Top 6 things you need to know about the upcoming Royal Enfield Himalayan

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February 2 is when we expected Royal Enfield to unveil their new Himalayan motorcycle but the CEO of the company, Siddhartha Lal, revealed the bike via an advertorial. Nevertheless, this was a good attempt by the company to gain a lot of PR and looks like it worked. So if you’re one of the excited ones, check out the top six things you need to know about the Royal Enfield Himalayan. 

1: New Platform

The Himalayan has been built on a new platform. This new double cradle frame has been co-developed with Harris Performance, which is now owned by Royal Enfield. We previously believed that the company would use the Continental GT’s chassis but the company decided to go for an all-new for one main reason – save weight. Royal Enfield wants to keep this bike as light as possible, for easy riding. Since the beginning, it was clear that the Himalayan has to be a light adventure bike. While the official weight figures haven’t been revealed, our source close to the development mentioned about its weight being close to 180kg. 

2: New engine

The new engine for the Himalayan has been codenamed LS400. This new engine is likely to be a single-cylinder 410cc engine but misses out on the fuel -injection. In one of the teaser videos, we could spot the fuel petcock, which is present on the carburetor motorcycles. This engine is expected to churn out close to 30bhp and oodles of torque, just like the other Royal Enfields. 

3: First Royal Enfield to get monoshock at the rear

The Himalayan is the first Royal Enfield motorcycle to get a monoshock suspension at the rear. This is one of the reasons why the company went to develop a new chassis and not worked on the Continental GT frame. Also, they’ve done this so that they can develop more bikes on this new platform. 

4: Loses the RE thump

Yes! You read it right. Royal Enfield released a couple of a teaser videos of the Himalayan and none of the videos had the typical thump sound. Rather it sounded more like a regular bike, which we think is a good thing. But expect the company to offer after-market exhausts. 

5: Final production model is yet to be revealed

We’ve seen so many pictures of the Himalayan and weirdly, it doesn’t look like a final production model. In fact, the official pictures that were released by the company a couple of days ago, looked unfinished, when it comes to the overall styling and paint. We believe, the company is keeping the final production model for the press conference on February 2.

6: Accessories

Royal Enfield is slowly but steadily moving towards offering a lot of accessories for its customers. The company started focusing on it when it launched the Continental GT. And with the Himalayan, expect it to go a step further. You’ll get side and top panniers for the Himalayan along with jerry cans that can be used to carry extra fuel or water.