Is Royal Enfield's Himalayan the BEST VALUE in ADV Motorcycles?

is Royal infields himan the best value in advv motorcycling when you ride the halalan in its home turf you really understand why this bike is built the way it is it all comes together and makes a lot of sense it's a really exciting opportunity to come and see this beautiful beautiful place one of the coolest places I've ever been in the world and this bike is absolutely perfect for this riding [Music] environment the bike is brand new from the ground up it's got a brand new engine brand new Chazzy it's got new electronics it's got everything this bike has nothing in common with the previous halalan that came out in 2016 first of all we're going to talk about the engine because that's the key to this whole bike the halalan has a brand new liquid cooled 452cc single cylinder engine the engine has double overhead cams and four valves has a dry sump lubrication this engine is new from the ground up and is like nothing that they've ever made before claimed horsepower works out to about 40 horsepower which is about 65% more than the previous halalan that's a big deal this bike all of a sudden is so much better than the old bike when it comes to on-road Performance and off-road performance it has a six-speed gear box and all new electronics as well on the roads that we experien here in Northern India the engine was a great fit we did tons of hair pin Corners just one after another um climbing up through the mountains this engine really revs out nice it has a really flat torque curve but when you're riding on those type of Roads coming out of hair pins it's really enjoyable it's got a sixspeed gear box so you've got plenty of gear range to to pull out of Corners some of those tight tight hair pins I was going down to first but most of the day you're kind of Shifting between second third fourth and back and forth and and the engine really impressed I thought it was really smooth the fueling is really good with the fuel injection system this bike has ride by wire throttle for the first time so that's a big deal for them as well and that kind of ties into the whole Electronics package so this bike has performance mode kind of an eco mode and when you switch those modes you can go in and either have your rear ABS on or off so that's a nice feature I usually stuck with the performance mode we're up at elevation obviously I would say some of the altitude is ranging between ,000 and 11,000 ft so we really experienced a lot of elevation change but even in those elevations the engine did a really good job pulled really well I never was wanting for more in most situations it was really enjoyable off-road the bike just all of a sudden makes a lot of sense as far as the power goes it doesn't have so much power that you're having to manage the traction this bike doesn't have traction control but you don't need it the throttle sensitivity is really good so you feel really connected and you just pick your gear and you know Ride Along on the dirt and can kind of pick the pace that works but I never had a situation on the dirt in particular where I felt like I was wanting more [Music] power now let's talk about the Chazzy because the Chazzy like the engine is all new and I I would say that the key upgrade that this bike gets over over the previous model is the show of suspension so the bike has a show of fork and it's got a show of shock as well the fork is non-adjustable the shock has Provisions for preload adjustability but it's a really good mix especially on the dirt I was I was really impressed I thought that the the fork in particular really held up nice I was never blowing through the travel it really felt like it had really good damping so that was really good I did add some preload to the rear during um the day yesterday just to make the onroad um handling a little bit nicer but overall I think for non-adjustable suspension for the most part it's a it's a really nice compromise and I think on road and off it had a really good balance on the road like I said there was a lot of twisty roads a lot of broken pavement there was some little jumps in the road and I thought that the handling and the suspension were were really predictable and really nice to ride plim dry weight works out to about 400 lb when you do the math so it's a L light bike but it feels light the handlings light the steerings light really enjoyable to ride on a on a twisty Mountain Road now let's talk about the electronics because the electronics are a big deal too the bike gets this brand new Dash which is a round uh TFT display that's full color it gives you about three options for the type of view you want to have for the dash and how it's displayed whether you want to see the tack or what information you want to bring up so you've got some options but then what also is cool is it's got a built-in navigation that tethers to your um iPhone or Android phone and it uses Google Maps for its navigation engine which is one of the first company that that's been actually able to to utilize Google without having a carplay integration or an Android auto integration so we tried out the navigation yesterday and it works really well you've got a couple options you can have it come up on the screen and actually see the track just like you would on your phone cuz it's mirroring that or it can just give you arrows in a turn by turn and tell you where you're going both options work really great it's got a joystick on the left handlebar which really enables you to get into the menus easily a couple of the new bikes the new Ducati Multistrada has this the new Yamaha Tracer 9 GT has this so it's super nice to see that sort of Technology on the Royal infield Calia because it it just makes the navigation of the menus really simple and easy to get through so that was very impressive as well out on the road we felt that the electronics were great I mean you can see the screen the navigation was really easy to see the brightness is great really easy to look at and it's a it's a really pretty screen so that's a big upgrade for Royal Enfield some people may wish that they had the analog stuff of old but this is definitely a big step up and I think brings Royal infield in general along with this bike up into the modern era a lot I think people will look at this bike in a different perspective than they did some of the older bikes and with what we're guessing where the price will be on this bike it has a lot of features and a really great engine and some things that Royal infields have never had before all right now let's talk about the ergonomics because that's one of the keys to this bike one of the appeals of this motorcycle is it's low dry weight which is like I said around 400 lbs but also it has a very accessible seat height so the seat height in its standard setting is about 32 and 1 12 in you also have two settings that you can adjust that seat to which is really nice which the old bike didn't have so you've got two settings there or you have a low seat option you can get a low seat which brings the the base height down about 3/4 of an inch below that 32 and 1/2 so that makes the the reach to the ground for most footing really really easy for most people combine that with the lightweight of the bike and it's just got a really easy manageable feel Offroad you always feel like you can get your foot down in any situation so that's super positive and I think opens the bike's possibilities up to a big range of riders so a couple other ergonomic features the bike has rubber foot Peg pads on top which get pretty slick when they're wet but those are easily removable if you're spending a lot more time Offroad the brake and clutch levers aren't adjustable but have a really nice seal to them never had any problem with the clutch or the feel from the front brake lever it's got a single brake up front with a 320 mm disc there are the by brakes which are the sub brand of bmbo early in the morning our bike was brand new had really low miles on it and the pads weren't quite bed in yet by the end of the day they started um bedding in and had a lot more bite to them which made them much more predictable uh the rear brake really good Offroad I never had any problems it doesn't lock too easy I thought the foot Peg position and the brake lever were uh had a nice relationship between them so getting to the brake off-road and the dirt felt really natural and easy to get to so that was super positive [Music] so is the halalan the best value in adventure motorcycling with an estimated us price of less than $7,000 we think it's one of if not the best values in the category overall our experience here in the halalas has been fantastic I I really think that this bike makes sense when you ride it in its home environment and you really get to see what this bike is all about and why it's a a 450c bike and why the seat Heights where it is and everything about the bike all of a sudden makes sense when you ride it in its home country but I think this bike can really appeal to a lot of different people you know there's so many big adventure bikes in the 1200 plus CC range but this bike is so accessible for so many riders that it really fits into a part of the market that there there's nothing else like it really the only other bikes that kind of are in this zone are the the small KTM and the small BMW and some of those bikes but this bike I think is so much cooler looking this bike has a really fresh styling that they've worked really hard on and yet this bike has a metal tank and it um it kind of reminds you of a a Land Rover it it's a it's a rugged looking bike it's a rugged feeling bike but with the upgrades that they've made to the engine and the chassis all of a sudden it's on a completely different playing field which makes it a fantastic bike so overall we were really impressed and can't wait to get it back to the US and ride it against some other bikes and see how it Stacks up but our experience here in Northern India was fantastic and we really enjoyed it and as always if you like what you see comment like And subscribe thanks for [Music] watching

Channel: Cycle World

Views: 36,854

Keywords: cycle world, motorcycles

Id: 3XnLBs3ncbs

Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023