re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

DO agree with the 2nd part of your post. have been bitten twice (2007 machismo 350 & 2010 Classic 500) and both the bike are sold now after after around 50k kms on both including many sleepless nights. Am very happy with my current ktm 390 without much headach in 30k kms of ownership in last 2 years.
RE is all about image its portrays and the nostalgic value. As kids around 25 yrs back, most of us have been awed by the cast iron thump and seen only 'selected few' riding it around. sort of status symbol of strong, welloff, machoism and dabang. The brand got a revival with TB350 in early 2000 (mainly cos of lack of any other offerings above 200cc), and since than is been busy producing mediocre products with are neither fully classic/retro nor up-to-date with modern technology. Highly under-powered power plant with old school tolerances, coupled with sad service experiences and highly priced spares. They may have their heart in right place, but unless they drastically improve on their products and service, others will slowly take-over. I know many of my colleagues from various riding groups who have given up their bulls for other more modern, safer, and powerful machines within similar price bracket with better sales and spares.
Himalayan is definitely a step in the right direction where they have shed their baggages such as typical push rods, but will have to wait and see what the new motor had to offer & how the bike fares in real life. I am really not against the brand, but will be very careful if i have to buy my 3rd RE.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

I think RE suffers from the same image issue in motorcycling as Fiat in the Car world. I own both so I can totally relate to it. While I'm not saying that RE belts out performance motorcycles etc but the "Quality is Bad" image is also quite blown out of proportion. I have a RE SVC quite near my house & whenever I go I do find one or two angry guys but I also find a whole lot of happy bunch.

Surely I don't think it holds against likes of Kawasaki etc on the build quality & service network front but having used a Honda in the past & a Bajaj in the family; I can safely say after nearly a year of ownership is RE build quality + Service network and overall use is quite good & is easily comparable to Bajaj / commute Honda bikes.

Disclaimer I'm not a RE "Brand" fan as such though I've liked RE bikes for their old-school appearance for long & for that matter of fact I equally like any old-school bikes from any brand.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

i owned an apache RTR 160 until recently (7yrs old, started giving trouble) and the owner of the garage where i got my apache serviced, told me that my 7 yr old apache on an average had lesser breakdowns and problems than 1 yr old REs, never mind the model. he is a school friend, he had no reason to patronize me. i recently did a 5500 km trip with a friend of mine to Leh, his RE entered a garage literally everyday of the trip, and totally drank in excess of 5 litres of engine oil, chain was replaced, brakes replaced/tightened, and other niggles i can't remember. in contrast my bike went precisely twice, once for a chain tightening, and once for a broken horn cable.
the ONLY advantage of an RE is its suspension, i have no qualms in admitting...

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that said, the build quality of this bike, Himalayan, at least from the spy shots, seems better than the regular REs that can be seen on roads.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

Yes I see a quite a lot of bullets who are the usual angry customers. Well I can't really speak for Bullet problems since I own a GT. Maybe coz this model is a high-priced export focused model it has better overall quality than say regular models and its starkly visible once you keep all the REs side by side. Ive hardly had "issues" as such, more a couple of small niggles like the Battery charging issues which my friend who owns a yellow CGT doesn't seem to have, and the rear-sets which could've been done a lot better.

So that being said if himalayan is also based on he Conti platform hopefully it'll sport a better overall quality.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

Do you ride your GT regularly? I found the seating position & handlebar position to be very uncomfortable in GT.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

Yep. Its my daily bike, it's not much wieldy & fun in traffic but fun on open roads.

Also I don't know why people find GT position to be any different than a R15 or a NS200 or KTM-RC, they're all much in the same range. Though I can comfortably that GT being heavier & more so front heavy, many find extra load on the arms esp in traffic and esp if you want to snake around. If you drive it like a cruiser not wanting to pass into every nook & cranny then it's quite fine. Infact on highway rides I always feel the need to put the bars lower

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

One more pic! The weird skinny head lamp unit bothers me among all the others.

Source: powerdrift

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

I Own a TB 350 for the last one and half years. Although I never faced any major mechanical failures there are always small niggles. The bike is not heavily used and used purely as leisure and runs on an average of 400 - 500 kms a month. I do ensure the bike is maintained properly including timely servicing etc. but the poor built quality comes to fore many times. I had faced problem of electrical wires malfunctioning due to poor harnessing and the cable bunch rubbed against the body at each turn of handlebar, there are rubber pipes developing cracks and recently the odometer and the clock stopped functioning on the electronic speedo assembly. The service station guys say that this cannot be repaired and I have change the entire unit at a cost of INR 6,500/-.

Apart from that the bike ran well, it always started at the lightest first swing of leg even on cold mornings, gives great mileage and an awesome riding experience. It's very comfortable.

Point is this is the year 2015 and we are stepping into 2016. The world has progressed by leaps and bounds, standards have been raised everywhere and such flaws are just not expected or tolerated. My four year old VW Polo never had any issue, so are all the Japanese bikes that I have owned & used so far. I recently purchased a Yamaha YZF R15S which has a phenomenal built quality.

So RE really needs to improve on quality, they have improved over last few years but it's simply inadequate. There is no rule that says if you built classic motorcycles, quality need to take a back seat. At times it gives me an impression that poor quality has almost become a marketing USP for RE when it is said that people who get their hand greasy are true motorcyclists. Whereas there is no such co-relation. But as RE user I would love to see better quality in my motorcycle. Also I wish they come up with more efficient engine units for better performance. The current level of performance from the 350CC mill is grossly inadequate. The power & torque figures on paper doesn't even translate in matching performance on road. The engine struggles to go past 90kmph and that shows poor thermal efficiency of the engine.

I just hope RE will catch up with time fast. The present wave of success may not last very long.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

Even this all new himalayan that has been developed with a 410 cc engine, with oil cooling no less, the power output stands at a dismal 24 bhp (source: motoroids) it might be argued that the said bike is a tourer, which should mean that at least the torque figures are higher than a regular bike which produces 24 bhp.

the overall design and fit-finish seem sub par, but then its literally the first bike designed by them in a really long time (in a century, if i remember what i read correctly)

and you are absolutely right, the reason why RE is loved so much is that the owners think that greasy hands equate to true motorcyclists.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!




LED tail lights

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

It looks well designed with a compact engine but I hope they have sorted out the the annoying vibrations. I feel the forks appear rather slender for this bike. Fuel tank capacity is another thing which should be larger than current classic for it to be a real tourer.

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

[MENTION=43844]HyperRetard[/MENTION] That looks awesome! Thanks for the pics!

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

Nice to see such a bike from RE..those boxes looks huge

re: Royal Enfield Himalayan Unveiled!

Another bike from RE that would have a long waiting period. I know a real re fan and he is very impressed