40 Bhp Royal Himalayan 450 confirmed: KTM Adventure 390 rival

We have mentioned earlier, in some of our previous stories about a more powerful Himalayan. Now, there are more details that have emerged about the new motorcycle. It has been confirmed that it will be called Himalayan 450 and it will get launched in the first quarter of next year.

The Himalayan 450 is being developed because most of the customers reported that the Himalayan 411 felt a bit underpowered because of its heavyweight and then the BS4 and BS6 emission norms added even more weight to the motorcycle.

The Himalayan 450 is a more hardcore version of the Himalayan 411. It could be a proper off-road motorcycle and a touring machine. As the name suggests, the new motorcycle will come with a 450 cc single-cylinder engine that will be liquid-cooled. Being liquid-cooled means that Royal Enfield could extract more power from the engine.

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The new engine will be capable of producing around 45 bhp but it will be tuned to produce 40 bhp. Royal Enfield will detune the engine so that it has more low-end grunt and strong mid-range because that is what you need while doing off-roading and touring. As of now, the torque figures are not revealed of the Himalayan 450. It would come mated to a 6-speed gearbox.

At first glance, you would consider that the Himalayan 450 is an all-new motorcycle but if you would look closely then you would notice that there are some similarities with the current Himalayan. The front circular headlamp, the external frame that connects the fuel tank to the headlamp and there will be twin mudguards up-front like we have seen on most adventure tourers.

The wheels and tyres are expected to be carried forward from the existing Himalayan. So, the front tyre will measure 21-inch while the rear one will measure 17-inches. It will use spoked wheels and have a tube-type setup. Surprisingly, Royal Enfield has figured out a way of spoked wheels with tubeless tyres. This setup can be seen on different variants of the Himalayan 450. Although, not much is known about the new setup. It might be possible that the tubeless tyres with spoked wheels could eventually come to the Interceptor and Continental GT in the future. This could be the reason why there have been no alloy wheels for the 650 Twins.

The suspension setup will consist of a mono-shock at the rear and up-side-down forks in the front with quite a bit of travel. Braking duties will be done by a disc in the front and at the rear with a dual-channel anti-lock braking system.

The riding triangle will be comfortable with a wide and easy to reach the handlebar. The footpegs will be centre set and there would be a single-piece seat. Royal Enfield already nailed the riding ergonomics on the current Himalayan for touring. The motorcycle will have plenty of ground clearance.

We are expecting that Royal Enfield will offer the Himalayan 450 with a bash plate, luggage rack, jerry can holders, saddle stays, knuckle guards and an upswept exhaust. There will be dual-purpose tyres on offer.

The new motorcycle will be positioned between the current Himalayan 411 and the Interceptor 650. So, expect it to start from somewhere around Rs. 2.7 lakhs ex-showroom. It will be competing directly against the KTM Adventure 390 and the upcoming Yezdi Roadking. We hope that Royal Enfield’s service centre is able to handle the new motorcycle because it will be their first liquid-cooled engine. Moreover, Royal Enfield’s service centres are already facing issues in maintaining the 650 Twins.

Via BikeWale

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