Royal Enfield Himalayan First Ride
March 16, 2016
The Royal Enfield Himalayan.....
An adventure bike unlike an adventure bike, a Royal Enfield unlike a Royal Enfield. The Himalayan is in many ways what the Yamaha R15 was when it was first launched: a category of motorcycles never before available at such an accessible price point. If you're excited about the Himalayan, wait till what comes next. Royal Enfield have just awakened a sleeping giant!
One look at the Himalayan and you know it's a thoroughbred adventure motorcycle, complete with high ground clearance, long travel suspensions, raised handlebars and a fly screen. What I love about the design is its simplicity. It is this understated design philosophy that makes the Himalayan really classy to look at. There are enough mounts all over the motorcycle to mount luggage, fuel / water canisters and the likes for the long haul. The dashboard is very functional too. It comes with added features like ambient temperature thermometer and compass, along with the usual tell tale lights, service reminders, fuel gauge, trip and odometer, etc.
The two quintessential elements of any adventure motorcycle are high ground clearance and long travel suspensions. Sadly, what also comes with it is a tall seat height and that makes adventure motorcycles impractical for everyday use for an average sized Indian rider. Straddle the Himalayan and the first pleasant surprise that hits you is how low the seat height is, 800 mm to be precise. Our average Indian rider can now comfortably reach both his heels to the ground. It also makes manoeuvring the motorcycle around stop go traffic very comfortable. The low seat height also hides the bike's 182 kgs of kerb weight and makes it feel relatively light and nimble. The riding position is obviously upright with the slightest of rearset on the footpegs. The foam on both the rider as well as the pillion seats is soft, comfortable and of very high quality, similar to what we've seen on the RC 390 pillion seat. As certified by my lovely wife, the pillion seat is pretty comfortable and thanks to the long travel monoshock, potholes don't hurt as much as they do on other bikes. After some nitpicking, the only thing that I am left unimpressed with are the mirrors. I would've liked them to be slightly higher and further away for a better view of what's attacking your rearside.
Start the engine and the second pleasant surprise hits you. It doesn't sound like a typical dugg dugg Royal Enfield. There is a nice little throatiness to the exhaust note and the common man will no longer grimace when this Royal Enfield passes him by. The third pleasant surprise comes to you when you rev the engine. No vibrations! Royal Enfield have finally made an engine with an overhead cam and a counter balancer on the crankshaft, while the engine itself is rubber mounted. Guess what, it works. The engine feels vibration free though most of its rev range. Few vibrations do creep in closer to the redline. However, given the torquey nature of this engine, you would rarely be riding it closer to the redline anyway. Another brilliant aspect of this engine is that it can go 10,000 kms without an oil change making the service interval for the Himalayan at 10,000 kms.
Ok. Time to ride. The clutch is not very light and does need a relatively heavy hand to operate it. This can become a slight nuisance in traffic for some riders. The clutch on the test bike was pretty loosely set. More of a half clutch that would launch the bike as soon as you start releasing the clutch. The gearshifts are nice and slick, though I didn't get a chance to go above third gear, given the short test ride route and traffic. I did have slight trouble finding neutral but it's more to do with the clutch being loosely set than anything else. When it comes to performance, the LS410 engine sits exactly between the 350 and the 500 UCE engines from Royal Enfield. Much like its siblings, it is torquey in the low and mid range but runs out of steam if you start pulling it hard. The torque is very usable for everyday office commutes and for cruising on the highway or going up the ghats. The gear ratio on the 5th gear is yet to be tested but I don't think this will make a very good mile muncher for touring NH4 at triple digit speeds.
The highlight of the Himalayan is quite easily the ride quality. Shock absorbing duty at the front is performed by 41 mm telescopic forks with 200 mm of travel while the rear gets a linked monoshock with 180 mm of travel. The ride is soft but not wallowy and the bike feels fairly planted in turns. Another trick up the Himalayan sleeve is the small turning radius, once again making weaving through cars at traffic signals feel like a breeze. Braking is performed by disc brakes at both ends and least low speed braking feels sharp and progressive. The suspension dive under hard braking is something that a new rider needs to get used to. True to its adventure bike nature, the Himalayan comes shod with a 21 inch, 90 section front tyre and a regular 17 inch, 120 section at the rear. Both tyres are on/off road Ceat ones and seem to provide good overall grip levels.
You know a motorcycle is for you when you take it out for a ride and don't feel like returning it. That's exactly what happened with me and the Himalayan yesterday. It really is the most practical motorcycle for Indian conditions. It is supremely comfortable, will soak up any pothole that you throw at it, has decent usable power, wind protection, low seat height and refinement. It is rider friendly, pillion friendly, pedestrian and neighbour friendly, parking friendly, traffic friendly, I can go on and on with this. Royal Enfield said that they wanted to position the Himalayan as your only motorcycle and that's exactly what this bike is. Traffic, highway, mountains, dirt, slush, it will do it all with a smile. However, the final cherry on the cake comes in its price. At Rs. 1.78 lacs on road Mumbai, Royal Enfield gives you a lot of motorcycle for your money.
All I can say is, if you're in the market looking for a motorcycle in the sub 3 lacs category, head to your nearest Royal Enfield showroom and test ride the Himalayan. You might just find your match. If not, go ahead and buy some Eicher Motors shares with the money. In either case, you'll enjoy the ride!
