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-   -   Himalayan 450 Chassis Frame Breaking, multiple instances! After-market crash guards to blame? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/281225-himalayan-450-chassis-frame-breaking-multiple-instances-after-market-crash-guards-blame-2.html)

For a bike and manufacturer that prides themselves on durability and longevity of their vehicles (all metal parts making it heavier, made like a gun etc), and that too a model that absolutely needs to handle abuse well due to the terrain it's designed to take on, this is quite shockingly poor from RE.

I mean, even Splendors take on rural roads and 3-4 passengers without issues. To quote Clarkson- "how hard can it be?"

Hey, this is 3rd instance. Just wanted to clarify.

I think it could be that the bolt just vibrated itself out triggering the chassis breakage. There have been 'bolt loosening issues' reported in this very thread.
(also can't find the previous instances of breakage; kindly re-share)

One of the startling improvements reported when the 650Twins were launched, was how different the chassis felt in the Conti-650 as opposed to the old 530. Harris Performance, then-newly-acquired by RE, got accredited for this. Considering their track record, I'd be amazed, if this and other bone-breaking issues RE's bikes have been facing go back to a design flaw by these guys!

Hope this is just a QC issue that RE needs to pay more attention to.

Is the length towards the rear adding to the thin pipe causing more shear ? Hope they didn't try to save weight by having such a thin pipe that handles most of that stress.

Also, the rear damper and its bolting to the chassis should be the point where there should have been more stress ?

Now that there's 2 confirmed reports (and also perhaps a 3rd as per gkrishn?) this is most definitely cause for concern, and I've moved these posts to a new thread.

Let's not forget that the original Himalayan also faced a similar issue, which really did not get enough attention or acknowledgement from Royal Enfield IMO for how absolutely lethal a defect it was:



3 threads for the old Himalayan:

1)

2)

3)

Looks like the infamous Himalayan Chassis Break Part II. This is really strange at the same time upsetting for the new buyers and potential buyers. Is this same issue also reported in Himalayan Export models? we never know!

The frame snapping at the same point on both the motorcycles does seems like a design flaw. I thought RE using round tube chassis on the new Himalayan would be more robust and strong compared to the infamous box frame chassis on the old Himalayan. Why is this happening on the Himalayan and not in Classic, Hunter, Meteor, 650's, etc.

RE should come out with a Root Cause Analysis and share the results while also recalling the motorcycles for safety and ethical reasons.

That's a genuine possibility. The vibey single as a stressed member and under torqued or weak mounting bolts can certainly cause this failure. Once the frame loses the lower support which is the engine casing, it can break with minimal force on the front end. Probably a good idea for the owners to double check if all the mounting bolts are properly torqued to spec. The surge in demand and RE not being able to keep up with it can cause assembly line errors.

While these sophisticated motorcycles break their chassis, motorcycles manufactured several decades ago still going strong.

I have started to restore one my RX and found chassis has almost no rust, forget breaking itself in to 2 pieces.

I tried to dig into the previous frame break video and it looks like the front engine mount or bolt has failed on that bike was well. So it really could the bolts giving up or engine mount itself failing causing the frame to break in the middle like a kit-kat bar with no lower support. Still not sure if the frame failed first or the bolts/mounts did. Bit of a chicken and egg situation.

Given that there has been recalls for handlebar mount bolts getting loose, it's a possibility that the front mount screws of the engine went loose, being a stressed member, the engine will no longer be able to provide the rigidity but will add the the motion that will stress the chassis.

The braking and compression of front forks will push the chassis front half up and the weight on the rear will bring it down and engine will add to the oscillation leading to metal fatigue failure. My half cent.

While this is a mandatory check for all vehicles before/after off-roading, it would certainly be less than ideal having to do so with regular usage. If I have to, I'm definitely forgetting someday.

I'm curious about what their fix was; any info? If it was just thread lockers, I think we have reached a new low for RE's QC!

Handlebar would be worse enough, but if my bike just broke in half simply because a bolt weren't locked properly, I'd be outraged.

Royal Enfield has always prided itself on "heritage", so they are making sure to continue Himalayan 411's lagacy and make sure the buyers of the new one have the full, authentic experience! :coldsweat

I have something to add, based on this input / analysis from RE. There is an issue with the engine mounting and the aftermarket crash guard installed on the same mount. I have installed an aftermarket crash guard from Legundry Customs and the crash guard has one of the fixation points in the engine mounting itself on both the sides. Now, the interesting part is that on the right side mounting, the bolt doesn't have an end coming out on the opposite side. The bolts end goes inside the engine head part (excuse my lack of mechanical terminology). So on the right side where the bolt doesn't come out on the other end, meaning you do not have a locking nut on the end, the bolt doesn't get tightened after installing the crash guard. For me, the same was going loose and creating screeching sounds which was first mistaken to be cone set issue sound. Later it was observed that the engine mounting bolt is not tight enough with the crash guard installed. The solution to it was that the concerned bolt was replaced with another bolt which was slightly longer; about 2-3 mm which made it possible to be completely tightened and thread locker was used as well. Post that, no more loosening issue from that part and the crash guard is also mounted fine without any issue.

The scenario maybe absolutely different here but looking at RE's response, it looked like a relevant case to me.

Apologies for the poor video quality but I hope I was able to express the idea behind the failing of engine mounts

The first case certainly might have something to do with a custom crash guard. The Kaza brown bike has Zana crash protection on it. But the second Hanle black bike looks pretty stock to me with no crash protection on it.

the second hanle black, apparently.