With its new, more powerful liquid-cooled engine, the Himalayan 450 should prove to be quite capable off-road.
The current Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 is quite a capable machine off the beaten track in its own right, due to its torque-rich motor and the combination of long-travel suspension along with 21/18-inch wire-spoke rims. So it stands to reason that the upcoming Himalayan 450 will build on that capability when it does finally make its debut.
To give us an idea of what the bike’s off-road chops will look like, multiple National Supercross champ and Dakar Rally finisher, CS Santosh was given the keys to a Himalayan 450 to put it through its paces.
In this short video, CS Santosh can be seen jumping, sliding and treating the Himalayan 450 almost like a lithe motocrosser. Of course, bear in mind that where CS Santosh’s capabilities begin is where most folk’s end. However, this does give us a glimpse into the off-road abilities of this new-age Himalayan. The new USD front fork and monoshock seem to be able to withstand reasonably big jumps and since the bike is seen sliding around in multiple different points during the video, it stands to reason that there’s plenty of power and that you will have the option to deactivate the rear ABS.
Interestingly, you can catch a fleeting glimpse of the rear of a different bike in this video with a high-mount Arrow exhaust, which is in stark contrast to the stubby end can on the Himalayan 450. This could well be a teaser for the more off-road oriented version of the Himalayan 450 that was previewed in the investor document.
The standard Himalayan 450 has been spotted testing multiple times before and with each passing spy image the bike has edged closer to a production-spec bike compared to the rough test mules seen in the early days. Considering that the bike seen here very closely resembles a production-spec bike, we expect it to be launched in the coming months.
