Upon its launch, Royal Enfield Himalayan new variant would directly compete against Bajaj Dominar 400
Royal Enfield has plenty on its plate at the moment as far as new upcoming modes are concerned. The bikemaker has been testing various models on roads in recent times, one of them being the a new motorcycle which is based on Himalayan. While the latter is a proper adventure bike, the former will be a road-biased version of the same.
The motorcycle has been spotted testing on multiple occasions on roads in the recent past. Although it will be underpinned by the same architecture as Himalayan, the upcoming 2022 Himalayan new variant will wear a slightly different top hat in order to distinguish it from the off-road capable iteration.
Updated Design
For starters, the road-based iteration of Himalayan misses out on a large windscreen upfront. That said, customers will get the option to add a windscreen as an additional accessory. Also, Himalayan’s signature exoskeleton has made way for newly designed tank shrouds. Unlike previous test mules, the latest spy shots showed an undisguised testing prototype.
While Himalayan gets a larger 21-inch front wheel, this new variant will feature a smaller 19-inch front wheel with similar wire-spoked rims shod by block pattern, dual-purpose tyres. Similarly, the tail section also seems to be redesigned with respect to the positioning of taillamp and rear turn indicators appearing slightly different from the current Himalayan.
In the latest test mule, a small luggage rack has been installed at the rear. Other styling updates include a revised headlamp mask, redesigned and repositioned front turn indicators and revised front and rear mudguards.
2022 Himalayan new variant also misses out on a traditional beak-like fender as seen in existing Himalayan. It, however, retains the same upswept exhaust canister and split-style seating setup from the adventure motorcycle.
Features & Powertrain
As far as features are concerned, like other Royal Enfield motorcycles, this one also won’t be too high on gizmos. Instrumentation of the bike looks basic with a twin-pod cluster with one pod catering to the speedometer while the other one catering to the Tripper Navigation display. The Tripper pod provides turn-by-turn navigation when paired to the Royal Enfield App on the rider’s smartphone via Bluetooth.
Powering the tourer will be the same 411cc single-cylinder air-cooled SOHC engine that propels Himalayan. This unit kicks out 24.3 bhp and 32 Nm of peak torque which will be paired with a five-speed gearbox. Motorists would be delighted if Royal Enfield could update this engine to provide a little more oomph desired in long-distance touring. Suspension setup could be tweaked in order to focus more towards on-road dynamics.
Source
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
