Do you really need to spend over $10,000 for a respectable ADV motorcycle? Royal Enfield's Himalayan says no, and we agree. In fact, it is in some ways better than bikes costing three times as much. And to prove it, we push it to it limits. How far and how gnarly can we get?
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/royal-enfield-himalayan-review/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/royal-enfield-himalayan-review/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00This is the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 and today I'm going to see how much abuse this
00:05thing can take.
00:23A year and a half ago, at a large Blake Conner got the opportunity to be one of the first
00:27people to ride the Himalayan 450 in India and while that was a very complete review for
00:33the terrain they were given, here in the US we tend to push the bikes a little bit harder
00:37when we're testing them.
00:39That ride up into the Himalayas was gnarly.
00:42You had muddy roads, big rocks, crazy drivers, all those things that you would experience
00:47on a real true adventure.
00:49Here we like to see how far we can push a bike and that's what we're going to do today with
00:53this Himalayan 450.
00:54It's finally here in the US, available for us to ride, we're going to start off with
00:58the normal asphalt road, we're going to see how it performs, we're going to talk about
01:01its road capabilities and then we're just going to up the ante.
01:04So we're going to go to a gravel road and then we're going to head off into some two track
01:08and then we're going to hit some sand washes and we're going to hit some single track and
01:12if we make it that far, we're actually going to try some hard enduro.
01:16So the question is, how far can we push this Himalayan 450?
01:20Today we're going to find out.
01:29I expect that we're going to have no problems on the street and it's going to be an enjoyable
01:33ride but let's go for a ride and find out.
01:39Okay, street ride complete and just as I had expected, pretty nice little street bike actually.
01:50Very comfortable, great ergonomics for a road ride.
01:53Seat might be a little stiff for a long ride but it's also supportive.
01:56I prefer them to be more stiff than be squishy so I think it's pretty good.
02:00Last year I rode the Gorilla 450 which has the same Sherpa engine in it.
02:04I have to say it's a great little engine.
02:06It's really torquey but it also likes to rev.
02:09It's an all round really nice engine and it's geared really nicely for this bike.
02:13You can put it in third gear in most of the corners and just lug through the corners and
02:17then rev it out and it makes for a nice relaxing twisty road bike.
02:22So get up to speed and it's totally good.
02:24Wind protection is so so.
02:27There's not a lot of wind protection, it's only got a little tiny fly screen but that
02:31screen does keep the wind consistent and there's not a lot of buffeting but there is a lot of
02:35wind.
02:36Front brake, not as strong as the Gorilla 450.
02:40It has a part of the lever where you pull the lever and nothing happens and then it finally
02:45starts the fight.
02:46It's got like this little delay which I mean is nice if you're learning to ride or don't
02:50want a real sharp brake response but at the same time on the street it feels pretty lazy.
02:56Once you're into the power, plenty of power, plenty of feel.
02:59For suspension the bike has Showa units, non-adjustable front and back, 7.9 inches of travel front
03:05and back.
03:06You can adjust the preload in the rear.
03:08Other than that, it's set the way it is.
03:11That being said, for my weight, 230 pounds with gear on, it was great.
03:15It has plenty of hold up.
03:16It soaks up the really junky pavement really well and then when you're going fast, it's
03:21really smooth and compliant, doesn't rebound, doesn't pack up too quickly, really, really
03:27nice.
03:28So, we're not doing long, long distances but this thing's capable of doing it and it's
03:33equipped for doing that.
03:34There's a nice little rear rack, it's got places to mount luggage, it actually has little
03:38rings to put packs and stuff on these front crash bars as well.
03:42There's plenty of space to carry your stuff if you're going to do a long ride.
03:45There's accessory windscreens, there's all that stuff, so if you're going to focus your
03:49adventure riding on long distance riding, it's fully capable, it's got a really long
03:53passenger seat, you're not going to feel cramped on this bike.
03:56Other than that, great little street bike, super comfortable to ride, would be easy to
04:01spend an entire day on this without any complaint.
04:04But now, it's time to get in the dirt and see what we can do.
04:11Okay, we're here at the gravel road to see how this thing does on a well-maintained gravel
04:18dirt road.
04:19This is what some would be their limit of what they want to do off-road and that's totally
04:26good.
04:27So what this thing does, how it handles when things are smooth, but gravel is slippery.
04:33So we're going to really pay attention to the predictability of the bike and how it moves
04:37around in this with the tires, brakes, and chassis.
04:49On the gravel, this thing works pretty good.
04:51The tires, not exactly the most aggressive off-road tire.
04:55So I expected it to be slippy slidey and it was.
04:57It brakes traction pretty easily front and rear.
05:00If you are smooth and deliberate, all is good.
05:04The throttle response is really nice on the bike.
05:06It allows you to dial in the rear slide and it's not overly powerful to where it wants to
05:11just constantly always step out.
05:13It just kind of steps out nice and just hangs out there and you can just roll on and off
05:18and then modulate that.
05:19So it works really well.
05:21If you try to knife it into something, it doesn't want to hold on.
05:24And I wouldn't expect it to with the tread pattern that it has.
05:26On that gravel road, there was quite a bit of washboard, which was interesting with the
05:31suspension.
05:32It starts to get a little packed up on the washboard.
05:35It starts to bounce quite a bit if you're really driving into them, but then if you increase
05:39your speed, you kind of space out over them and it goes away.
05:42It's just, there's a one little midpoint where you're on the gas coming out of a corner.
05:47It kind of packs up a little bit.
05:49We might've bitten off a lot going difficult and more difficult and more difficult with
05:53the stock tires.
05:54And we're going to be doing a lot of dirt testing here.
05:55It is windy out here.
05:56This is a dirt road slash two track trail to ride.
06:09This is a perfect real off-road test.
06:11This is what most people are going to do when they're riding off-road on an adventure bike.
06:17We're going to see how these seat tires do, the grippers, see how this show a non-adjustable
06:22suspension does.
06:24So far in the gravel, it was great, but now we're going to start hitting some bumps and
06:27some ruts and sand and we've got a bunch of stuff playing in to really work the chassis
06:33a lot more here.
06:34So let's see what we find out.
06:43Front tire is gnarly.
06:46It's very difficult.
06:47The back is actually pretty good because you can modulate the power really well with the
06:51throttle response and the torque of the motor.
06:53But you can't lean it over enough to steer with the rear so much with the tires that
06:58are on it.
06:59Suspension hold up through the bumps and stuff is really nice.
07:01All right, things are getting a bit rodeo.
07:24Dirt road, two-track, bumpy stuff, done.
07:27Totally capable.
07:28Suspension is really surprising.
07:31The front fork is really, really good.
07:33It might be too stiff for lighter people, but the rear is pretty good.
07:37It's a little soft for me, but I weigh 230 pounds with my gear on.
07:41What do you expect?
07:42And it's non-adjustable besides the preload and adding more preload isn't really going
07:45to help suspension action as much as it's going to help add to the bike and the way it
07:49turns.
07:50So now I'll go find some single track and a sand wash.
07:54See how we do there?
07:55If we can make any of that stuff, then we'll try to do some of that stuff over there.
08:03We've got a check engine light and a warning light and it's like in limp mode.
08:20It has like no throttle response.
08:22So limiting factor we thought was the tires, but it might be something with the bike.
08:28Maybe it got hot.
08:29I don't know.
08:30I don't know.
08:32Well, we didn't finish the test we wanted to finish today.
08:35The bike, as you saw, has a check engine light on, throttle response is down, and we don't
08:41want to hurt the engine or something else on the bike.
08:44So we're going to give it back to Royal Enfield.
08:46We're going to let them fix it.
08:47We're going to have them tell us what went wrong, and then we're going to get the bike.
08:51We're going to come back out here and finish this thing off.
08:55Okay, we're back with the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 and it's fixed.
08:59It was just a small little issue with some dirt and a connector for a wheel speed sensor.
09:04Threw the whole system off, fixed in a couple of days.
09:07We're good to go.
09:08So we've got a couple of tests left to do.
09:10We've got some more single track and we've got sand wash testing to do.
09:13And then if it passes both of those, then we're really going to put in the test and try
09:16to ride some hard enduro type stuff with it.
09:19So let's get to it.
09:25So the suspension on this thing is so good for what it is.
09:42Like it's a little bit springy when you get into the whoops, but it's really controlled
09:46and pretty good overall for what would be a budget ATV bike.
09:50It's awesome.
10:05If it was my bike, I'd put wider handlebars on it and a little bit taller to make it easier to stand up.
10:10I'd pull the rubbers out of the foot pegs.
10:12I think the foot peg size is good and that would help with some leverage.
10:15So what it feels like is these bars are kind of small for off-road use and it kind of puts your elbows a little close to your body.
10:22It's also really nice.
10:23It has a button to turn off the ABS and when you stop, it stays off.
10:28So I don't have to keep putting the ABS off on the rear every time I take off, which is really nice.
10:33But it still has front ABS.
10:35So a couple of times you run into a few issues, especially in this really sandy single track.
10:44All right.
10:45So that single track done and dusted once again, super good.
10:49Just the tires, but now is the real test.
10:51And this is where the tires might let the bike down.
10:55We're heading into the sand wash and it's dry and deep.
10:58This might be the end of the test for this bike.
11:00I don't know if we can get much past this.
11:02Could be good.
11:03Could be bad.
11:04Let's find out.
11:05Speed is your friend.
11:12Oh, it's not bad.
11:13Whoa.
11:22It's a handful.
11:23It'll do a sand wash.
11:29Actually floats on top pretty well.
11:31It gets a little skatey.
11:32I wish the bars were wider for more leverage.
11:34So this sand is really, really soft.
11:36And if I was on a big multi-cylinder bike, it would be tough on the relative lightness of this Himalayan makes it easier.
11:46And I would much rather be on that with the same set of tires than on a big adventure bike.
11:53It's definitely one of its strengths.
11:55So I guess I've got to keep my word and try some hard Enduro.
11:59I think we'll start with some not so hard Enduro and see how far we get.
12:03Alright.
12:04Well, we're in dirt bike territory now.
12:10I don't know why I open my big mouth sometimes.
12:16Okay.
12:29More speed maybe.
12:32Okay.
12:33Well.
12:34Let's try it one more time with a little more speed.
12:36Traction is the problem.
12:38Can't lift a GS like this.
12:43Alright, we're gonna get a little run at it.
12:46Let's see if I can get a little more traction out of the rear.
13:09Oh, I got this.
13:14Nope.
13:15Okay.
13:16That's the limit.
13:17We're all infield test.
13:18Found and dusted.
13:19I think if I had good tires, I would have gotten right up.
13:21Alright.
13:22So I lied.
13:23I'm not done yet.
13:24I think if I maybe get a little air out of the tires.
13:27I think we're at like street pressures.
13:28They're probably like 35 pounds or something.
13:29So let's air down.
13:30See if I can get some more traction and try one more time.
13:34I'm not ready to give up on this thing yet.
13:35I'm not ready to give up on this thing yet.
13:36I got a little give now.
13:37Question is, can I get back down this hill without falling over backwards on myself?
13:41The clutch in the rear tire is now my front brake.
13:42Nobody else is doing this on a Himalayan.
13:43Oh, hey, I have mirrors.
13:44I could use them.
13:45Oh, no, no, no.
13:46No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
13:47down see if I can get some more traction and try one more time. I'm not ready to give up on this
13:52thing yet. We got a little give now. Question is can I get back down this hill without falling
13:59over backwards on myself. The clutch in the rear tire is now my front brake. Nobody else is doing
14:06this on a Himalayan. Oh hey I have mirrors I could use them.
14:17Ah. Ah. Damn. I just caught that rock. Let's see if I can get out.
14:35Oh man I added to this collection. All right we'll call it there. That's it. That's as far as we can
14:43go. Okay well that's it for this test of the Royal Enfield Himalayan. I am really impressed
14:49with this bike. Even with these tires I managed to get myself with some really good trouble and that
14:55says a lot for the chassis and for the engine. It's still tractable. It's got really good power
15:00on our dyno. It made like 37.2 horsepower and I think 27 or 28 pound feet of torque which is a great
15:08combo for work like this out in the dirt. The only thing that stopped this bike is the tires and that's
15:14an easy fix. The suspension is awesome. You don't need to do anything to suspension if you buy this
15:19bike right away. Like it is amazing. With my weight 230 pounds with all my gear on it held up. I was
15:25able to hit the bumps the whoops. I never felt the suspension let me down at any point and that is
15:30amazing. It's really damped well. Compression and rebound. It's not springy. It's not boingy. It's really
15:36awesome. It handles itself great in the sand washes because it's light. It's flickable. Single track
15:40works great on the street. It's awesome. Maybe you could use a little more wind protection but that's
15:45also an easy fix. So you just really need to figure out what you want to do adventure bike riding.
15:50You could have one of these and have a ton of cash left over to go travel or get a big multi-cylinder
15:56bike with all the electronic wizardry and be comfortable. There's no way you're going to be
16:01taking a GS or a Multistrada or a KTM 1390 to this spot and even attempting this. So the type of
16:08riding I like to do I'm going to spend money on a Himalayan and have a bunch of money for hotels
16:13and tires. If you like what we're doing hit the like button subscribe and we'll see you next time.