Himalayan 450 chassis failure; Are aftermarket crash-guards to blame?

With its predecessor also having faced chassis breakage issues, is it history repeating itself?

BHPian CLASSICREBORN recently shared screenshots of a video (now taken down) showing what could be the first report of the new Himalayan 450's chassis breaking. Below is what he mentioned:

Link to the first Himalayan 450 chassis breakdown I found on YouTube. I think it is from Tinsukia Assam.

Adding some screenshots since the video is no longer on YouTube.

Following this, BHPian VijayAnand1 also shared similar photos of a Black Himalayan 450 suffering similar failure. Here's what he mentioned:

Chassis Breakage #2!!

Not sure about the preceding events, but sharing it as received.

The chassis failures remind us of a similar issue the old-generation Himalayan 411 bikes also faced initially. BHPian Rehaan shared 3 such similar instances on the old Himalayan.

Let's not forget that the original Himalayan also faced a similar issue, which really did not get enough attention or acknowledgement from Royal Enfield IMO for how absolutely lethal a defect it was:

3 threads for the old Himalayan:

1. (Chassis snaps on a Royal Enfield Himalayan | EDIT: RE to replace chassis & damaged parts for free)
2. (Welding defect in Royal Enfield Himalayan; frame cracks!)
3. (Royal Enfield Himalayan - Broken into two pieces)

Amidst a lot of discussions, speculations and back & forth, one possible reason which stood out was the installation of aftermarket crash guards. Here's what BHPian neil.jericho shared:

In a thread full of unproven suppositions and speculation, here is 1 more unproven supposition and bit of speculation that might put some worried minds to rest. Like everyone else on this thread, I don't know the truth, one way or the other.

Royal Enfield's technical team had a word with Autocar India, here's an excerpt what they had to say:

"The bolts that connect the engine to frame are specialised, load-bearing units which are designed to be able to retain the correct torque specifications over a long term period. Moreover, the connection between the chassis and the engine also uses a specifically designed spacer that is integral towards retaining the torque setting and correctly spreading the load from the bolt.

In both instances, when the customer installed the aftermarket protective guard, different specs of bolts were used and this likely led to incorrect torque settings."

BHPian nitro.1000bhp further went on to mention his similar experience of breakages on his two friends' Triumph 900s, both with crash guards installed:

This happened to a couple of my friends on their Triumph 900s too (a GT and a Rally)

Both had aftermarket crash guards on from Outback Mototrek. Both bikes had their front engine mount bolts shear off. The engine was basically hanging from rear mounts. One idiot continued riding the same way (gt guy) and the other promptly switched to OEM crash guards (rally guy). Guess what, the GT guy one day finds his bike is a couple of inches lower at the handlebars than before. Turns out the tube connecting the headstock had bent due to the forces. Triumph then denied warranty due to it being an aftermarket crash guard (not surprising) and our man had to shell out a whopping 4L to replace the frame and get the whole thing assembled back again.

I see so many folks even over here put on some random crash guards on all kinds of bikes. Some of them even look dangerous to me with some questionable protrusions close to the rider's knee! What happens during a frontal impact in this case have you considered that?

Besides that many of them seem to be designed unscientifically with arbitrary connections between engine/chassis mounts without paying any heed to stresses and forces that go through. Of course, there is no way to find out which will surely work and which won't without actually crashing but, I'd say stick to OEM ones as they know the stress points and weaknesses. or get from reputed brands that have been in the game for years (unlikely for the Himalayan 450 as it's a new bike).

Stay safe peeps and put in some research before buying accessories, at least for crash protection!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.