ROYAL ENFIELD HIMALAYAN 450 REVIEW

I've just come back from riding the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 around 6,000 kilometers up into the Himalayas. So I'm going to go over how I found the bike, how it performed over different types of terrain. I'm also going to compare it to its predecessor, the 411, which I've ridden about 50,000 kilometers on. I'm not a stats and numbers kind of guy so it doesn't really matter what's written on the tin. It's more about how the bike feels on the type of terrain I want to ride it on. I'm not commuting on it, I'm not racing on it, I'm exploring on it. The first thing to understand is what the bike was actually designed for and as the name suggests it's designed for terrain that you'd find in the Himalayas. So both on and off road. Firstly the ergonomics on the bike, the standing and seating position. Like most adventure bikes the sitting position's quite upright, designed to be able to ride for hours at a time. I think the bike's designed for somewhere before you may need to do a few adjustments say on the handlebars and seat positioning. There is two heights on the seat, I was using the lower one and it was fine for me and I think I'm probably right in the sweet spot because the reach on the handlebars was great, the seating position was also good. The standing position on the 450, like the 411, is great and actually it's probably better on the 450 because now you can actually clamp your knees around the bike. As with the 411 the shape of the petrol tank actually made your knees slide back so you couldn't really get a good purchase if you needed to. Again with the handlebar position it seems like they've transferred from what was working on the 411 and brought it to the 450 as it's comfortable at that sort of ideal height and you can always adjust it. One difference I have noticed between the 411 and the 450 is what you might call the perceived center of gravity. On the 411 it feels down near your ankles which is great for stability. On the 450 it feels a little higher up somewhere around your shins which means I can throw the bike from side to side a little quicker. Neither's really good or bad it's just a different feel I guess you'd call it. The fuel range I found is a probably a little bit more than on the 411. The tank's a couple of liters bigger also. So on the 411 it was around 450 if you're really being conservative and on the 450 it's around 470 from my experience. But remember if you're hard on the throttle and depending on the terrain that can obviously drop a fair bit lower. One of those things you've got to experiment for yourself. The new dash and display on the bike is obviously all new and digital compared to the analog of the last one and the best thing about it besides being really clear is the angle. Like it's it faces right at you instead of you having to look down it's more a glance and it's clear as. And one of the bonuses of it being digital is how many kilometers you've got left in the tank. I used it a couple of times and found it very accurate. The bike I rode had a stock windscreen and I had no issues from buffeting even on the motorway. If you're a bit taller you'd probably want to test ride that but there is a higher windscreen available so there is a solution. One small thing and I don't know why they still do it is they had the rubber inserts into the foot pegs. As soon as I got onto a dirt track and stood up I obviously went through a water crossing and my foot slipped straight off. Which was just plain dangerous seeing I was on a cliffed edge road. So if you're going to buy one of these bikes that would be the first thing I'd remove and Royal Enfield you could probably save some money by not putting them there in the first place. Pass that on to the customers. If you do want them on there you might be looking at the wrong bike. Talking about grip the bike I used had the stock tires and surprisingly did well. Got the job done. I had no issues on wet roads or gravel roads, large rocks, a bit of mud or a bit of sand. If I'd come across really sandy conditions or really muddy conditions I probably would have wanted a more aggressive tread on the tire. But I didn't so in the Himalayas they were great for me. The headlight is an LED one which I found worked well. A lot better than the last one which was more like a candle on the 411. The indicators are flexible now so if you drop the bike, when you're going to drop the bike, because I did, they'll bend out of the way and I didn't break either the front or back. So that's always good. As mentioned the bike I had was all stock. It did have the crash guards around the petrol tank. I did drop the bike once in the river, no issues there. But if I was going to get one of these bikes I'd definitely put the crash guards lower down around the engine. The brakes, well, a lot better than the ones that were on the 411. They have bigger discs on them as well and just a lot more confidence in braking. Just the bike stops. It doesn't move as much under braking as well. There is a bash guard that comes on the bike. I can't remember hitting it even though I know quite some rocky terrain. Just didn't use it. The suspension is a little bit higher but yeah, I can't sort of talk about that because I just didn't hit it. Now for the big improvements on the bike. Firstly, having a sixth gear. On the motorway it is a lot better compared to the 411 in its fifth gear. The 411 you felt like you were wringing it out. I mean I did four days doing about a thousand kilometers or just under a day at around 110 kilometers an hour and I thought I was going to damage the bike. It survived. There's no issues with the bike but just that feeling you were just whereas on the 450 the bike sits comfortably in that sixth gear at those higher speeds 110 kilometers an hour or 70 miles an hour. Also with the gear ratios I just seem to be in the right gear more often. I just pick the right gear at the right time either that be second third going slower or in the higher gears it was a lot different compared to 411 where a lot of the time I was either revving it out or it was just a bit bogged down in the gears. Obviously having more gears helps with those ratios. And one other thing is that the gear changes themselves just a lot more smoother just a lot more refined might be a better word. The engine now it has 40 horsepower compared to the 24 of the 411 and I did notice it a lot. Overtaking cars just the power on demand compared to the 411 which lagged a bit and also off-road. There was one section that really showed the difference where I'd gone up one of the Indian shortcuts which are a lot steeper than the normal climb. This particular one had some decent size rocks and the higher I got the steeper it got and the bigger the rocks got. I could see to make the last section which really kicked up and had a lot bigger rocks I needed a fair bit more power. And when I turned the throttle it was there and I didn't need to turn the throttle full gas either. The other thing I did like about the power was the way it came on. It wasn't abrupt like some of the bigger bikes I've ridden on. The delivery of the power was as expected. It's a really more controllable. I think the 411 would have made it up there but it would have been in its tractor mode so you've got to have a bit more skill to keep the bike upright as you're hitting these bigger rocks at those slower speeds. The engine's peak torque is higher up in the range but it still does have that low-end torque that everybody liked about the 411. Now for the biggest change on the bike the suspension and it is vastly improved and where it makes the biggest difference is when you're pushing it harder and faster on really rough terrain. So if you're not intending to ride the bike like that the 411 is still an option. It gives a lot more confidence that you know what the bike's going to do and how it's going to react. Like a dirt bike. I'm not saying it has the capabilities of a dirt bike but it's a lot more predictable soaking up those bumps and hits and not pogoing like the 411 used to do. The look of the bike, I don't mind it. It's a little different than most of the other adventure bikes in its class are looking these days. It is a lot different than the 411. I mean the 411, I think a lot of people gravitated towards the look of it. I think someone might mention that it looked like it had just ridden out of an Indiana Jones movie. Which it does. There was one thing that wasn't great about the bike. Well, unexpected we'll say. And Royal Enfield actually know about this because they've discussed it. The kickstand. It tilts way over. Apparently some feedback about the 411 being too upright. I didn't find that but apparently they did. So they adjusted it to go over a bit more. But that was before they'd sorted out the suspension. So on the 411 you go over but your suspension sags a lot more. So be upright more. Whereas because of the new suspension and it's a bit firmer it wouldn't sag. So it goes right over. And the first time I went to put the stand down and put the bike down I thought I was going to drop it. I was trying to save. It was like oh. And that happened for about four or five times and then I got used to it. But apparently there is a fix coming I believe. But it's fine. It's just getting used to it I think is the issue. So if you already have a 411 is it worth the upgrade? Well as I've mentioned if you're going to push it a bit harder off-road definitely. If you've ever got to a track and decided oh I'm not sure if the bike's going to make it through. That's another reason. But if you're just cruising around exploring the 411 may still be the bike you keep. If you're looking at a Royal Enfield Himalayan for the first time it all comes down to your ability and where you're going to ride it. I mean if you've ridden dirt bikes and enduro bikes and raced your whole life obviously you're going to be looking at a slightly different bike. I'm we'll call average Joe. My bike skills are average. I can get through the dirt and I can't push this bike to its limits. I mean the 411 I was getting to it but this one there's a lot more headroom and ability of the bike over my ability. So what's your ability and where you're going to ride it? These bikes are great in places like the Himalayas where you're not like in Australia you know you're going across countries for days basically on highways or dirt roads. Lots of power. Whereas in the Himalayan it's technical. You're obviously going up really narrow roads past trucks sometimes. So having something lighter and nimble. Also being solo if you're riding solo having a bike you need a bike you have to be able to lift the thing up. If you can't lift it up riding solo you're going to be in trouble. So it's understanding and being truthful to yourself what your ability is where you're going to take it and the price. It's hard to beat Royal Enfield at the moment. There's a couple out there but you could save the money you might get on a more high powered high performance off-road bike that may cost double. You could use that money to do a lot more fun trips. So hopefully this has given you a little bit more information if you're looking at getting one of these bikes. Again I'm just an average rider riding solo and it does the job really well for me.