[Sojogator]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

...
B. I have used Motul 300v (fully syn). Many seasons ago, but I remain skeptical about 10k intervals! ...

300v is the race speced oil from Motul. They won't last you past 4k with street use. 7100 is made for street riding and long drain intervals.

[man_of_steel]

A little late to the party due to various reasons! Nevertheless, solid job by RE. The bike seems to be everything what we(Ughm.. I) hoped for. First glance on the spec sheet suggests that the bike is grossly underpowered, but the specsheet always gives only half the story. The new Africa Twin (CRF1000L) also looks substantially underpowered (to its weight) on paper but it is in no way a dull performer. So I am keeping my hopes up high for actual riding impressions.

Next let down was the 15L tank. Initial thought was that, if a highway bike like Thunderbird can get a 20L or so fuel tank why not a bike like Himalayan whose primary objective is to take the rider to remotest of places? But on a second thought, may be RE might have opted for a smaller tank:

1. Keep it slim between the legs for gripping the tank while standing on the pegs
2. Not to make the bike too top heavy as it already stands taller than most of the other bikes
3. There is always the OEM mountable jerry cans for someone who wants to wander off further

Loved the instrument cluster, but looks a bit too busy with all kmph-mph markings. Loved the 21" CEAT, 200mm or so GC and 200mm and 180mm wheel travel front and rear respectively! Loved the standard sumpguard, hoping that it is made of heavy gauge metal sheet. Anyways, kudos to the team for venturing into the unexplored roads (pun intended) of Indian market.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

a. Can someone explain the hideous dual-mudgard to me? Why not the typical offroad ones only?

Off road bikes have this high mounted fenders to ward off flying debris thrown off by the knobby tires. A tyre hugging mud guard will have a tendency to lock the wheel when thick mud gets trapped between the mud guard and the wheel. A high mounted fender prevents this. But at the same time high mounted fender will not prevent minor slushes to engine and rider on a daily riding condition and hence the tyre hugging mud guard on the Himalayan(Impulse suffered massively from this). When you are venturing off to the mud/sticky stuff you can remove the smaller mud guard and head off. Very user friendly stuff from RE I would say!

Originally Posted by Gordon

Even the Triumph Tiger and Explorer have dual mudguards.

The "beak" on the ADV bikes have become a styling norm now and offers little real world purpose, me thinks.

[B O V]

Just got the time to check the "Himalayan" out on the interwebs.

I feel like RE has done a lot to make sure that this bike turns out well. Kudos to the RE Team!

Come to think of it. This is RE Indias First completely new motorcycle isn't it? From the video I liked how it handled the off-road bits.

Much appreciation for their seat height design such that the average Indian can straddle it comfortably. I suppose we can only truly get a feel of the Himalayan in all its glory (read new motor) once the test rides begin.

Regards,

BOV

p.s who else thinks that the white looks real killer

[Urban_Nomad]

Originally Posted by man_of_steel

Loved the 21" CEAT

I am still not very sure of this. The one and only option available locally will be the Ceat Gripp. This is the one and only bike in India to sport a 21 inch wheel. Tyre availability IMO will be an issue. Even options for 19's are very very limited. It'll be much worse for the 21's

Originally Posted by B O V

p.s who else thinks that the white looks real killer

[techfreak]

Once bikes are available tyres will come to the market. Abroad also accessories and parts market follow the launch of a particular vehicle n not opposite.

[petrolhead_neel]

So, this is it! The Himalayan is here, well, *almost*!

I have really high hopes for the Himalayan. I have been following this project patiently and have been getting insider information from the good folks at RE since quite some time now. My Dad, for one, is very very interested in this bike. He has recently started going off the road on his motorbike as his hobby of bird watching demands so. He is eagerly waiting for the TD units to arrive, he says that he will test ride it on the first day it is available itself to see whether the bike does what Enfiield promises. Will post a detailed report then.

From my limited knowledge, here are my observations:

• Bike looks damn good. Purpose is the word here. The "Himalayan" engraved in that font looks really cool! Kudos RE!
  
• The marketing team seems to be doing good this time around and I absolutely loved some of their videos.
  
• The unveiling event was just superb! Sid Lal was very confident in whatever he said and I really liked his way of presentation. Kudos again!
  
• 24.5 BHP seems, well, quite low taking into account that this 410CC single is an OHC and has been designed from scratch. Hope it does not disappoint.
  
• I also hope that this bike is fun on the highways and doesn't go out of breath very easily. The Sid Lal stated 80-110 km/h in a placid manner is good enough for our roads.
  
• I hope that this bike behaves neutrally on corners too. My Dad's Classic is a nightmare on twisties. Straights is another story though.
  
• Sincerely hope that this bike is genuinely capable off the road and performs as good as it looks. ( Not all show, no go)
  
• Thumbs up to RE again for the Himalayan accessories.
  
• Quality is severely lacking in the current Enfields. Hope this is fixed!
  
• Sounds good!
  
• Instrument cluster isn't quite that good. Would prefer the more conservative design language of the Continental GT's unit any day. Displays enough info though.

The list is quite long but when a bike is developed completely from scratch you do set high expectations for it.

The video by RE which was shown in the unveil event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lJL09QrPPY

Powerdrift's initial impressions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07lbhJqMN0Q

Neel

[maker_of_things]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

[*]24.5 BHP seems, well, quite low taking into account that this 410CC single is an OHC and has been designed from scratch. Hope it does not disappoint.

This is a long stroke engine. While I do think the Bhp is okay given the displacement of the engine (even the parallel twin DOHC 900CC Bonneville Street Twin only produces some 50 odd BHP), I do think they could have oozed out a little more torque, 32Nm seems close to the 350CC UCE's torque figure of 28Nm. But as this is oil cooled, the torque should be linearly distributed throughout the rev range. Only a TD would sort out those worries. Until then, I won't be able to sleep!

[Suresh Stephen]

what is the connection between oil cooling and torque curve of an engine

[techfreak]

It is not only about oil cooling but engine cooling by any means. When an engine over heats it's efficiency reduces compared to an engine at ideal temperature. Hence cooling by any means let's the engine temperature stabilize at ideal thermal state there by letting the engine power output remain at its optimum. So an actively cooled engine has better power/torque output vs an air cooled engine in theory. Though well designed air-cooled engines also are in successful use. (Ducati Scrambler) Although such engines heat up pretty quick in bumper to bumper traffic.

[neil.jericho]

Kudos to Royal Enfield for the well designed gear that I understand is Rev'it stuff. Looking forward to checking them out once they hit our stores.

Originally Posted by B O V

Much appreciation for their seat height design such that the average Indian can straddle it comfortably. I suppose we can only truly get a feel of the Himalayan in all its glory (read new motor) once the test rides begin.
p.s who else thinks that the white looks real killer

I was surprised to hear that the seat height is the same as that of the Continental GT which means its well suited to the Indian market. I really liked Royal Enfield's latest 7 minute video, it shows the amount of engineering effort that has gone into the bike. I cant help but think the bike should have come out in a few more colours. Between the two, it is the white that looks smashing.

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

I am still not very sure of this. The one and only option available locally will be the Ceat Gripp. This is the one and only bike in India to sport a 21 inch wheel. Tyre availability IMO will be an issue. Even options for 19's are very very limited. It'll be much worse for the 21's

I do hope that Ceat ensures sustained availability of the 21s in the long run across the country. I suspect a 20K lifetime for the Ceat tires seems reasonable. Incidentally I do recall seeing a 21 incher at a tire store somewhere, maybe it was for a Tiger.

[maker_of_things]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I do hope that Ceat ensures sustained availability of the 21s in the long run across the country. I suspect a 20K lifetime for the Ceat tires seems reasonable. Incidentally I do recall seeing a 21 incher at a tire store somewhere, maybe it was for a Tiger.

Yep, the Tiger 800 XCX and XCA uses the 90/90-21 spec front wheel. Also, the new Honda Africa Twin uses the same wheel, which might be launched soon in India.

Anyhow as CEAT would be the official partners for Pirelli's motorcycle tyres in India, hopefully they'd bring Pirelli's dual sport tyres in India as well.

[Suresh Stephen]

Dear Techfreak, It is a fact that any engine will perform optimally in its operating temperaure range. I was specifically asking regarding the maintaining of linear torque with oil cooling.To my understanding torque speed characteristics are evolved during the engine design.The bore, stroke, valve timing etc. lot of parameters decide the torque characteristics. I would have thought since the engine was primarily focussed on mountain use , Oil cooling helps (though not an absolute requirement),since the engine speed requirement is relatively higher compared to the vehicle speed and air cooling is proportional to the vehicle speed.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by ringoism

RE, whose former offerings (apart from the Fury/Explorer/Silver Plus Zundapp imports and the nearly forgotten Crusader/mini-Bullets) have been using the same chassis and same engine displacements for over 60 years...

-Eric

How long have you been in India?
Non Bullet REs:- add Fantabulous (though a scooter) to the above.
The Crusader I think had a Villiers engine.

Regards
Sutripta

[bhogalrajnish]

Saw the display bike and I am sold.I have done Manali - Leh on my 350 Electra two up and it was good enough with all the torque, hoping the bike delivers better. Waiting for the booking to start.

[Arvin_86]

Originally Posted by bhogalrajnish

Saw the display bike..

They have started displaying the bike? or was this at the unveil ?

I was hoping that auto expo might might give us a good choice to choose from. A sub 500 bike with decent touring abilities. But nothing concrete has come up so far.

• BMW g310r might be launching late this year. No launch plans revealed.
• MT-03, after all the raving(the most awaited bike, wasn't it), was nowhere to be seen.
• And then there was this glimmer of hope(from couple of reports) that Honda might, after all these years, come up with CBR 300.
• CS 400, the powerful cruiser sport from Bajaj seems to have lost its route, or are they waiting for KTM to come up with the 2017 bikes, so that 400s don't cannibalize KTM sales.

So this might be it. I think i will go ahead and book this one, hoping that they will start deliveries at least before April end. RE chaps at Bangalore are saying booking might start in the 2nd week of march.