Royal Enfield Himalayan 40,000km Review

This is a review of my Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 after riding it around Australia for 40,000 kilometers. On dirt roads, dirt tracks, rocky tracks, sandy tracks, mud, dry riverbeds, river crossings, deep water crossings, up steep rocky washout climbs, riding across corrugations and even tarmac sealed roads. I did a review on the bike after I'd ridden 20,000 kilometers. I'll link that below and that goes over the fundamentals of the bike. What I'm going to go over here is how the bike performed in specific situations I experienced. The first place I really got off road on the last trip was the Flinders Ranges on a track called Skytrek. If you ever get the chance, definitely worth riding. It's full of dry riverbeds, trails, rocky sections, some sandy sections, also river sand and some really steep trails. A lot of the time I'm in what you might call exploring mode where I'm having a look around rather than pushing the bike as hard as I can. The bike is perfect for that but when I came upon the last section of the trail there are some rather steep, washed out, it had rained the previous two days, really rocky long climbs. Did I mention steep? The footage never shows how steep climbs are but believe me it was steep. If I'd been able to see the trail beforehand I probably wouldn't have taken my bike up that section of track. It's definitely more an enduro dirt bike kind of trail and once you start you can't go back but this is where I learned that the capabilities of the bike are a lot better than I thought they were. The bike was so sure-footed. I'd mentioned in the last review how good the standing position was and with this bike's low center of gravity it really helped tackle the rocky and rutted out trail on the way up. The fact this bike has lots of its torque in the low end, I didn't have to have full throttle trying to carry speed all the way up to try and avoid stalling. Because I could tractor up these climbs it gave me more time to pick my lines where as if you've got a full throttle and just sending it you've got more chance of things going sideways as everything's happening so fast. I gather a professional dirt bike rider wouldn't have issues going full throttle up these hills but I'm not a professional dirt bike rider. When I got to the end of the track I bumped into some other guys on Adventure Bikes who'd just done the track as well and this is what they said when they saw me coming down the last section of trail. We all run back on the chicken track because it was raining and ---- drying wanted to get it. Anyway got that sort of we're all sitting here up on the hillside with this beautiful silhouette and this little putt noise and it's this bloke with the biggest backpack I've ever seen anyone wearing on a motorbike come putting down the final part of the full 80k loop that I couldn't do on my big Flash Adventure bike. He comes wandering around wandering down the hill casual as can be putters down putters up here like it's nothing oh was it hard or was a little bit steep in some spots in Malayan. Epic. This bike has more capabilities than we both thought. Being forced to push this bike through more difficult terrain has opened up the possibilities of where I think I can take it. Heading into and out of the bungle bungles I think I crossed about 50 water crossings some were clear where I could see the bottom and others I had no idea what was down there. I found I created a bit of a bow wave with the bike and jerry cans as I rode through the water which was good as the airbox is under the seat so it made a kind of gully in that area. There were a few times that the bow wave came over the side of the jerry cans so I got a little concerned I might get water in the airbox but in the end I didn't. Again the bike's ability to tractor because of the low end torque kept it moving forward at a steady pace which is what you want going through deeper water. You can't hit deep water at speed as you'll go straight over the handlebars and you definitely don't want to stall as there is a chance you won't get the bike going again so to be able to tractor through is ideal. As I mentioned before the low center of gravity and the standing position also really helps with water crossings so I found the bike really easy to ride through deeper water crossings. I mean I wasn't perfect I did hit a submerged rock which took away all my forward momentum I wasn't quick enough on the clutch and throttle but luckily I had enough momentum to go a couple more meters which meant I was past the deepest point so I could push the bike out easy and then it started straight away and on another crossing I started ping-ponging from rock to rock but gave it enough throttle to get across before dropping the bike. The main goal was to not drop it in the water so I achieved that at least. Actually that's another great thing about the bike I have dropped it a fair few times but nothing's ever broken it's easy to pick up and it always starts. I did have a blowout at 110 kilometers an hour it wasn't a slow leak or a quick leak it was a blowout the valve popped off not sure exactly how that happened if it was the tire moving in the dirt and pushing the valve at an angle or just the heat because I didn't have enough pressure in it anyway blew the tire. Luckily the bike is pretty stable again having weight low down I just let the bike travel on its own path as it crabbed sidewards a bit. As the bike is pretty basic it is easy to get the wheel on and off to repair. I ended up riding a few long sections of corrugated road the worst of it was traveling into and out of the bungle bungles. As I was on a long trip I have more gear and the more weight affects the way the bike handles and the amount of usable suspension. The more weight the more suspension is taken up. Being that I was carrying solar panels lithium batteries and all the camera gear I had to take it a lot slower. I couldn't do what most people suggest over corrugation is hit it at speed. I mean if you're on an enduro bike in a race perfect and the idea is to hit just the tops of the corrugations but I had to take the slow option because of the gear I was carrying. The surprising thing was after I set up camp and left the panniers and most of the gear at the campsite then rode the last section to the bungle bungles which was extremely corrugated it was like riding a different bike. I could go a lot faster there was no bone jarring vibrations it felt like I was floating over the top. I mean in theory yes your bike would perform better with less weight but I was stunned at how much difference it was from riding with the weight and then very shortly after riding without the weight. It was good to know the bike could handle it and didn't rattle apart there were no issues with anything coming loose. It was just me that was rattled and vibrating by the time I left the bungle bungles. As this country is rather large I did do a few sections of a thousand kilometers a day and two sections that were multiple big days especially the last part of the trip of four days. Day one I covered a thousand and one kilometers day two 864 kilometers day three 835 kilometers and day four 1011 kilometers. I'd heard comments that Himalayan wasn't great at doing big mileage well I had no issue at all the bike just kept cruising along as if it was the first day. I mean at the end of long days you think is that a new noise is that a new noise? That's probably me getting tired because you started up the next day and it's perfect. I think your body's going to have issues before the bike does. I mean I was struggling by the end of those four days and yes there are bikes out there that would be more comfortable for long hauls but can they go off-road? There's always a compromise. In sidewinds the bike was okay you just had to be careful and alert when big trucks were passing on the windward side as this would obviously change the pressure of the wind as the truck passed so you had to adjust. I did get brutal headwinds crossing the Nullarbor and this is where I felt the lack of horsepower. I think I dropped down to about 90 kilometers per hour at one stage. I even tucked down behind the screen to see if I could get a few more ponies to pull. This is one of the compromises with the bike. Luckily I didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time so for me it was all good. I did have two things fail on the bike but they were both aftermarket products. One was the grip warmer on the throttle side the glue had let go. I guess the heat from the warmer affected the bond of the glue which you think they would have sorted. I took the grip off until I could get around to fixing it which was a few thousand kilometers later in Darwin. I mean after the first hour of riding without the grip I forgot totally about it until I got it back on and thought man that's a really thick grip. The other thing that failed was the bracket holding the exhaust. I gather they weren't thinking of the Australian outback, the corrugated roads, the rocky trails when they were designing it. One issue I did have but it only happened before dawn in the middle of the outback was that the navigation screen is super bright. As it was pitch black in the outback the dynamic range of my eyes struggled with the difference. In a city this would never be an issue because you've got street lights, lights from buildings, other cars but in the middle of the outback where there's no other light source it does make it quite difficult to see down the road. It was a simple fix just put electrical tape over the top of it. I'm sure there might be a setting to turn it off but I couldn't find it. I did make one upgrade on this trip and that was to add double tape mirrors. The stock ones I found a bit small and a round shape doesn't actually put the mirror where I want to be able to see. I have two eyes side by side so a wider mirror works better for my eyes. Also I don't need to see the sky. The tall part of the double tape mirror is plenty vertical to see the road and above and the width helps eliminate blind spots. Also the inevitable when I drop my bike the mirrors just push out of the way and don't break. Definitely worth the upgrade. One of the things that changed most on a bike are the tyres and it's always good to know what other people are getting out of their tyres and how they perform. On the front I used the Dunlop 605D which lasted the entire trip. For a tyre with a more off-road tread I was surprised they last the whole trip around. I found them great off-road in the Flinders Ranges and just really never thought about them because I always had grip and they were good on the highway as well and they're not expensive. I got just under 18 000 kilometers out of them. On the back I also started off on a Dunlop 605 and they were really really good through the Flinders Ranges. So they're great off-road but they wear pretty quick on-road and I think I got between five and So when I got to Perth I picked up a Haegner, I think it's German, K60 Scout and this has a lot better grip than the stock tyre. Not quite as much as the Dunlop 605 but it gets a lot more mileage. I think in the end I got about nine thousand kilometers out of it but it's still got grip on it so I'm sure I'll get another three or four thousand kilometers out of it. But one thing to note with that mileage, I went through the northwest of Australia and the roads out there are really coarse and anybody's been through there will tell you it'll chew up your tyres a lot faster than anywhere else. So you have to take that in consideration. So normally I think you get a lot further on this tyre. Hopefully that will give you a bit better understanding of a Royal Enfield Himalayan 411, its strengths and weaknesses. I'll see you on the next one.