Royal Enfield Himalayan

[AceOfHearts]

Anyone else seen these? They are taking orders for the first lot of UK bikes to be delivered in May / June, and are going to be £3995 on the road!

As a Royal Enfield fan I think they look like a great idea and well thought out, albeit not the prettiest of things.

Frame designed by Harris Performance, rear monoshock, counterbalanced engine. Could be a great commuter!

https://youtu.be/9lJL09QrPPY

[evil len]

I saw one at the NEC, kinda liked it ... if I was setting off on a round-the-world trip I'd use one of these.

Though I don't get the double front mudguard.

[LeftmostAardvark]

I've always liked the principle of these, a light weight, economical, rugged vehicle that could go round the world in a way that (say) a gs1200 would struggle due to its weight and complexity.

Trouble is, Honda crf250l does everything this does for about the same price. Still trying to figure out which would be easier to fix in the middle of nowhere or was less likely to break down in the first place.

[Renn Sport]

I like this bike and I think its proved itself in the very mountainous terrain of its namesake. looks pretty rugged and has the simplicity and charm of bikes from before.

I am not sure how light it its but it looks to be robust motorcycle. I was toying with the idea of a Continental GT but at 4k used I was looking at all the other bikes I could get for the same money.

Looking forward to seeing the twin cylinder continental GT, which is coming soon.

[smcapstick]

Just to revive an ancient thread... I had a look at one, today. It was about 20% smaller than I was expecting... but still looked very useable. I’ll book a test ride, soon, to see what they’re made of.

I like the idea of a cheap, robust ‘work’ bike. My like Suzuki 125 is just a bit too small and slow but my BMW R1150GS is too big and heavy just to zip around on.

A Himalayan twin would be the daddy, though!

[jumpingloci]

I've had mine just over a year now and put 16000 miles on it. A few niggles; notchy head bearings needed a re-grease and it has just had to have a new head gasket done under warranty, so still a few teething problems, but otherwise I've been completely impressed with it. Tours well, trail rides better than I thought it would and it's easy to work on yourself. Cheap as well. A lot of speculation about a 650 twin but I personally don't think it'll happen. I think maybe an enlarging of the current single for the Himalayan and a scrambler version of the Interceptor. But who knows.

[smcapstick]

jumpingloci said:

I've had mine just over a year now and put 16000 miles on it. A few niggles; notchy head bearings needed a re-grease and it has just had to have a new head gasket done under warranty, so still a few teething problems, but otherwise I've been completely impressed with it. Tours well, trail rides better than I thought it would and it's easy to work on yourself. Cheap as well. A lot of speculation about a 650 twin but I personally don't think it'll happen. I think maybe an enlarging of the current single for the Himalayan and a scrambler version of the Interceptor. But who knows.

A few niggles are to be expected, especially from a cheaper marque. People seem to forget that almost nothing is perfect out of the box and if you buy at the low end of the market, you can't expect a covered transporter to turn up with a full pit crew and tools withing hours of you calling the dealer to report a problem! As long as warranty stuff is sorted out in a reasonable time, I'm happy - I have other means of transport at hand until it's fixed.

Mine would be sprayed with tractor oil / grease and used every day, rain or shine. Since I started using a motorcycle for running little errands like going to the bank, post office, Booths for wine etc. using the pickup just feels inconvenient. Barring the helmet and gloves, I'm always dressed appropriately to hop straight on the bike and set off, too.

Do you get much vibration? The furthest I go is to Kendal and back, so a round trip of some 22 miles or thereabouts. I don't want my bone marrow to be fizzy by the time I get back home - there's work to do!

[jumpingloci]

smcapstick said:

A few niggles are to be expected, especially from a cheaper marque. People seem to forget that almost nothing is perfect out of the box and if you buy at the low end of the market, you can't expect a covered transporter to turn up with a full pit crew and tools withing hours of you calling the dealer to report a problem! As long as warranty stuff is sorted out in a reasonable time, I'm happy - I have other means of transport at hand until it's fixed.

Mine would be sprayed with tractor oil / grease and used every day, rain or shine. Since I started using a motorcycle for running little errands like going to the bank, post office, Booths for wine etc. using the pickup just feels inconvenient. Barring the helmet and gloves, I'm always dressed appropriately to hop straight on the bike and set off, too.

Do you get much vibration? The furthest I go is to Kendal and back, so a round trip of some 22 miles or thereabouts. I don't want my bone marrow to be fizzy by the time I get back home - there's work to do!

Exactly. When you pay £4000 for a brand new bike built in India I think you have to expect a bit of shoddiness! Most of it seems to be poor quality grease and poor quality torquing on some of the bolts. Simple to fix stuff and most UK owners seem happy, although you do get some that nit-pick but such is life.

Vibrations are minimal and that's why I like it. I've done a few 600 mile days on it coming back down from Scotland and it's smooth at 75mph, will hit 80ish and probably happiest at 68-72mph. It's definitely not going to set your hair on fire but the engine works really well on back roads and trails where it's just nice and torquey and laid back. Hope you get on alright with the test ride.

[tdm34]

jumpingloci said:

A lot of speculation about a 650 twin but I personally don't think it'll happen. I think maybe an enlarging of the current single for the Himalayan and a scrambler version of the Interceptor. But who knows.

It's not speculation, there's a version of the engine that gives 55-60 bhp and that'll go in a Himalayan model that'll be revealed in the next 12 months, also there's a High performance version around 750cc and 80-85bhp that'll see the light of day in future........

[jumpingloci]

tdm34 said:

It's not speculation, there's a version of the engine that gives 55-60 bhp and that'll go in a Himalayan model that'll be revealed in the next 12 months, also there's a High performance version around 750cc and 80-85bhp that'll see the light of day in future........

When RE come out and confirm that then I'll believe it. From the contact I've had with the dealer and people who work at the engineering dept in Leicester there is no indication of the 650 from the Interceptor being used in the Himalayan, and personally having ridden the 650 feel it wouldn't suit the Himalayan and would be a completely different beast. A bigger single in the Himalayan would be great, but getting 55-60bhp out of a current engine that produces 24.5bhp I'm loathe to believe. But I'm quite happy to disagree.

(re-read your point and I misread that you meant a potential 55-60bhp twin engine rather than a single.with that power output. Again, I'll politely disagree that there'll be a twin cylinder Himalayan but whatever happens happens.)

Edited by jumpingloci on Thursday 21st February 17:34

[smcapstick]

jumpingloci said:

Exactly. When you pay £4000 for a brand new bike built in India I think you have to expect a bit of shoddiness! Most of it seems to be poor quality grease and poor quality torquing on some of the bolts. Simple to fix stuff and most UK owners seem happy, although you do get some that nit-pick but such is life.

Vibrations are minimal and that's why I like it. I've done a few 600 mile days on it coming back down from Scotland and it's smooth at 75mph, will hit 80ish and probably happiest at 68-72mph. It's definitely not going to set your hair on fire but the engine works really well on back roads and trails where it's just nice and torquey and laid back. Hope you get on alright with the test ride.

I have had some experience with new Indian tractors and they're much the same - the design is fine but you need to check it very thoroughly and ride/drive the thing cautiously in the beginning, as nothing feels very 'lapped in'. I suppose the last 2% of a high-quality splined shaft's finish is 50% of it's cost, though. Rougher gears are cheaper to make but need running in.

My 12hp Suzuki is not fast... but it's not annoyingly slow, either - it manages modern traffic just fine. Double the power and you have a perfectly usable amount of oomph for a daily. Just what the RE has.

I'm really talking myself in to this!

[Daniel T]

jumpingloci said:

Exactly. When you pay £4000 for a brand new bike built in India I think you have to expect a bit of shoddiness! Most of it seems to be poor quality grease and poor quality torquing on some of the bolts. Simple to fix stuff and most UK owners seem happy, although you do get some that nit-pick but such is life.

Vibrations are minimal and that's why I like it. I've done a few 600 mile days on it coming back down from Scotland and it's smooth at 75mph, will hit 80ish and probably happiest at 68-72mph. It's definitely not going to set your hair on fire but the engine works really well on back roads and trails where it's just nice and torquey and laid back. Hope you get on alright with the test ride.

My triumph Tiger 660 head bearing needed replacing in the first 2 weeks i drove it out the showroom.