The latest sighting of a new Royal Enfield test mule is the upcoming roadster that will use the 452cc engine from the new Himalayan. This bike will likely sit below the Himalayan in the company’s lineup and will be a more road-biased addition to the 450cc lineup. The bike has been spotted testing over the past year, but there is no official word on its launch.
- USD fork replaced by telescopic unit
- Large single-piece seat; all-LED lighting
The bike has a very sleek design, with minimal bodywork and a stubby tail section. What’s noteworthy is that the teardrop-shaped tank’s design is quite different from the rather large one on the Himalayan. There’s all-LED lighting, with the LED headlight being the same one seen on the Super Meteor 650 and Himalayan. The tail section resembles the new Himalayan quite closely and looks quite sleek. The instrument cluster is a round unit but it cannot be seen whether it's the new TFT display from the Himalayan or the digi-analogue unit from the Shotgun 650.
Expect the same 452cc, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine and main frame to be found here as on the new Himalayan. Output figures are likely to stay in the 40hp/40Nm ballpark but Royal Enfield could play around with gearing to suit its roadster nature. What appears to be a small bash plate is also seen under the exhaust header pipe.
Unlike the Showa USD fork seen on the Himalayan 450, a telescopic fork is found on this bike, which could hint that this will probably be a more budget-friendly model. The design of the alloy wheels appears to be quite similar to the ones seen on the new Shotgun 650. The test mule spotted last year was kitted out with accessories, and like every other Royal Enfield, expect a cavalcade of GMA to be on offer here too.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
