The Royal Enfield Himalayan has to be one of the most awaited motorcycles in India of late. There spy or leaked images have been doing round on the interweb for quite some time now and just a few days ago Royal Enfield let the cat out of bag when they officially ‘unveiled’ the bike in the virtual world. They made live a whole new section on their website dedicated to the Himalayan. Along with some pictures of Himalayan, the website had a couple of videos featuring India’s motocross star, C.S. Santosh. Santosh was  roped in, as per Royal Enfield, to help in development of the Himalayan.

Obviously this unveiling has created a lot of buzz now regarding the Himalayan. A part of the buzz had negative tone as well because some of the viewers caught a few visuals in the video where a footpeg of the bike fell off on landing back from a jump. Now people say that this is poor quality, while in defense RE says that part failure is a part of vehicle development cycle and that they fixed whatever shortcomings were there. Whatever it was, we will leave it at that. But one thing is for sure, everybody has an opinion about the Royal Enfield Himalayan now, including us. We respect each one of those opinions and are as excited about the bike as anyone else in the country is. So, we thought of talking about Himalayan to someone who is technically sound about the motorcycles and has a long history of working on Royal Enfield and who is a RE fan himself. We did this to get a feel of what the RE fans feel about the bike.

So, we ended up talking talking to Reginald Hilt or Reggie. Reggie is a fashion designer turned bike customizer and is the brain behind the Bull City Customs. He has been customizing motorcycles for quite a few years now, both cosmetically and mechanically as well, and so has a bit deeper knowledge about motorcycles than an ordinary motorcyclist. Here’s the excerpt of our chat with him.

Reggie with one of his creations

xBhp: Hi, could you please introduce yourself for our readers?
My name is Reginald Hilt, a Custom Bike Builder and founder of Bull City Customs .Bull City Customs is based out of New Delhi and was formed in 2012. A fashion designer by trade,I was looking to let loose some creativity on more rigid materials and so the bikes. Now we have a fully equipped workshop in Ghitorni, New Delhi where we do complete customization of motorcycles.

 xBhp: How long have you been riding Royal Enfields.
Wish I could say I have been riding them since I was a kid but sadly even though I would find myself around these machines while growing up, I wasn’t allowed to touch them except while I was given the task of cleaning my dad’s latest indulgence.

I have been riding Enfields from the past 6-7 years now.

xBhp: Approximately what percentage of bikes you customize are Royal Enfields.
We would say approximately 80 percent of bikes we have customized in the past have been Royal Enfields.

xBhp: Now that it has been confirmed that the Royal Enfield Himalayan is going to be launched on February 2, do you think that our markets are mature enough now to welcome an adventure tourer motorcycle?
I would say it actually is the perfect time for RE to launch the Himalayan. Using a bike that is designed for the city just doesn’t do justice to the idea of touring. In the past few years we have seen almost every RE rider wanting to ride to the hills. So I think, yes, the Indian market is bubbling up to adventure biking now and it’s the right time to introduce the Himalayan. Also RE would be the first Indian motorcycling company to have an adventure bike under their belt.

I would say RE has taken things too slow with unleashing this model and have floated the bike around far too long.

xBhp: What are your expectations from Himalayan with respect to performance? And what price would you be willing to pay for it?
The LS 400 cc engine could have been at least a 535. I do not see why you wouldn’t back an adventure series up with a bigger heart. Having said that, it’s a mid range bike, so I guess price wise it needs to suit the Indian pocket well.

We really look forward to seeing how the RE team has worked around their first mono shock suspension frame. The braking would definitely be something to look forward to as most of their city bikes, with the exception of the GT, are not confidence inspiring and weak brakes would be akin to being tortured if you were in the mountains.

As the engine is oil cooled one, performance wise it’s going to be good covering those endless miles in the mountains.

The 21 inch on the front definitely was a good decision on an adventure series. A larger wheel in the front will definitely improve your riding position, being more upright, especially with the new extended telescopic front shocker thus proving its worth as a scrambler.

xBhp: According to you, the 3 qualities an adventure tourer must have.
To begin with an adventure series is got to be at least above 500 cc.

1. Quality suspension is probably the first thing I would look forward to on an adventure series to keep you off that gravel  and rough patches off road.
2. Braking performance and tractability of both the engine as well as the suspension is something that would be crucial on a tourer as well.
3. Upright ergonomics definitely would be another thing to look forward to as you will be covering some big miles on your ride. You would want to be in a confident and a comfortable riding and seating position.