The Royal Enfield Himalayan 440 is back, wearing familiar clothes but a new, improved heart. Debuted first on the Scram 440, the upsized 443cc engine now makes 1.4hp more and 2Nm of torque over the erstwhile Himalayan 411. Throw in an additional sixth gear, and the Himalayan should now be a better tourer than before. But wait, how does this revived ADV compare to its direct rival, the Yezdi Adventure? Let’s find out.
Royal Enfield Himalayan 440 vs Yezdi Adventure: Engine and output
Yezdi makes more power with a liquid-cooled engine
On paper, the Yezdi Adventure displaces 109cc less than the Himalayan 440, but the Yezdi starts off strong – quite literally – with more power at a higher redline than the Himalayan 440. Its engine is also liquid-cooled compared to the Himalayan’s air- and oil-cooled mill. Both the motorcycles have six gears, so highway travel shouldn’t be a chore on either.
Royal Enfield Himalayan 440 vs Yezdi Adventure: Dimensions and weight
Himalayan 440 is more accessible
Things become a bit more even in this section. Both motorcycles share similar ground clearance numbers, but the Himalayan is more accessible with a 15mm lower saddle height. Yezdi reports 187kg for the Adventure, but that’s dry weight. So, with 90 percent fuel, it should weigh just as much, if not more, than the Himalayan’s 199kg.
Royal Enfield Himalayan 440 vs Yezdi Adventure: Tyres, brakes and suspension
Both models are (almost) on par
Once again, the numbers look really similar. The Yezdi Adventure has a slightly larger rear tyre and a slightly larger front disc brake. Speaking of tyres, although both models come with wire-spoked rims as standard, the Yezdi Adventure offers cross-spoke, tubeless rims as a Rs 20,000 option, available for the middle and top variants. On the Royal Enfield side, though, such an upgrade isn’t possible currently. Royal Enfield hasn’t even confirmed whether the Himalayan 450’s tubeless rims can be retrofitted to it. Suspension is another area where both motorcycles are neck and neck, sharing the same kind of setups on paper, down to the travel.
Royal Enfield Himalayan 440 vs Yezdi Adventure: Features
Yezdi gets more rider aids
The Yezdi offers a more comprehensive feature package compared to the Royal Enfield. The Adventure gives you traction control, an adjustable windshield and instrument cluster and three ride modes (Road, Rain, Off-road), all of which are missing on the Himalayan 440. On the other hand, the Royal Enfield comes with a tripper pod as standard for turn-by-turn navigation, a USB Type-C port, and LED headlight and tail-light. But if rider aids are what you’re after, the Yezdi has more of them.
Royal Enfield Himalayan 440 vs Yezdi Adventure: Price
Yezdi offers more value for money
Royal Enfield has kept things straightforward with the Himalayan 440, just offering one variant in three colours, all priced the same. Yezdi offers three variants of the Adventure in a total of four colours, separated only by colour options. As mentioned earlier, you can add cross-spoke tubeless wheels to its middle and top variants for Rs 20,000 extra. To conclude, on paper, the Yezdi Adventure puts up quite the fight to the Royal Enfield Himalayan 440, but real-world experiences may vary. It would be prudent to decide between the two after taking test rides.
Vishal Venugopal
Autocar India Team 
