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BHPian Rajeevraj recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I recently purchased a KTM 390 Adventure and once I finally narrowed down into an ADV bike like the KTM, the Himalayan 450 was also a logical option to have considered. Since the bike had not been launched yet and I personally have not been an Royal Enfield fan, so did not give much thought to it. After the launch, the reviews and the wonderful feedback, was curious to check out the bike. Yesterday I happened to pass by the Royal Enfield showroom on ORR (Mahadevpura) and I had some time in hand, thought to check it out and do a test ride if available. Some thoughts below based on my experience.
Note and Disclaimer: I have had the KTM for less than 2 months and have not had recent experience riding the newer Royal Enfield bikes and have never ridden the previous Himalayan. So please don’t take this as any kind of expert opinion.
This is a small showroom and has a service center attached. Being a Saturday evening was crowded. Interestingly they did not have a Himalayan for display in the ground floor. Not sure if they have display on the first floor.
No one attended to me for nearly 10 min. Was looking around and checking their riding gear options in the mean time.
Finally I asked someone and said I wanted a test ride. Was expecting some excuse but surprisingly the SA took my license, filled the form and gave me the key and vaguely pointed outside saying the bike is parked there. Later came out and showed it and told me the typical test ride route. So no waiting for the test ride but there were 2-3 folks who came immediately after me who wanted the test ride.
I could have taken a longer ride than what they said as no one seemed to be tracking or checking it. Since there were people waiting and I wanted to just get a feel, stuck to the 4-5km route that they recommended.
Post test ride, no attempt to capture any further details. I guess they have enough bookings and are used to people coming for random test rides.
Waiting period is 60-90 days as per the SA.
As many folks have pointed out, the side stand angle is quite high and the bike leans quite a lot to the side. It is a large bike accentuated by that 21 inch front wheels and large tank. Looks nice and imposing. The KTM 390 looks imposing because of it’s height. So both of them look good and large in different ways.
So that was a short summary from a short test ride. If I was buying today would I consider the Himalayan? I think absolutely yes. I think I would have still bought the KTM as its strengths relate more to what I wanted especially the additional electronics. But no doubt the Himalayan is going to be a runaway success in this space. Would be interesting to see what KTM does with the 2024(or 2025? Adv) which would be more of a direct competitor especially for the off roading use cases.
Couple of pictures. The collage pic is not exactly the same position, but best I had currently.
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