The latest offering from Royal Enfield – the Himalayan – is quite different from the other motorcycles offered by the company. It belongs to the adventure bike segment – a category that is growing rapidly worldwide, with new motorcycles being introduced by manufacturers. Royal Enfield's retro-style bikes already have a good demand in Europe.
With the increasing demand for small-capacity adventure bikes and the fact that Royal Enfield has an existing setup in the continent, it’s the next logical step and it starts with the bike maker showcasing the Himalayan to global audience at the upcoming EICMA motorcycle show to be held in Milan this month.
While the bike was launched here in March, the delay in global launch is possibly due to Royal Enfield working out a strategy for evolved markets as the competition there will be more challenging. European markets, for example, conform to stringent Euro-4 norms and ABS is a mandatory requirement so there is a high possibility that the Himalayan intended for overseas markets will come with fuel injection and ABS as standard fitment.
Official sources confirm the Himalayan is ready for Euro-4 regulations. The rest of RE models sold in Europe will be Euro 4 compliant by March 2017.
The Himalayan would make for a good-entry level motorcycle for European and US markets with its 411cc single making 25Ps and 32Nm of torque making it accessible for novice ADV riders especially given the fact the bike weighs just 182 kilograms and has a relatively low seat height of 800mm. Also given the fact that it makes most of its peak torque between the 4000-4500 range and it gets off-road biased suspension with 200mm front travel and 180mm travel, it is as capable as some of the bigger ADV’s out there.
Source: BikeDekho.com
