New Royal Enfield Himalayan caught testing

The upcoming Royal Enfield adventure-tourer motorcycle has been finally caught testing. It is rumoured that the bike will be christened Himalayan as Royal Enfield had recently applied for trademark for the above moniker. The Royal Enfield Himalayan was spotted testing in Chennai by Motor Vikatan. The bike has been heavily camouflaged so as to hide the details and design of the bike. But from the spy picture it is clear that the bike will sport a completely redesigned tank with a large capacity to offer better range. The telescopic front forks will have more travel and have been covered with fork gaiters to safeguard the fork seals from dust and other elements that might damage it. Another major highlight is the employment of monoshock suspension which will make the Royal Enfield Himalayan the first Royal Enfield motorcycle to use them.

The frame seems to be carried forward from the Royal Enfield Continental GT and so is the stubby mudguard along with front and rear disc brakes. From the image one could conclude that the Royal Enfield Himalayan will have an upright and comfortable riding posture with a raised and flat handlebar along with centre-set footpegs. The tail sections seems to be minimalistic underneath which sits the fat section rear tyres while the exhaust muffler has also been borrowed from the Continental GT’S parts bin.

The new Royal Enfield motorcycle will be the first bike to be developed by renowned designer Pierre Terblanche who joined Royal Enfield last year. Details regarding the motorcycle are scarce but it is expected that the motorcycle would be powered by a new powerplant with a displacement of around 400cc. The new motor will be the bored-out version of the 350cc powerplant as seen on the Classic 350. Although power figure wouldn’t be considerably higher than the 350cc motor but torque figure is estimated to be around 40Nm which is almost a 30 per cent gain. Royal Enfield has also trademarked the Himalayan name for vehicle components, riding gear, helmet, clothing etc. This means that the Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle will also have an exclusive range of riding gear and clothing line similar to the Continental GT Burn-Up. For more news and updates regarding the Royal Enfield Himalayan watch this space.