Chip Off The Old Block

ARR’s roving reporter, Ian Neubauer, heads to India to test the new Himalayan, Royal Enfield’s long-anticipated mid-size adventure tourer.

- Ian Neubauer

No motorbike in the world has brought me greater pleasure or pain than the Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc. Yes, it’s a road bike — and an antiquated and underpowered one at that — but it’s taken me to remote places on horrific roads that few other motorbikes can reach due to its light weight, low fuel consumption, and low-tech mechanics that any roadside grease monkey can fix.

Which brings me to the “pain” factor.

Manufactured in India for the local market at the retail equivalent of AU$2500, the Bullet is fitted with low-cost parts that break down as regularly as The Donald lies. While riding in Nepal, the teeth on the rear sprocket of a Bullet I hired were ground down to dust. In Vietnam, the sub-standard tyres on my Bullet aquaplaned on a barely wet bend in the road. I came off flying and tore a ligament in my shoulder that took two years to heal.

But like I said, the Bullet gets you there. And for adventure riders that’s all that matters in the end. So you can imagine my excitement when I was invited to test-ride the all-new 410cc Himalayan — the first motorbike designed from the ground up by Royal Enfield in more than 60 years. But rather than thrash it around a track or the trails in Australia, I flew to India to test it on the terrain it was designed for: the mighty Himalayas.

“Our single biggest insight in all these years of riding has been that the best motorcycle for mountains like the Himalayas is not one that tries to dominate its landscape, but one that is able to go with its flow,” says Enfield’s Arun Gopal. “Large adventure tourers that currently define this category do not fare well in such terrain as they are very heavy, extremely complicated, intimidating and not really designed for the environment.”

He makes a good point. But is the Himalayan the answer? And should riders Down Under consider giving it a whirl?