? The Himalayan adventure bike is the best Royal Enfield yet.

It’s also a bike that doesn’t fall short of what the Indian-based firm set out to achieve with it. When a company whose roadbikes have spent the last 60-odd years bouncing their way across the top of the Himalayan mountains sets out to build its first ever adventure bike, it’s bound to work.

It’s important to understand it was never intended to compete with the KTMs and BMWs of the world and if you start to compare it, you’ll be bitterly disappointed. It was intended to be a simple, pure and basic motorcycle that will take you almost anywhere you want to go for as long as you want to go there. And for that, it hits the nail on the head. There are no bells or whistles; it’s just an honest little motorbike that’s up for anything.

ROYAL ENFIELD HIMALAYAN IN BIKE SHOWROOM

Back into the real world
The brand’s head of International Business Arun Gopal summed it up perfectly last year when I caught up with him at the bike’s Australian premiere.

“Our belief is that leisure motorcycling has gone extreme,” Gopal said. “Motorcycles are becoming super-fast, super-heavy, super-expensive and difficult to maintain. The youngsters don’t consider motorcycling as a hobby – I really want them to come back to looking at motorcycling less seriously. In today’s world we really feel that people have started to live in a virtual world – staring at a screen. We really want them to come back to the real world, to the world of motorcycling, explore the world they live in and have fun doing so.”

I can vouch for the fun factor. We recently spent a couple of days sliding around in the mud in Victoria’s Otway Forest, traversing its many gravel roads of varying quality and regularly dipping down to the coast for a black-top blast along the Great Ocean Road, and it was nothing if it wasn’t bloody fun.

It’s powered by an oil and air-cooled 411cc long-stroke SOHC engine, it’s carburetor-fed and squeezes out almost 25hp (18kW) and 32Nm of torque which is transferred to the rear wheel by a five-speed gearbox. It’s all relevant (and frankly, ho-hum) information but it’s also information that begins to feel less relevant (and less ho-hum) when you start to get a few miles under your wheels and begin understanding what Royal Enfield’s trying to achieve with this bike.

Taking out the fear factor
Take your average modern-day Euronese adventure bike; it’s dripping with wiz-bang electronics, it’s probably a 100kg too heavy for the average Joe, and it’s got a seat height that’s almost too high for him when he’s picking his way across the side of a snotty big hill.

That’s where the Himalayan comes in. It’s light, narrow and low and, for the new and uninitiated, succeeds in taking the fear out of gnarly roads and trails.

RELATED READING: WIN A TRIP TO THE HIMALAYAS

The engine’s flexible, it feels robust and, despite its ho-hum on-paper performance, was both willing and able to chug all day long up steep and slippery dirt while also mixing it with the sportiest on the GOR’s fun bits — as long as you planned your passes and kept the revs above 4000rpm. It’s geared relatively tall, which prevents you from searching for the phantom sixth gear, and the best I could get out of it was just north of 140km/h.

Elsewhere on the bikes, it’s a similar story. The brakes, for the bike’s price point and intended purpose, are excellent. They’re made by ByBre (short for By Brembo), the flagship brake firm’s Indian subsidiary and are the same twin-piston calipers found on the small-capacity KTM Duke machines. There’s no ABS, yet, that’s due on the incoming Euro4-compliant model, along with fuel injection, but you get the feeling including it (or EFI) would go and complicate not only the supreme simplicity of the Himalayan but also the rock-bottom price which currently has you on the road for $6990.

It’s no-name suspension package felt far more sophisticated than it should have thanks to its excellent base setting (for me anyway, I can’t vouch for the bloke who looked like a beanbag riding a bicycle) and adjustment is limited to only preload on the rear monoshock. There's plenty of feedback at both ends, it doesn't bottom out over the roughest stuff and stays solid, true and trusting through fast, tight and twisty tar sections, aided by the basic-looking but brilliantly balanced chassis designed by Harris Performance.

But the biggest surprise, for me, came from the dual-sport rubber. Dubbed CEAT Gripp, for an unheard-of tyre brand, the things provided excellent feedback and confidence on both wet and dry roads, and stood up to almost everything we threw at them off it, too.

Not only does this bike represent the firm’s very first foray into the adventure bike segment, it’s also the first time Royal Enfield has designed and built a bike from scratch. It’s the first time a Royal Enfield bike has employed monoshock rear suspension (yes, really) and, thankfully, it’s also the first time the brand has included a balance shaft in one of its engines.

And here's why!
Which brings me back to the reasons why I made the bold claim that the Himalayan is the best Royal Enfield yet. Unlike its stablemates (which, admittedly, is part of their olde-worldy charm), the Himalayan provides you with a smooth, vibration-free ride which ultimately means you want to ride it for longer. You can use the mirrors, instead of having to spin around and use your eyes ’cause the vibrations are so bad that the reflection is just a big scrambled mess.

You don’t have to regularly remove your hands and feet in order to wake them from their pins-and-needles induced coma and long highway stretches can be used to plot your next adventure instead of worrying if the motorcycle beneath you is going to shake itself into oblivion. Okay, I may be exaggerating slightly, but the Himalayan feels smooth, it feels reliable and it feels robust. Combine that with the thick, plush seat and the bike’s ridiculously impressive fuel consumption (3.6L/100km) from its relatively large 15-litre tank, and you could easily do stints of up to three or four hours on this thing.

The quality of the finish is better than what I’ve come to expect of a bike of this price point and it boasts more than a few parts that would otherwise be available through one of its competitors’ accessories catalogues. The centrestand is standard fitment, as is the bash plate, windscreen and tank guards. I’m not going to call them engine guards, because they wouldn’t protect it in a crash, but it’s a utilitarian looking steel frame which doubles as the point on which the instruments, headlight and screen all mounts, and protrudes over each side of the tank.

The instruments are the most modern clocks ever to grace a Royal Enfield, while the speedo, tacho and fuel gauge are still analogue affairs, the odometer, trip meters, clock, ambient temperature, gear selection indicator and, wait for it, compass are all displayed on an LCD screen.

Speaking of accessories, there’s a handful available and more in the pipeline. There’s hard aluminium panniers that’ll set you back about $1000 and there are various bags and vessels set to be available to mount to the tank guards in the future, too.

To sum up
The Royal Enfield Himalayan surprised me. It was better than I expected it to be from both a ride and build quality perspective. It’s a motorcycle with old-school trailbike charm that has the courage to go where ever you’ve got the gall to point it. There’s no doubt in my mind, that in the hands of some riders, this bike will go places that the same rider wouldn’t point at WR450F for the simple fact that it’s one of the most unintimidating adventure bikes on the market.

It’s cheap, it’s built tough and it’s a bucket load of fun.

SPECS: 2017 ROYAL ENFIELD HIMALAYAN
ENGINE
Type: air-cooled, four-stroke SOHC, two-valve single
Capacity: 411cc
Bore x stroke: 78 mm x 86 mm
Compression ratio: 9.5:1
Engine management: Carburetor

PERFORMANCE
Claimed maximum power: 24.5hp (18kW) at 6500rpm
Claimed maximum torque: 32Nm at 4250rpm

TRANSMISSION
Type: Five speed
Final drive: Chain
Clutch: Wet, multiplate

CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR
Frame: Split cradle frame
Front suspension: 41mm non-adjustable forks, 200mm travel
Rear suspension: Monoshock with linkage, 180mm travel
Front brakes: 300mm disc, twin-piston caliper
Rear brake: 240mm disc, single-piston caliper
Tyres: CEAT Gripp, 90/90-21 front, 120/90-17 rear

DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES
Claimed wet weight: 182kg
Seat height: 800mm
Wheelbase: 1465mm
Fuel capacity: 15 litres
Claimed fuel consumption: 3.5lt/100km

OTHER STUFF
Price: $6990 ride away
Colour: Snow or Granite
Test bike supplied by: Urban Moto Imports
Warranty: 24 months, 20,000km