Honda has filed a design patent overseas for an adventure bike based on its CB350 neo-retro bike platform, and from the looks of things, its silhouette bears a remarkable resemblance to the erstwhile Royal Enfield Himalayan 411.
- Engine, main frame borrowed from CB350 lineup
- Appears to be a simple, no-frills machine
It seems like the engine and main frame will be carried over nearly unchanged from the CB350 models and this 350cc Honda ADV will also sport twin shock absorbers at the rear, like the neo-retro bikes it will be based upon. All modern adventure bikes sport a monoshock at the rear, including the smaller and more affordable Honda CB200X, so it's quite surprising to see the CB350-based adventure bike go down a different road.
Where the Honda adventure bike differs from the CB350 is that it uses wire-spoked rims, which will likely be shod with tubed tyres. Most adventure bikes on the market use either 19-inch or 21-inch front wheels, so expect the Honda ADV to go down one of these two routes.
From the scooped out rider’s seat, upswept exhaust, round headlight and multiple luggage mounting points, the sketch of this adventure bike is uncannily similar to the erstwhile Himalayan 411. Expect the air-cooled, 349cc, single-cylinder engine to have similar output figures to the CB350 range, which would put it closer to a Hero Xpulse 200 4V than something like the Yezdi Adventure.
Currently, these are only patent designs so this model is still a few years away from seeing the light of day. If it were to be launched in India, its closest rival would be the Royal Enfield Scram 411, which still continues to soldier on with the same fundamentals that debuted on the original Himalayan 411 in 2016.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
