EXCLUSIVE: Here’s Your First Look At The Royal Enfield Himalayan 450

Gets a proper single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine and a whole bunch of premium kit!

• The Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 gets a long-travel inverted front fork and a large front spoke wheel.
• Front disc looks larger.
• Bodywork is leaner, and the split seat setup is new as well.
• Launch likely in early next year.

The Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 has been spotted testing for the first time. This will be a more powerful, more capable version of the Royal Enfield Himalayan, and could be launched in early 2023. The test mule looks almost like what was reported earlier. 

The most prominent aspect of the test mule is its engine. This is a proper liquid-cooled single-cylinder unit, a first for a production Royal Enfield. The engine is likely to displace around 450cc, and should make a lot more power and torque than the Himalayan’s 24.3PS, 32Nm motor. That said, we hope it retains the Himalayan’s strong low-end grunt, which should come in handy while taming the terrain. Expect the engine to be paired with a 6-speed transmission, and Royal Enfield could also throw in a ride-by-wire throttle and traction control to round off the package.

The overall bodywork looks a lot leaner and the bike gets a redesigned fuel tank and tank braces as well. The ADV-esque front beak is longer, and is complimented by a shorter front fender. You could also see the heat sink for the headlight, indicating it could be an LED unit. The instrument cluster appears to be from the Royal Enfield Scram 411/ Meteor 350, however, its placement here looks a little crude. We hope the final layout looks more appealing, not to mention include a Tripper Navigation for added practicality. The split seat setup looks new, and the side panels have also been redesigned. You can also see the saddle stays, panniers and top box, all of which could be offered as accessories. 

The front spoke wheel, wrapped with block pattery tyre could be a 21-inch unit. It is linked to a fat inverted fork, and the rear could use the same linked monoshock as before, albeit in a different tune. The front disc rotor looks like a 320mm unit, larger than the current Himalayan’s 300mm disc. Expect it to be enhanced with switchable ABS. 

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All in all, the Royal Enfield Himalayan looks capable enough to take on the likes of the KTM 390 Adventure (Rs 3.28 lakh) and the BMW G 310 GS (Rs 3.05 lakh, both ex-showroom Delhi). If Royal Enfield manages to price the bike at around Rs 3 lakh, it will have a promising contender to rule the small-capacity ADV space. The Himalayan 450 will also go up against the upcoming Hero 450 ADV, which could be launched some time next year.

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