Royal Enfield All-New Himalayan Launched, Priced From Rs 2.69 Lakh

Weeks after officially unveiling the 'all-new Himalayan', Royal Enfield has now revealed the Indian pricing of their latest adventure motorcycle at their flagship event - Motoverse - in Goa today. 

Pricing begins at Rs 2.69 lakh (introductory price) for the cheapest variant, which is called Base (named after the base of a mountain) and is available in a single colour - Kaza Brown.

The mid variant, called Pass (named after mountain passes), has been priced at 2.74 lakh and will be available in two colours - Slate Himalayan Salt and Slate Himalayan Blue.

The top variant, called Peak, has been priced at 2.79 lakh for the Kamet White and 2.84 lakh for Hanle Black.

The only difference between all the variants is the colour. There are no mechanical or electronic differences between them.

The all-new Himalayan, also unofficially referred to as the Himalayan 450, is the successor to the first generation Royal Enfield Himalayan 411, that came out in 2016. It is expected that the older motorcycle will be discontinued sometime after the new one rolls into showrooms.

The new Himalayan, work on which started in 2017, is a grounds up model that Royal Enfield says shares not even a single bolt with its predecessor, and brings with it many firsts for the manufacturer. At the heart of the motorcycle is a new single-cylinder engine called the Sherpa 450 with a displacement of 452 cubic centimetres, is liquid cooled, has Dual Overhead Cams (DOHC), an aluminium bore, a slightly short-stroke - all firsts for Royal Enfield. The new motor is also 10 kilos lighter than the previous model. This engine makes 40 PS of peak power and 40 Nm of peak torque - with the focus on a flat torque curve that makes the motorcycle extremely useable at both low and high revs.

But the list of firsts doesn't end there for Royal Enfield. The throttle has been changed from a cable-actuated one to a more sophisticated Ride-by Wire system that enables the motorcycle to have multiple riding modes (it has two - Performance and Economy - with the option to turn off ABS on the rear wheel in both the modes).

The engine has been paired with a six-speed gearbox and a slipper clutch. The motorcycle is capable of reaching speeds of about 150 kmph and can be expected to return a fuel economy figure of around 28 kmpl. It gets a 17-litre fuel tank that should theoretically give it a travel range of about 450 kilometres.

Like the previous Himalayan 411, the wheel sizes have been retained as 21 inches front and 17 inches rear, but this time the wheels are aluminium (an option to switch to tubeless spoked rims will come later) and the rear tyre has been bumped up in width to 140 mm from 120 mm. The bike sports CEAT dual sport tyres that have been specially developed for it.

The suspension has seen a massive bump-up too - while it retains the same travel at the front, 200 mm, the bike now sports Showa upside down front forks, which are a lot stiffer than the previous bike. At the rear, the suspension travel has increased from 180 to 200 mm in the new bike. The ground clearance too has seen a marginal increase, from 220 mm to 230 mm in the new bike.

With the extensive changes, Royal Enfield has managed to shave 3 kg from the previous bike, with the kerb weight of the new Himalayan now at 196 kg.

The new motorcycle is clearly miles ahead of its predecessor, but now, it remains to be seem how the market will react to the Himalayan 450's pricing as compared to the rest of the motorcycles in the same price segment.