The brand new 2024 Royal Enfield Himalayan is the most radically different motorcycle that the company has ever made, offering a totally modern engine and electronics package mated to a chassis that is more capable than anything before it. In fact, there isn’t a single part on the new Himalayan that is common with the model that first went on sale in 2016. We dive into whether it truly stands out as the best value in the world of Adventure Motorcycles!
Check out the full story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/royal-enfield-himalayan-first-ride-review/
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Check out the full story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/royal-enfield-himalayan-first-ride-review/
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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00:00 Is Royal Enfield Himalayan the best value in ADV motorcycling?
00:04 When you ride the Himalayan in its home turf,
00:06 you really understand why this bike is built the way it is.
00:10 It all comes together and makes a lot of sense.
00:12 It's a really exciting opportunity to come and see this beautiful, beautiful place.
00:17 One of the coolest places I've ever been in the world.
00:20 And this bike is absolutely perfect for this riding environment.
00:23 [music]
00:25 The bike is brand new from the ground up.
00:35 It's got a brand new engine, brand new chassis.
00:38 It's got new electronics. It's got everything.
00:40 This bike has nothing in common with the previous Himalayan
00:44 that came out in 2016.
00:46 First of all, we're going to talk about the engine
00:48 because that's the key to this whole bike.
00:50 The Himalayan has a brand new, liquid-cooled, 452cc, single-cylinder engine.
00:56 The engine has double overhead cams and four valves.
01:00 It has a dry sump lubrication.
01:01 This engine is new from the ground up
01:03 and is like nothing that they've ever made before.
01:05 Claimed horsepower works out to about 40 horsepower,
01:09 which is about 65% more than the previous Himalayan.
01:13 That's a big deal.
01:15 This bike, all of a sudden, is so much better than the old bike
01:18 when it comes to on-road performance and off-road performance.
01:22 It has a six-speed gearbox and all new electronics as well.
01:26 On the roads that we experienced here in Northern India,
01:29 the engine was a great fit.
01:31 We did tons of hairpin corners just one after another,
01:34 climbing up through the mountains.
01:36 This engine really revs out nice.
01:38 It has a really flat torque curve,
01:40 but when you're riding on those type of roads,
01:42 coming out of hairpins, it's really enjoyable.
01:45 It's got a six-speed gearbox,
01:46 so you've got plenty of gear range to pull out of corners.
01:50 Some of those tight hairpins, I was going down to first,
01:53 but most of the day, you're shifting between second,
01:55 third, fourth, and back and forth.
01:57 The engine really impressed.
01:59 I thought it was really smooth.
02:01 The fueling's really good with the fuel injection system.
02:04 This bike has ride-by-wire throttle for the first time,
02:07 so that's a big deal for them as well.
02:09 That ties into the whole electronics package.
02:12 This bike has performance mode, an eco mode.
02:15 When you switch those modes, you can go in
02:17 and either have your rear ABS on or off.
02:20 That's a nice feature.
02:22 I usually stuck with the performance mode.
02:24 We're up at elevation, obviously.
02:26 I would say some of the altitude is ranging between 7,000 and 11,000 feet.
02:31 We really experienced a lot of elevation change.
02:34 Even in those elevations, the engine did a really good job,
02:37 pulled really well.
02:39 I never was wanting for more in most situations.
02:41 It was really enjoyable.
02:43 Off-road, the bike just all of a sudden makes a lot of sense
02:46 as far as the power goes.
02:47 It doesn't have so much power that you're having to manage the traction.
02:51 This bike doesn't have traction control, but you don't need it.
02:54 The throttle sensitivity is really good,
02:56 so you feel really connected.
02:58 You just pick your gear and ride along on the dirt
03:01 and can pick the pace that works.
03:03 I never had a situation on the dirt in particular
03:06 where I felt like I was wanting more power.
03:09 [music]
03:16 Now let's talk about the chassis,
03:23 because the chassis, like the engine, is all new.
03:26 I would say that the key upgrade that this bike gets over the previous model
03:30 is the Showa suspension.
03:32 The bike has a Showa fork and it's got a Showa shock as well.
03:36 The fork is non-adjustable.
03:38 The shock has provisions for preload adjustability,
03:41 but it's a really good mix.
03:43 Especially on the dirt, I was really impressed.
03:45 I thought that the fork in particular really held up nice.
03:49 I was never blowing through the travel.
03:51 It really felt like it had really good damping,
03:54 so that was really good.
03:55 I did add some preload to the rear during the day yesterday
03:59 just to make the on-road handling a little bit nicer.
04:02 Overall, I think for a non-adjustable suspension for the most part,
04:06 it's a really nice compromise.
04:08 I think on-road and off, it had a really good balance.
04:11 On the road, like I said, there was a lot of twisty roads,
04:14 a lot of broken pavement.
04:16 There were some little jumps in the road.
04:18 I thought that the handling and the suspension
04:21 were really predictable and really nice to ride.
04:24 Plain dry weight works out to about 400 pounds when you do the math.
04:28 It's a fairly light bike, but it feels light.
04:31 The handling's light, the steering's light.
04:33 Really enjoyable to ride on a twisty mountain road.
04:36 [music]
04:38 Now let's talk about the electronics
04:40 because the electronics are a big deal too.
04:43 The bike gets this brand new dash,
04:45 which is a round TFT display that's full color.
04:49 It gives you about three options for the type of view you want to have
04:53 for the dash and how it's displayed,
04:55 whether you want to see the tack or what information you want to bring up.
04:57 You've got some options.
04:59 Then what also is cool is it's got a built-in navigation
05:02 that tethers to your iPhone or Android phone.
05:06 It uses Google Maps for its navigation engine,
05:09 which is one of the first companies that's been actually able to utilize Google
05:14 without having a CarPlay integration or an Android Auto integration.
05:18 We tried out the navigation yesterday and it works really well.
05:21 You've got a couple options.
05:22 You can have it come up on the screen
05:24 and actually see the track just like you would on your phone
05:27 because it's mirroring that,
05:28 or it can just give you arrows in a turn-by-turn
05:32 and tell you where you're going.
05:33 Both options work really great.
05:35 It's got a joystick on the left handlebar,
05:37 which really enables you to get into the menus easily.
05:40 A couple of the new bikes, the new Ducati Multistrada has this,
05:44 the new Yamaha Tracer 9 GT has this.
05:46 It's super nice to see that sort of technology on the Royal Enfield Camalia
05:52 because it just makes the navigation of the menus really simple
05:55 and easy to get through.
05:56 That was very impressive as well.
05:58 Out on the road, we felt that the electronics were great.
06:02 I mean, you can see the screen,
06:04 the navigation was really easy to see,
06:06 the brightness is great, really easy to look at,
06:08 and it's a really pretty screen.
06:10 So that's a big upgrade for Royal Enfield.
06:13 Some people may wish that they had the analog stuff of old,
06:17 but this is definitely a big step up
06:19 and I think brings Royal Enfield in general,
06:21 along with this bike, up into the modern era a lot.
06:24 I think people will look at this bike in a different perspective
06:27 than they did some of the older bikes.
06:29 And with what we're guessing where the price will be on this bike,
06:32 it has a lot of features and a really great engine
06:34 and some things that Royal Enfields have never had before.
06:37 All right, now let's talk about the ergonomics
06:41 because that's one of the keys to this bike.
06:43 One of the appeals of this motorcycle is it's low dry weight,
06:47 which is, like I said, around 400 pounds,
06:49 but also it has a very accessible seat height.
06:51 So the seat height in its standard setting is about 32.5 inches.
06:56 You also have two settings that you can adjust that seat to,
06:59 which is really nice, which the old bike didn't have.
07:01 So you've got two settings there.
07:02 Or you have a low seat option.
07:04 You can get a low seat, which brings the base height
07:07 down about three quarters of an inch below that 32.5.
07:10 So that makes the reach to the ground for most footing
07:13 really, really easy for most people.
07:15 Combine that with the light weight of the bike
07:17 and it's just got a really easy, manageable feel off-road.
07:20 You always feel like you can get your foot down in any situation.
07:23 So that's super positive and I think opens the bikes
07:26 possibilities up to a big range of riders.
07:28 So a couple of other ergonomic features.
07:32 The bike has rubber foot peg pads on top,
07:35 which get pretty slick when they're wet,
07:37 but those are easily removable
07:38 if you're spending a lot more time off-road.
07:40 The brake and clutch levers aren't adjustable,
07:42 but have a really nice feel to them.
07:44 Never had any problem with the clutch
07:46 or the feel from the front brake lever.
07:48 It's got a single brake up front with a 320 millimeter disc.
07:53 They're the Bi-Brave brakes, which are the sub-brand of Brembo.
07:56 Early in the morning, our bike was brand new,
07:58 had really low miles on it,
07:59 and the pads weren't quite bedded in yet.
08:02 By the end of the day, they started bedding in
08:05 and had a lot more bite to them,
08:06 which made them much more predictable.
08:09 The rear brake, really good off-road.
08:11 I never had any problems. It doesn't lock too easy.
08:13 I thought the foot peg position and the brake lever
08:16 had a nice relationship between them.
08:18 So getting to the brake off-road in the dirt
08:21 felt really natural and easy to get to.
08:23 So that was super positive.
08:24 So is the Himalayan the best value in adventure motorcycling?
08:40 With an estimated US price of less than $7,000,
08:43 we think it's one of, if not the best values in the category.
08:47 Overall, our experience here in the Himalayas has been fantastic.
08:52 I really think that this bike makes sense
08:54 when you ride it in its home environment
08:56 and you really get to see what this bike is all about
08:58 and why it's a 450cc bike
09:01 and why the seat height's where it is.
09:03 Everything about the bike all of a sudden makes sense
09:05 when you ride it in its home country.
09:06 I think this bike can really appeal to a lot of different people.
09:10 There's so many big adventure bikes in the 1,200 plus cc range,
09:15 but this bike is so accessible for so many riders
09:18 that it really fits into a part of the market
09:21 that there's nothing else like it, really.
09:23 The only other bikes that kind of are in this zone
09:26 are the small KTM and the small BMW and some of those bikes,
09:30 but this bike, I think, is so much cooler looking.
09:33 This bike has a really fresh styling that they've worked really hard on,
09:37 and yet this bike has a metal tank
09:39 and it kind of reminds you of a Land Rover.
09:42 It's a rugged-looking bike, it's a rugged-feeling bike,
09:45 but with the upgrades that they've made to the engine and the chassis,
09:48 all of a sudden it's on a completely different playing field,
09:50 which makes it a fantastic bike.
09:52 So, overall, we were really impressed
09:54 and can't wait to get it back to the US
09:56 and ride it against some other bikes and see how it stacks up,
09:59 but our experience here in Northern India was fantastic
10:02 and we really enjoyed it.
10:03 And as always, if you like what you see,
10:07 comment, like and subscribe.
10:08 Thanks for watching.
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