Royal Enfield Himalayan 650: New details including launch timeline emerge

The Himalayan 650 is one of the most rumoured motorcycles in the automotive industry. People have been talking about the more powerful Himalayan since the success of the 650 twins. At first, the 650 Himalayan project was cancelled but now it has been given a green light. The new motorcycle is expected to launch in the last quarter of 2024.

According to media reports, it has been 18 months since the development of Himalayan 650 started. Earlier, Royal Enfield thought that it would be very difficult to use such a heavy engine on an adventure motorcycle. So, they started working on other projects. However, they gave a green light to the Himalayan 650 project once they saw that there is a lot of demand for the motorcycle.

We all were expecting the Himalayan 650 to be a proper adventure vehicle like the Himalayan 411 but that is not the case. It will be a soft-roader and will be sold in two variants. There will be an alloy wheels variant and a spoked wheels variant. The alloy wheels one will be positioned as a sports tourer while the spoke wheels one will be positioned as an adventure tourer.

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The new motorcycle will also not be marketed as they did with Himalayan 411 because the Himalayan can take a lot of beating and was built for it from the ground up whereas the 650 Himalayan is not meant to be a hardcore off-roader. So, the new motorcycle will not be called Himalayan instead it will get a new name. The design will still resemble a lot of the Himalayan 411. So, expect the design to follow function over form.

The Himalayan 650 will use a 19-inch front wheel unlike the 21-inch wheel that the 411 uses. The rear wheel will measure 17-inches in size. We are expecting the motorcycle to use dual-purpose tyres. Because it is a tourer the ground clearance will be high and the seat height will also go up. We expect the saddle to be very comfortable with an up-right riding triangle.

The exhaust will have an upswept design. Royal Enfield will also give the motorcycle a digital TFT screen. It will come with Bluetooth connectivity so it will be able to pair with your mobile phone and it might show navigation directions when connected to the Royal Enfield’s application. It will also come with ride by wire, traction control system and multiple riding modes.

New Himalayan coming soon

Royal Enfield is also working on an even more hardcore capable version of Himalayan. Obviously, it will be positioned above the current Himalayan 411. It might come with a 450 cc engine and is currently under development. Royal Enfield is adding another Himalayan to the line-up because some people feel that the current Himalayan feels a bit underpowered because of its heavyweight. So, the Chennai-based manufacturer might increase the power output by increasing the engine capacity. We expect the new hardcore Himalayan to get launched in late 2022.

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