A few months ago, we were the first one to tell you all the details of the Himalayan 650 and in the same video, we mentioned about another Himalayan that is more hardcore and will come much before the Himalayan 650 – well, today is the day where we will tell you about that bike.
Royal Enfield has developed a brand new platform. It’s a platform that will help the brand compete with a lot of global motorcycles like the KTM 390 Adventure. It gets the K1 codename and the first bike that will come from this platform will be an adventure bike. This bike, will be called the Himalayan 450. And as you can see in the picture, this bike will get a single-cylinder liquid-cooled motor and for the Himalayan 450, it will churn out around 40bhp. Now according to our sources, this new engine has the capacity to churn out more than 45bhp, but RE is focusing more on getting strong low and mid-range– something that is most needed for ADV bikes. Unfortunately, we don’t have the torque figure now, but we’ll get you that as and when we have it.
Now coming to the styling, you might say that the Himalayan 450 gets a brand new design language and in a way it does. But if you look closely, you will see some inspiration from the Himalayan 411. For example, the frame connecting the fuel tank to the headlamp unit gives out the original Himalayan feel. The circular headlamp too resembles the Himalayan. And now, if you look at the spoke wheels, it is identical to the ones we see on the oil-cooled Himalayan. In fact, the Himalayan 450 too gets a 21-inch front and 17-inch rear wheels setup. So we can expect RE to use the exact same wheels on this new bike. Moreover, Royal Enfield also has a spoke wheel with tubeless tyre setup ready. But this one will be introduced on different variants of the Himalayan 450. We’ll talk about this one, some other time.
As you can see in this picture, the Himalayan 450 is built around a trellis frame and we are hoping this bike isn’t as heavy as the current model. Now because the Himalayan 450 will be positioned as a hardcore middleweight ADV, there are a few things that could make this bike really exciting. The travel on the front suspension is quite a bit – and yes, it does get upside-down forks. The other interesting bit is that ground clearance – I mean just look at it. I know we don’t have the numbers now, but that clearance is definitely going to impress lot of ADV riders.
Now coming to the comfort and seating ergos, the center-set pegs, long single-seat and easy-to-reach handlebar makes it look comfy. But we’ll share the real experience when we test the bike. Now the main question. When will Royal Enfield launch the Himalayan 450 in India? Well, the Himalayan 450 was earlier planned for this year-end launch, but has been delayed as the launch of the Super Meteor and Shotgun were delayed. So we are expecting the Himalayan 450 to make its way to showrooms in the first quarter of 2023.
I’m sure most of you must be wondering about the pricing. Well as far as we know, this new 450cc platform will be positioned between the 410cc oil-cooled and 650cc parallel-twin motors. So the Himalayan 450 could start with a price tag of around Rs 2.7 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) which gets it very close to the Interceptor 650. But we believe the prices of the entry-level INT 650 will be pushed further up as and when more variants like the one with alloy wheels is launched.
So that’s all we have for now folks. I know a lot of you guys are super excited to see this bike in person. We are too because the specs, the styling, the dirt-bike inspiration – all these aspects are bound to make the Himalayan 450 a great bike to own!
