Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 review by Vedant Jouhari. The Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 comes with a host of new upgrades as compared to the previous generation Himalayan. It features a new design, a brand new engine, a new suspension setup, and a lot more. CS Santhosh, the first Indian to compete in the Dakar Rally, helped design the new Himalayan 450 to be a much better off-roader and an all-round bike.
It comes powered with Royal Enfield's new Sherpa engine, which is a 451cc, liquid-cooled motor that produced 39.47bhp and 40Nm of torque. The Himalayan 450 also comes with switchable rear ABS and a height adjustable seat.
Watch the full review to know more!
#RoyalEnfieldHimalayan450, #Himalayan450, #RoyalEnfieldHimalayan, #newhimalayan
~ED.157~
It comes powered with Royal Enfield's new Sherpa engine, which is a 451cc, liquid-cooled motor that produced 39.47bhp and 40Nm of torque. The Himalayan 450 also comes with switchable rear ABS and a height adjustable seat.
Watch the full review to know more!
#RoyalEnfieldHimalayan450, #Himalayan450, #RoyalEnfieldHimalayan, #newhimalayan
~ED.157~
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 You're welcome to Drivespark, I'm Vedant Johari and what I have right in front of me is the
00:12 all new Royal Enfield Himalayan 450.
00:15 Now, let's take a look at this bike closer. Starting off at the front end of the motorcycle,
00:36 we have this really nice and aggressive, dirt style front mudguard that comes well above
00:42 the front wheel and below that we have another mudguard over here that spans all the way
00:46 down till here for when you're off-roading to stop any rubble, to stop any debris from
00:51 shooting out into the radiator and damaging it. So the front wheel that we have here is
00:55 a tubed, spoked wheel tyre that is 21 inches and we have USD forks who hit a good fork
01:02 cover over here. So the front forks that we have are 43mm Showa USD forks. Now apart from
01:08 that, we have this really nice circular headlight with the Royal Enfield badging in the centre
01:14 and it's almost like a split style design. On top is your low beam and below is your
01:18 high beam. Also on each corner of the headlamp are clamps. It's honestly a really nice feature
01:23 that Royal Enfield has incorporated into this motorcycle. Also on top of that we have a
01:27 small windscreen with an option, an additional option to increase the size as well. Now we
01:33 have these tank protectors over here with a really nice Royal Enfield badging on it.
01:38 Looking at the design of the tank, it's a really really nice design as compared to the
01:42 old Himalayan which is very sleek. Here we have a little bigger tank, it flares out in
01:48 the front and then comes in sleek towards the centre for adequate knee placement and
01:53 for adequate seating position. Now this tank can hold up to 17 litres of fuel. We also
01:59 have the really nice looking Himalayan badging over here along this yellow stripe. Now coming
02:05 to the footpegs, the footpegs that we have have some really good grip on them and it
02:12 has this sort of beading on it that provides extra grip for when you're riding with your
02:18 boot so that it doesn't slip off. However, on this motorcycle, the footpegs aren't connected
02:23 to the main frame so you don't get as much feedback as you do when you're riding off-road
02:28 on your legs than you do on your hands. Now looking at the exhaust, we have this really
02:32 nice upswept exhaust and the exhaust note is really nice, that we will listen to in
02:37 some time. At the rear, we have a single Mahona shock that is honestly so much better designed
02:44 than the older Himalayan. It's an adjustable suspension so you can make it a little more
02:48 stiffer or a little more softer depending on your preference and your convenience. When
02:53 you're going over a speed breaker, when you're going over a bump, really, not really fast
02:57 but at speeds. In the older Himalayan, there was a lot of kickback from the end but now,
03:03 the dampness of the rear suspension, the compression of the rear suspension has all gone through
03:08 R&D to avoid that and now when you hit a bump or hit a speed breaker at speed, you don't
03:13 feel the kickback, you don't feel yourself getting thrown into the front, you do feel
03:17 planted on the motorcycle. Now coming to the rear end of the motorcycle, we have this,
03:22 again, a nice Royal Enfield badge, the yellow against the black which creates a really nice
03:26 contrast. At the rear end of the motorcycle, we have this top rack over here which you
03:31 can put a top box or something up to 7kgs but this one that we have right now is a 5kgs
03:37 setup and something really, really unique on this is that if you look at the rear end,
03:43 you really don't see any brake lights on this. Now, why is that? That would be a little unsafe,
03:48 you think but the indicators that we have here have integrated brake lights. So, around
03:54 the edges is where your brake lights are and at the centre is where your indicator flashes.
04:00 In my opinion, I feel it looks really, really nice. Now coming to the rear wheel, again,
04:05 a tube tyre, spoked wheel and this is 17 inches. The 21-inch front wheel and the 17-inch rear
04:11 wheel is perfect for off-roading and for an ADV bike on the road as it gives you proper
04:18 grip, proper feel of the motorcycle. So now coming to the frame, it's a dual tubular trellis
04:25 frame with a rear subframe and so you could pretty much say it's a split chassis.
04:31 The engine of this motorcycle, the first time in Royal Enfield's history that they have
04:42 included liquid cooled engine and a DOHC setup. Now this engine is known as the Sherpa
04:49 and it is a 451cc engine that produces 40bhp, 39.47 to be exact and 40Nm of torque. So now
04:59 this engine gives you that extra torque, that extra power to actually push the bike no matter
05:05 what your situation is and you can ride it on low revs or high revs and you don't feel
05:11 strain from the engine and that is something really nice. I rode the bike for more than
05:15 600 kilometres from Pune to Goa with the stop in Ganpati Pule and taking it in some off-road
05:22 sections, riding it on the beach, riding it on different sorts of terrain, on rocks, on
05:27 mud, on tarmac, on broken tarmac, everywhere, there was no strain from the engine. You did
05:33 feel the rear wheel want to step out but you really didn't feel the bike struggle. No matter
05:39 what you threw at it, it could easily handle it. So now on our display, on our dash, it's
05:45 a 4-inch dash and here we have a host of settings such as you can control the screen, you can
05:52 make it analogue or digital, you can control a dark view or a light view and you get four
05:58 riding modes on this. So you get performance with ABS on, performance with the rear ABS
06:04 off, eco with the ABS on and eco with the rear ABS off. I, 99% of the time, rode it
06:12 with the performance on, rear ABS off and it was a thrill. I mean with the rear ABS
06:17 on, you do feel the rear brake struggle a bit as you can't press it as hard and you
06:22 do feel the brake wanting to push back but with the ABS off, you can really press the
06:28 brake, press the front brakes and when you're off-roading, you really feel the bike want
06:32 to stop when you're pressing the brakes. Now coming to the ground clearance of this
06:35 motorcycle, 230mm and the seat height is 825mm and now you have a torque option with the
06:43 seat to increase the seat height to 840mm. I was riding this bike on 840mm as I'm 6'1"
06:50 and I find it more comfortable with a little higher seat. Coming to the seating position
06:54 of this motorcycle, as you can see, so now we are at the lower seat height which is 825mm
07:00 and I can comfortably place my feet flat. However, for someone who's around 5'2" or
07:06 5'3", this seat height could also be a little too high for them and they'll be extreme on
07:11 their toes to get the balance or they would have to move over to one side of the bike
07:17 to actually plant their feet and get a good grip on the ground for this motorcycle. As
07:21 I mentioned for the tank design, it's flared in the front and comes narrow in the centre
07:25 and that is because when you're sitting, you have place to actually rest, not rest your
07:30 legs but keep it planted on the tank and even when you're standing up and riding, you have
07:37 some grip over here but as I said, as the footpegs aren't connected to the frame, you
07:42 don't feel as much feedback on the feet as you do on the handlebars.
07:51 So now coming to the cons of this motorcycle, on our dash, we have navigation but we need
07:56 to download the Royal Enfield app for that and that app drains the battery and why is
08:02 that? So basically, you need to keep your phone on, you have to keep it unlocked throughout
08:08 to get the actual route on your dash and if you lock your phone, you'll only get the navigation
08:14 symbols. This is my experience, when I left from Pune, I had a 100% charge on my phone,
08:21 we rode for around 80 to 90 kilometres and when we made our first stop, my phone was
08:27 down to 12% of battery. So my phone doesn't give the best battery life but still, draining
08:33 it from 100 to 12% in just 90 kilometres is really not good and on top of that, my phone
08:42 started heating up, so it could reduce the life of your phone. So now coming to another
08:47 con of this, headlights. At night, when you're riding, the throw of the headlight isn't strong
08:53 at all, so you do have some vision but the road is not illuminated like how you'd want
08:59 it to be but if you do put it on full beam, you do get better lighting but that's going
09:04 to affect the oncoming traffic. So that is something else that Royal Enfield can look
09:09 into to actually work on this motorcycle. Now, coming to the braking of this, the front
09:14 brake has a really good bite, however the rear brake with the rear ABS on is not strong.
09:20 When you switch the rear ABS off, you do feel the bike want to stop with the rear brakes.
09:25 Now with it on, it doesn't feel as strong and you don't feel the bike really wanting
09:30 to come to a halt and when you press it hard, you do feel the rear brake pushing back up
09:36 on your feet as the ABS is kicking in. So now coming to the rear suspension, if you
09:41 have someone heavier sitting at the rear of the motorcycle, you do feel it drop. Now that
09:46 you can adjust with your adjustable rear suspension, however with the stock settings, it is a little
09:52 soft but if you're riding single, it feels extremely comfortable. So now someone with
09:58 a bigger rear end would feel uncomfortable on the rear seat as it's narrower and it's
10:03 not as wide and accommodating as the front seat is.
10:07 After the rear seat, we'll come to the top rack. The top rack with the stock setting
10:11 is only, the maximum load that you can put on this is only 5kgs. So for example, if you
10:17 have a 13-litre bag or even a 20-litre bag for that matter, that's still around 20-30kgs
10:23 of weight and with the 5kg load, it's not, it's really not going to take that much weight.
10:28 So you will have to opt for an additional piece from Royal Enfield or from another source
10:34 where you can actually fit something heavier onto this. So here's another con on the motorcycle.
10:39 So when you're constantly riding on the highway or when you're constantly in motion, you don't
10:43 feel the heat coming from the engine as there's airflow coming in and it keeps the engine
10:48 at the ideal temperature. However, when you're riding in the city and you find yourself stuck
10:54 in jam-packed traffic, that's where you feel the heat coming out. So when you're sitting
10:59 on the bike, your position in traffic is ideally like this as you have your foot on the rear
11:04 brake for when you need it. So when your leg is like this, you do feel the heat radiate
11:09 out of the engine and you do feel your leg getting warm. That may bring some discomfort
11:15 to you and the heat mainly radiates out of the right side of the engine. So you feel
11:21 it a lot on your right leg. However, your left leg, as it will be down or even if it's
11:26 up on the footpeg, you don't feel it as much. So that is another thing. The cooling system
11:31 may have to be improved to get rid of this small issue. So now the next con of this.
11:37 To control what's on your dash while you're riding. When you're riding, almost everything
11:41 is locked on the dash, right from your riding modes to selecting the display on your main
11:47 screen. However, you can control your trip meter, your fuel economy, range to zero, all
11:54 of that is controllable, but everything else is locked. So to control all of that, you
11:59 will have to come to a standstill to the side of the road and control it. So for most of
12:03 it, it is good for the safety, like you wouldn't want to be riding on the road and be seeing
12:08 how your appearance on the dash looks and all of that. But for riding modes, you will
12:13 want to change it on the fly, as you might get a sudden off-road section and to control
12:18 the bike. Now, to change the riding mode, you will have to stop to the side, come to
12:22 a standstill of the motorcycle and in some situations, you'll have to do a full ignition
12:27 cycle. You'll have to switch off the motorcycle with the key and switch it back on to actually
12:31 change the riding mode, as it gets locked if you try changing it on the fly. So now
12:36 coming to the final con of this motorcycle. As it's an ADV, as it's an off-roader, you
12:41 will expect it to come with spoked wheels and tubeless tyres. However, this motorcycle
12:46 comes with spoked wheels and a tube tyre. So as it's a tube tyre, when you're riding
12:51 off-road, if you get a flat, you can't do anything about it. Your tube is damaged and
12:57 your tyre is damaged. So you'll have to stop the motorcycle until you get a replacement.
13:02 So that is also something that can be looked into by Royal Enfield.
13:08 All in all, this was a Royal Enfield Himalayan and it was a thrill to ride. Excluding the
13:14 cons, it was amazing. I had a blast on it, 600+ kilometres riding it on highways, through
13:21 ghats, through off-road sections, on the beach, everywhere. It was unreal fun. I loved it
13:29 and Royal Enfield has done a brilliant job as compared to the previous Himalayan to the
13:34 newer Himalayan. As I mentioned earlier in the video, let's listen to the exhaust note
13:39 of this motorcycle.
13:40 So as you could hear, it had a nice grunt to it and that is the whole 450cc coming into
13:59 play and shooting out from the exhaust. Now, in my opinion, it sounds really nice, especially
14:06 for a single cylinder off-roader. Let's talk about the colour options on this motorcycle.
14:11 You get this available in four colour options. One, as you can see here, is the black and
14:16 yellow, which is the top-end variant. Apart from this colour, you get three other options.
14:22 One is the plain white with some graphics on the tank. Then you get a grey and blue
14:28 colour option and a grey and pink colour option. In my opinion, the black and yellow is honestly
14:35 the best looking Himalayan out there. Now, the price point of this. Up until December
14:41 31st, you can avail the motorcycle at Rs 2.69 lakhs and it ranges from 2.69 lakhs to 2.84
14:49 lakhs and both these prices are ex-showroom. So let us know in the comments section down
14:53 below what you think of the new Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 and tell us if you would want
15:00 to ride this bike. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe. My name is Vedant Johari, signing out.
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