Siddhartha Lal - MD & CEO of Eicher Motors, the owner of Royal Enfield - posted a reel of him riding what appears to be the upcoming Royal Enfield Himalayan 450. Captioned "Testing 1,2,3…", the reel showed many riders in a group, which went on a road trip on the Manali-Leh highway, the underscoring the spiritual home of Royal Enfield, and of the Himalayan adventure bike. The new Himalayan 450 is expected to be a more performance-oriented and possibly lighter adventure bike which will be positioned as a global product, to offer an accessible and affordable mid-size adventure bike. The current Himalayan 411 was launched in 2016, and has gone through several updates, but the new Himalayan 450 is expected to take its capability and performance several notches higher.
carandbike has learned that this group of riders included the senior management team from Royal Enfield too, including Mark Wells (Head of Product Strategy & Industrial Design), Simon Warburton (Head, Product Planning & Development), Mohit Dhar Jayal (Chief Brand Officer), and Yadvinder Singh Guleria (Chief Commercial Officer) amongst others from Royal Enfield's leadership team. With the top brass from the motorcycle manufacturer present at the ride, it makes us believe that it may have been more than just a familiarisation ride of the iconic Manali-Leh highway. While the multi-day, high-altitude ride definitely included the upcoming Himalayan 450, it may have also included some of the brand's other upcoming models, perhaps even the ‘Scram 450’ - a scrambler based on the upcoming 450 cc platform.
Also Read: Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 Spotted Testing in India
The Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 seems to be in its final stage of testing now, with multiple units spotted doing runs in India as well as overseas. The reel posted by Sid Lal however, shows us the first glimpse of the front end of the Himalayan 450. While not much is seen as the Himalayan 450 splashes its way through puddles in the valley, the motorcycle is seen with a brand new LED headlight - which would be a first for a Royal Enfield motorcycle - and new turn indicators too, which would presumably also be LED. The ADV also gets a new windscreen, which - at first glance - appears to be slimmer than the one on the Himalayan 411. Some units spotted earlier also featured a shorter flyscreen, indicating that there might be multiple variants on offer with varying levels of kit and accessories, and the base variants may miss out on the LED treatment on its lights.
Also Read: Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 Prototype Spotted Testing In The UK
The Himalayan 450 will be longer than the Himalayan 411.
Previously spotted test mules of the adventure tourer revealed several other details too. It is expected to be longer in length than the Himalayan 411 and have a longer wheelbase too. The Himalayan 450 will be based on a new chassis and will get a brand new engine, with more performance. Apart from the wheelbase, the fuel tank and the seats have been elongated too, and it also gets long travel USD forks up front and a monoshock rear suspension. While the current Himalayan 411 is quite a capable adventure bike, it lacks a little performance and feels a tad too heavy, as we have found out during our experience with the Himalayan 411.
The idea behind the new Himalayan 450 is to bridge the gap between the Himalayan 411 and a mid-size ADV, and provide the users of entry level ADVs an ideal motorcycle to upgrade to, which is not too intimidating or expensive. It is expected that the Himalayan 450 will not replace the Himalayan 411 once it's launched in India, which is expected to happen sometime in 2023, and the 450 will face competition from the KTM 390 Adventure and the highly anticipated Hero XPulse 300.
