NEW DELHI -- Weeks after releasing a teaser on its website, Eicher Motors-owned Royal Enfield on Tuesday launched its first all-terrain motorcycle, Himalayan.
At the heart of the Royal Enfield Himalayan is a 411-cc, single-cylinder air-cooled engine, mated to a five-speed gearbox, and fed through a carburettor that has a throttle position sensor.
The Himalayan’s long stroke mill, a distinguishing factor of Royal Enfield motorcycles, belts out 24.5 bhp at 6500 rpm and 32 NM of torque at 4000-4500 rpm. The bike is an all-new design and has been built specifically to tackle the Himalayan terrains, the company said.
The bike has a longer service interval and can cover up to 10,000 kilometres before it needs an oil change.
“The idea was to build a motorcycle ground-up, meant for the Himalayas. And when we say ground-up, this time around we really do mean ground-up. There are no compromises. We started with an absolute clean sheet of paper. Not even one pin was borrowed from our parts, or anyone’s parts for that matter,” Siddhartha Lal, MD & CEO of Eicher Motors Ltd, said during the launch of the bike.
Royal Enfield has been working on the model for half a decade now and the Himalayan has been designed to tackle terrains and urban jungles alike and it can also double up as a daily commuter, according to the company.
“We have been working at it for five years and we wanted this motorcycle to be absolutely purpose built for the occasion; purpose built, but not extreme,” Lal said.
The bike has a high ground clearance of 220mm. Perhaps the only Indian motorcycle with a higher ground clearance than the Himalayan is Hero’s Impulse (245 mm), which is a favourite among off-roaders.
The Himalayan, with its half-duplex double cradle frame, 41mm-wide front forks with a 200-mm travel and a single mono-shock at the rear with a 180 mm travel, looks quite capable on paper to take on terrains and potholed urban roads with equal ease.
The bike has disc brakes both at the front and the rear. It has a 21-inch front wheel, perhaps the largest of all motorcycles available in the country as on date, while the rear wheel is a 17-incher. With a 15-litre tank, the bike is expected to have a fairly good range on a full tank.
Positioned just below its flagship Continental GT model, the company is expected to price the Himalayan a tad under Rs2 lakh.
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