A tamer, road-going version of the Royal Enfield Himalayan was spied testing recently. The Himalayan, a proper off-road oriented adventure tourer, could for some be a bit much to handle on city rides, with its off-road stance and taller suspension travel adding height. The solution could possibly be this milder model, based around the same twin cradle frame as engineered by UK-based and Royal Enfield-owned chassis specialist, Harris Performance. The new bike swaps the longer stroke telescopic forks for more standard front forks, and the high-mounted front mud guard for a conventional one. Overall, the variant gets the body style of a Scrambler rather than the purpose-built adventurer look.
The bike seems to have shed heavy off-roading accessories such as a luggage carrier and a fuel-tank guard, to make the bike more convenient for daily use.
The components shared with the adventurer tourer will be the circular headlamp, the fuel-tank, split seats, LED tail-light, the exposed chassis and exhaust. The new bike should get an engine that's approximately 400cc, making about 27bhp and 3.5kgm torque, mated to a five-speed transmission.
Pricing of this Royal Enfield Himalayan variant can be expected to be a shade under the full-fledged model, that in all probability will be around the Rs 2 lakh mark.
Vishal Venugopal
Ved Janve
Stephen Raj Antony
Dinshaw Magol
