Royal Enfield has been testing their new motorcycle – the Himalayan – for a long time now. A nearly production ready prototype was spotted in Chennai recently revealing how the final product will look like.
The Himalayan is based on a completely new chassis developed by Harris Performance and is a cross-country adventure motorcycle. The Himalayan breaks away from Royal Enfield’s legacy of cruisers aiming to tap the growing demand for adventure touring motorcycles in India as well as abroad.
The Himalayan has the typical upright sitting posture of a cross-country motorcycle with a high seat, high handlebar and mid-set footpegs. The long conventional front forks seem to have longer travel and house a high mounted mudguard over knobby tyres. The meter console has been modernised to include a compass and probably an altimeter along with the regular speedometer and odometer. What looks like the fuel tank/engine guard may actually be a mount for a bikini fairing. There are provisions to mount panniers on the rear of the motorcycle along with a Hero Impulse like luggage rack and a high mounted tail lamp.
The Himalayan gets a brand new engine too. It is speculated that it will get a 410cc oil-cooled single cylinder petrol engine expected to develop 28bhp of power and 32Nm of torque. The Himalayan will get a five-speed gearbox. It gets disc brakes both in the front and the rear.
With the final rounds of testing underway, we expect Royal Enfield to showcase and possibly launch the motorcycle at the Auto Expo to be held in February next year, if not before, for a price tag between Rs 1.6 to Rs 1.9 lakh.
