As many of you might know, my personal lord and savior is Royal Enfield's Himalayan 450. It is perhaps the best motorcycle on sale today, as it's not only wildly capable, but it's inexpensive and stupid easy to fix along a muddy trail high in the mountains. It's my cuppa, if you'll allow me to use the parlance.
But Royal Enfield has seen an insane reinvigoration as of recent years thanks to Eicher Motors, the folks who own the nameplate. And the marque has been steadily pumping out motorcycle after motorcycle to build up a lineup of what we've come to understand as stellar entry-level motorcycles. Bikes for the masses, if you will. And while the Himalayan 450 is, in my opinion, perfect, Royal Enfield ain't stopping building out the lineup of Himalayan variants.
No, it wants more! And that more is coming fast, as the brand recently completed some testing of not one, but two, Himalayan variants in the Himalayas—where else could they go? One of which is the Him-E all-electric iteration we reported on last week, while the other is the rumored twin-cylinder model we reported on a while back.
Take a look.
Here's what we can see from the pics that feature both bikes, as well as the brand's CEO, B. Govindarajan. First and foremost, you've got the two new Himalayan iterations. From the spy shots we saw previously of the almost production-ready Him-E electric off-roader, not much has changed from our original reporting. It's still a machined-aluminim battery case that centers the machine, a machined swing-arm, and knobby tires with the overall footprint and look of the regular Himalayan.
It also has a skid-plate and a rally-style windshield, and based on one of the rolling shots, looks plenty tall enough for even a gorilla like myself to stand up on its pegs to gain a better vantage point. I'm already sold.
As for the twin-cylinder Himalayan, that's more of a mystery, as we have scant details on the machine. What I can tell from the pictures, outside that it's a twin, is that the heads of the engine look super familiar if you've ever stared at the brand's Bear 650. Like, they look identical to my eyes, though I'm sure Royal Enfield's engineers would likely have to modify the engine architecture slightly for off-road purposes.
It, too, has a pretty beefy skid-plate, along with a center stand, which isn't present on the standard Himalayan 450. Likewise, the tank looks larger, has a different overall design, and the front fairing looks more similar to the Him-E than the standard motorcycle. The model in the test photos also doesn't have Royal Enfield's signature Himalayan crash bars, which I can attest it needs. Dual disc brakes halt the front of the bike, while a single disc rear setup is at the back.
It also looks like you can stand up without too much of an issue if you're tall, though the bars look a tad lower than the Him-E in the pictures.
What is clear is that Royal Enfield is on a helluva tear right now, and that the company is planning on getting more folks out onto the trails and riding dirt, which I will absolutely support. And though I'm a Himalayan 450 fanboi of the highest order, I'll try not to color my opinion on these two until I get behind the bars. Because, again, that bike is perfect. So why mess with perfection?
