Royal Enfield motorcycles have been scaling Himalayan mountain roads and trails for decades. However back in 2016, the Indian manufacturer released its first all-new mountain-conquering adventure bike designed and built entirely in-house.
The Himalayan 410 was a bike built to do a job and that job was to carry adventurers to places near and far, high and low. It didn’t do it fast, because it didn’t need to, it just had to be a loyal mule to its rider. People fell in love with the Himalayan and its simple practicality. Now, seven years later, I’m in the foothills of the iconic mountains in northern India to see if I, too, will fall for the latest Himalayan in Royal Enfield’s line-up.
The paint had barely dried on the 2016 model when the team of designers at Royal Enfield set about improving the Himalayan without ruining its quirky personality or risking its legendary reliability. As simple as the Himalayan was, this was no easy task. The first piece of the puzzle was a new engine, which was fitted into discreet-looking Himalayan test mules which racked up thousands of kilometres while hidden in plain sight.
The new engine would be called the Sherpa 450, a nod to the job it would have ahead of it.
A complete step into the future for Royal
