Old Himalayan owner buys the new 450: His experience after 500 km

I still briefly considered used R3, Ninja 400 and Interceptor 650 but never really took the plunge. Scrambler 400x looked too small for my size.

BHPian Krtkin recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Background and Need for a New Motorcycle:

Before starting the review, I would like to share about myself, my riding experience, my riding style and its evolution, which i feel may help the readers to understand my point of view about this motorcycle.

I sincerely believe there is no “Perfect Motorcycle”, there can only be a “Perfect Motorcycle for a rider”.

My interest towards motorcycling started at a very young age. As part of work, my father extensively rode motorcycle across Tamil Nadu during the 90s and 2000s. I still have fond memories of doing long rides with him (hundred to two hundred kms) to nearby temples. I was so badly waiting to ride a motorcycle, the first thing i did on my 18th birthday was applying learner’s licence.

Between 18 and 22 years, I enjoyed riding on borrowed motorcycles from my father, family and friends. Hero Honda CD 100, Hero Honda Sleek, CBZ, Karizma, RX100, Splendor, TVS Victor and Yamaha Enticer were frequently available for me to ride. By 2006, I bought my first motorcycle “Pulsar 150”.

My life with Pulsar 150 was so eventful that I covered over 80,000 kms in the first 5 years of ownership. I did several rides across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka between 2006 and 2010 as solo, with my wife and with friends. This motorcycle stayed with me until 2014 and after 1 lakh plus kms on the odo, I bought “RE Electra 350”. My father continued to use this motorcycle for another 30,000 kilometers and it was finally parted in 2018. Despite its shortcomings and issues due poor maintenance in its sunset years, i will remember this riding experience forever.

Me and my wife thoroughly enjoyed Electra 350 until 2020 and for about 60,000 kms. It was predominantly used for city rides and we did very few long rides due to commitments in managing work and young children. In late 2019, me and my wife decided that we should do long rides more often, since the kids had grown up and can be taken care by grandparents when we are away. We also decided to get a more modern and fast touring motorcycle preferably in the range of 400 to 650 CC.

When we started hunting for the upgrade, we were in for a surprise. Marriage, children, age, several tens of thousands of kilometers in car and the nature of Electra’s UCE engine had completely changed my riding style in those six years. From a fast rider who loved to rev the engine until its red line and lean the bike at every possible corner, I had become a sedate rider without even noticing it. I was no longer confident in riding a fast motorcycle. Forget 650 CC, I was not even confident in large single cylinders, Bajaj Dominar and the likes. After several analysis paralysis, we finalized BS6 Himalayan. It was perfect for us at that time, a large single that can munch many miles, a comfortable tourer for two, more safety features than Electra but still a motorcycle with sedate nature.

During Mar 2020, we completed the payment formalities and signed the RTO documents. When we reached home, we got to know about the first Covid lock down. We finally took delivery in May 2020 and only did about 1200 kms in total until October 2021. For the next two years, we covered about 16,000 kms mostly in touring. The confidence in riding was regained and the craving for a faster motorcycle re-ignited.

I had two issues with BS6 Himalayan, which I was completely aware of even before buying it.

• It lacks top end. While I do not expect myself to ride really fast, my expectation was to cruise between 90 to 100. While it is possible to cruise at 100 in BS6 Himalayan, I felt the engine is stressed too much after 80 km/hr and the resulting vibrations post that speed did not help.
• Even if I managed to cruise over 80 km/hr, I was not confident about stopping it in time if there is an emergency. All I need from the new motorcycle was 10 km/hr additional average speed, over and above BS6 Himalayan. This will save me about 2 hours on a long 500 to 600 Km ride and should be within my riding ability.

Why Himalayan 450 ?

Four years with BS6 Himalayan made certain things very clear about me as a rider as well as what I need. They are as follows.

• I have permanently become a sedate rider. While I regained my confidence to ride a fast motorcycle, I was sure that I will not utilize the full potential of mid size or a litre-class motorcycle. My maximum cruising speed will be limited to 90 to 100 km/hr, occasionally breaching this threshold to overtake if it's perfectly safe. Hence all 500 plus CC motorcycles did not make practical and economical sense. That said, I was drooling over Tiger 660 and Super Meteor 650. Both of them were eventually ruled out due to pillion comfort and riding comfort respectively. Used V-Strom 650 and Versys 650 was still in contention and I would have pursued one of them if I was not able to finalize something by mid 2024. I was in love with Honda 500X but never seriously considered due to perceived value for money quotient.

• I found myself comfortable in a tall adventure motorcycle. My purpose of motorcycle is to tour across the lengths and breadths of this country, sometime solo and sometimes with my wife. Considering my age, 180 cm height and 105 kgs in earth’s gravity scale I wanted a tall, heavy and comfortable motorcycle. While I will never intentionally do any off-roading, adventure tourers fit my needs perfectly. This ruled out any cruiser, retro, naked and sports tourer options. I still briefly considered used R3, Ninja 400 and Interceptor 650 but never really took the plunge. Scrambler 400x looked too small for my size.

• I need a versatile motorcycle. Multiple motorcycles for multiple purpose did not make economical sense for my use case. One should do it all. It should be comfortable in city as well as highway (highway performance will take the precedence), should be able to carry a fair amount of luggage (we like to pack generously) hence needs good space and a dedicated luggage management system is a boon.

Based on point 1, 2 and 3, I was left with large single cylinder Adventure tourers. Unfortunately when I started exploring, my serious considerations were restricted BMW G310GS and KTM 390 ADV. I did multiple test rides of these two motorcycles. BMW was ruled out quickly, however KTM 390 ADV was still in contention. Considering my current riding style and the nature of KTM I did not take the plunge. I was waiting patiently for Hero/Harley and Bajaj/Triumph to surprise me. Though I knew about the potential new Himalayan with a brand new 450 cc engine, it was never in my list. This is because I did not believe Royal Enfield will bring a single cylinder motorcycle with a 40PS power.

We set a limit of mid 2024 and if nothing was finalized, our options were 1) Used V-Strom 650/Versys 650 or 2) New KTM 390 ADV if we are not able to find good used Vs.

Come November 1st week, Royal Enfield surprised me. A brand new Himalayan with 450 CC liquid cooled engine with nearly 40 ps of power and 40 nm of torque. Rave reviews of the motorcycle filled up my Youtube screen for the next few days. The reviews looked too good to be True. I took the plunge and pre-booked on the first day. Because this will be my third motorcycle from RE and a first generation motorcycle from RE with its notorious reputation, I was very clear that I will convert this to booking only after an extensive test ride and only if it fits all my needs.

But fate had other plans.

Booking, Dealership and Delivery Experience

In a life full of uncertainty, one thing is certain. A decade of owning Royal Enfield motorcycles will get you lot of friends as well as enemies in the showroom and the service centre. On the day pre-booking was opened, I called up a friend in the showroom and pre booked the Hanle black Himalayan 450 (while RE likes to call it as “New Himalayan” and the engine is actually 452 CC, I will stick to “Himalayan 450” for the purpose of this post). I was invited to the showroom for the launch event and at least 50 plus people were present on the launch day. It was unveiled at the same time when it was launched in Goa.

Unlike the popular opinion, the Himalayan 450 did not feel substantially big for me in the first look. This may be because I was coming from BS6 Himalayan or because I had too much expectations from the reviews. I did not venture near the motorcycle that day as it was too crowed. The take away that day was the Ex-showroom price which pleasantly surprised me, the only gripe being additional 15,000 for the colour of my choice. No one in the showroom knew when the delivery will start and they suggested it could begin in the 1st week of January. I vowed to return when test ride begins.

December is when I do my yearly mandatory Solo ride. In 2023, it was fixed between December 27th and December 29th, the place is Kodaikanal and accommodations were booked. The plan was to ride from Chennai to Kodaikanal (520 kms one way) on 27th and ride back to Chennai on 29th. The thought that this could be the potential last long ride in my BS6 Himalayan made it more special and I was looking forward to it. In addition to my solo trip, I was also scheduled to travel out of country from Dec 14th to Dec 23rd.

Out of nowhere, I got a call from Showroom on Nov 29th that my motorcycle was allocated and it will be available in the showroom in a couple of days. If I can clear the payment quickly I can take delivery on December 6th which was also my Daughters birthday. I was about to ask them to reallocate this vehicle to someone else, but the sudden thought of riding to Kodaikanal in the Himalayan 450 excited me. I visited the showroom on the following day and initiated the formalities. The motorcycle reached the showroom in two days. I went to the showroom and performed an eyeball check. Convinced, I requested for a test ride. To my surprise, the test ride motorcycles had not reached to any showroom in Chennai.

The next one hour was the most difficult period in my entire riding life. On one hand I had the motorcycle waiting to be delivered in two days, but I was not sure whether this is the right one for me. I did not even sit on the Himalayan 450 until then. I took my wife to the showroom later that day and it was her first look at the motorcycle. She liked what she saw, sat on it and encouraged me to go-ahead. We arranged for the remaining payment, completed RTO formalities and left home. We spent months researching for the perfect motorcycle, but took the decision to buy one without even test riding it. It was the craziest decision I ever made in my entire life. Reflecting back, I guess we were both tired looking for the “perfect motorcycle” that didn't exist and that entire process should have made us tired. This is a case where an unknown devil felt safe than the known angel. Nevertheless there is no going back now.

Fate rolled the dice for the second time in as many weeks. There was heavy rain in Chennai and nothing moved during the week of Dec 4th to Dec 8th including the registration. By the end of that week I visited the showroom and ensured my motorcycle was not affected by rain/flood and it was safely parked in the first floor. The revised date for Registration was on Dec 12th and I had to travel out of the country on Dec 14th leaving me just one day. I will be back on 23rd Dec and I will have 3 days exactly to complete 500 kms and first service before I can take the motorcycle to Kodaikanal. As part of the purchase we already let go of BS6 Himalayan, so if service was not completed on 26th December (24th being a Sunday and 25th being Christmas only 26th was available for service) , I will not be able to travel on 27th.

I made the following plan.

1. Take delivery on 12th Dec evening, fix a temporary number plate and download the documents on Vahaan app.
2. Early morning 100 Kms ride between Chennai to Mahabalipuram on ECR road on 13th Dec, 24th Dec, 25th Dec and 26th Dec.
3. Get the appointment for first service on 26th Dec while returning from the early morning ride. Take delivery on the same day and ride out to Kodaikanal on 27th dec.
4. If something goes wrong, ride to Kodaikanal on 28th Dec and return back on 29th Dec. Since this was the year end, I could not find any decent accommodation for 30th, so the entire trip should be cut short to 2 days.

We took the delivery of Himalayan 450 on 12th Dec evening as planned. Since this was the first Himalayan 450 delivery from that showroom (should be first few in Chennai) and I was a known and repeat customer, the team went out of their way to make it a pleasant experience. Cake was cut, photos and videos were taken, features were explained and dedicated contact numbers were provided should I run into any issues. My mind was somewhere else the entire time. After the formalities, we began our first ride of Himalayan 450. Took it to a nearby temple for Pooja, went out to fix a temporary number plate and the vehicle was parked for the night. My real first ride began the following day and continued again from 23rd (two hours after I landed I took the motorcycle for a 100 kms spin) to 25th. Surprisingly the service centre was open on Christmas and I was able to complete the required kilometres as well the first service on 25th December itself. As planned, the ride to Kodaikanal began on 27th and I came back impressed on 29th.

Looks, Build Quality and Other related items

To be frank, looks is something I don’t consider when buying an automobile. (With no offence to any previous or existing owners, I was willing to buy Creta and ended up purchasing Scorpio N with that Van inspired rear door) What is more important to me is that the motorcycle should fit my needs. That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to have a nice looking vehicle. Himalayan 450 looks nice to me.

• Size - On first look and subsequent looks it did not look substantially big. Every review that I saw, said the bike looks big and can compete against some of the 650 cc adventure motorcycles in size. For some reason I did not feel so, that is until, I parked it next to a OG Himalayan during the first service. It did look substantial then. May be it was my brain playing the tricks.
• Looks - Adventure motorcycles, by its nature is not going to win any beauty contests. It is purpose built and Himalayan is more so. However in black it looks good, highlighted even more by that golden rims. To me, inner beauty is more important and we will get there soon.
• Build Quality - My benchmark for build quality within Royal Enfield stable is Super Meteor 650. Himalayan 450 is definitely not up to SM 650 level, but it is really close. Except for few open welding joints, I did not observe any uneven gaps, loose parts or ugly finishes. The motorcycle feels really tight when riding in any road conditions. Switch gears felt ok and wires could have been managed better. But all this is relative to SM650. When compared to BS6 Himalayan it is miles a head. Comparing outside RE stable in similar price range, ADV 390 felt better than Himalayan 450 in all aspects.
• Height & Weight - Himalayan 450 is tall, but not as tall as KTM ADV 390. I am surprised how few cms of height and seat/tank width can completely change our perception of height (I am referring to ADV 390 here). For my height, which for reference is 180 cm, it felt comfortable. Coming from OG Himalayan, weight is really not an issue for me, it felt comfortable to push the motorcycle out of parking, put it in main stand and move it using the legs in bumper to bumper traffic. If in doubt, it will be better to do all this in person before you book one. But I am sure you will get used to any motorcycle in a span of few weeks irrespective of its height or weight.

Seating and Riding Comfort

This section was one of my top priority, but due to my stupidity, I did not spend enough time with the motorcycle before buying it. I am glad to report that most of it is positive with few scope for improvements.

• Handlebar - Handle bar is wide and provides a relaxed riding position. The riding triangle is exactly between BS6 Himalayan, which was more relaxed and ADV 390, which was little aggressive for an adventure tourer. I felt slightly committed while riding Himalayan 450 irrespective of where I sit in that long seat, but after a 11 plus hour journey, I was fresh enough to walk around the steep resort. I prefer this riding triangle more than my BS6 Himalayan and do not need any handlebar risers. The only issue is the handlebar grip. It has a hard pattern and while riding without gloves in city it pains after sometime. Accessory-1 - A soft and slim handlebar grip is definitely required for me.
• Rider Seat - The rider seat is very well engineered in-terms of shape, size and angle. It is the best seat in any motorcycle that I have ridden. It has lot of space to move around during long rides. I was able to comfortably do non-stop 120 minutes in four lane highway during my Kodaikanal ride. My previous best was around 100 minutes in BS6 Himalayan. That said, I was spoilt by the comfort of touring seat in my BS6 Himalayan and I would like to add it in Himalayan 450 as well. Accessory-2 - Touring seat for rider will be added, only if the shape, size and angle is similar to regular seats.
• Pillion Seat - This is the most important factor in selecting any motorcycle for me. We had to let go of Tiger 660 only because of this issue. The pillion seat is still not extensively used, but I was told that is as comfortable as BS6 Himalayan. Accessory-3 - Touring seat for pillion will be added.
• Luggage - This is another important factor for me. After a lot of research on safety/convenience we added RE metal panniers to our BS6 Himalayan, in-spite of safety concerns incase of a fall. The good news is RE metal panniers can be fitted straight away in Himalayan 450 (I was told), however it will need a new pannier rails of Himalayan 450. Accessory-4 - RE Pannier rails will be fitted. Though there is a provision for top box, I never felt comfortable riding with one. Will not be adding it.
• Mirrors - I don't know how RE did it, but the mirrors are not vibrating at all. I am surprised how a common expectation from a motorcycle can become an achievement for RE. However, the size of the mirrors are really small. When I move around from one position to another in that really long rider seat, mirrors become useless. During my Kodaikanal ride, I had to constantly adjust the angle of the mirrors while riding. Accessory-5 - A bigger mirrors. Not finalized on the brand yet, because RE’s touring mirror prices are insane. Need suggestions.
• Wind blast - I faced more wind blast when compared to my BS6 Himalayan because of two reasons. A) I was going faster 2) Lack of a proper wind shield. The BS6 Himalayan windshield was not perfect for me either, it used to direct the wind towards the upper portion of my helmet. But considering the cruise speed of 80’s it didn't bother me much. Accessory-6 - Need to try the taller windshield from RE and see if it becomes any better.

Performance, Handling, Riding and Other related items

I was literally sweating for the first few days, praying to almighty that my decision should be right. It turned out to be “Absolutely Right”.

Engine Performance, Refinement, Vibrations and Heat - If RE had removed all the badges and had discretely given this for a test ride to anyone and asked them to guess the make of the motorcycle, I doubt if anyone would have guessed it as Royal Enfield. The nature of this engine is very different from all of their previous ones. Make no mistake, their best engine in the market is still the 650 twin, but I don’t think a Himalayan with a 650 twin will ever be possible. This Sherpa 450 is the next best. This engine suits the nature of the motorcycle very well in most of the conditions. If you have ever owned an RE before and ride this motorcycle with the same muscle memory, you will be surprised at the pick up, the way the speed builds and the amount of power and torque available across the gears and rpms. The engine cleanly pulls through and maintains, unless we are in absolutely wrong gear. In spite of watching all the media reviews, I was still surprised about the capability of this engine.

It took some time for me to understand the nature of this engine though. I rode about 120 kms on Dec 12th and 13th and was focusing on getting comfortable in this motorcycle without judging it. Once I returned on Dec 23rd, I rode 100 plus kms everyday from Dec 23rd to Dec 25th. It was on Dec 24th ride at around 250 kms, I got really comfortable and understood what to expect from this engine.

The strength of this engine still lies in the mid, where the power and torque delivery is available in abundance. If we are in the right rpm, the in-gear acceleration, specifically in 4th, 5th and 6th is smile inducing. The top end is more than sufficient for my riding style but riders who likes to rev it until the red-line may want more. To be clear, the engine will do what the rider wants even in the top end, but it will not be without hesitation. (Read NVH). The low end is where the rider needs to work the gears more, especially if you had owned a Royal Enfield before. But for others, it may be business as usual.

The engine is definitely refined for a large single cylinder, as long as we are not comparing it with Japanese. My experience with ADV 390 is less (may be few hundred kilometres), but based on that experience I find ADV 390 to be less harsh than Himalayan 450. All of this comparison is only relative, on isolation, the refinement is not a concern for me. Also, I am noticing improvements as I ride more and more.

There is no unusual noise in my motorcycle, except I noticed a sweet whining (I am not sure where it is coming from or whether there is any issue) and that is getting addictive when I open the throttle. I am ok with the sound of the engine as well as the silencer. Neither sweet, not bitter.

Vibrations are felt in handlebar but it is not concerning. Heat is definitely there, no doubts. But again it is relative to what motorcycles we rode before. If my memory is right, I sensed even more heat from ADV 390. The heat is not concerning at the moment and I am seeing improvements as I ride more. The fan switches on every time within 10 minutes of city riding and it is loud. People in nearby motorcycles will turn and search for the source of that noise, it is that loud. Not sure if there is any issue or if this is the nature. I am willing to wait and watch on this one.

Throttle, Clutch & Gearshifts - Throttle response is fine. I did not notice the most discussed throttle lag, either it is a production issue on few batches or I am not good enough to notice it. Anyways its a good news.

Clutch is smooth and easy to operate, and you will be happy with it as long as no comparisons are made.

I don’t normally rev the engines and make it uncomfortable, I like to keep the engine in its most comfortable position. Hence I try to identify the sweetest range for an engine and ensure my gear shifts are matching it, irrespective of the speeds I am doing. Over the last 10 years, it was easy for me to achieve this due to the nature of the long stroke engines of Electra 350 and BS6 Himalayan. With Himalayan 450, too many gear shifts are required especially in the low end to keep the engine comfortable and I really struggled with it for the first few days.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears are really short. I was shifting to 2nd at 10 kmph, to 3rd at 20 kmph and to 4th at 35 kmph. 4th and 5th are most forgiving and has decent range from 35 kmph all the way to 75 kmph. On 6th its a struggle below 65 kmph. This frequent gear shifts was creating a mental block for me during the rides and I thought may be I chose a wrong motorcycle. However, I realized that it was nothing but 80,000 plus kms of muscle memory. I rode several other motorcycles, most notably ADV 390, where much more gear shifts were required in the low end. I understood this is the nature of the motorcycle, I stopped complaining and started adapting my riding style to this nature. By the end of Kodaikanal ride, I got a good understanding of how to moderate the throttle, the clutch application and the gear shifts to make the ride enjoyable. The number of gear shifts is still high, but I am sure that rewiring my muscle memory and adopting to this nature is few hundred kilometres away.

I had false neutral just once in the entire 1,500 kms of ride. Every other time the shifts were perfect irrespective of the gears and rpms. I did not feel the need for adjustable levers or quick shifter.

Brakes - Out of all the bikes I owned, for the first time I understood how good breaks work. This is not to say that Himalayan 450 has the best breaks. There are definitely better ones across price ranges, my benchmark so far is Ninja. I did not encounter any emergency breaking scenario yet, but had to apply some sudden breaks during my Kodaikanal ride and I am happy with its performance. I did not find the ABS intrusive.

Tyres - I have a very cautious riding style, I always try to predict the moments where my tyres may skid and prepare myself ahead of time. I had few instances as part of my Kodaikanal ride where I was ready for impact but nothing happened. The motorcycle just glided over all of these scenarios. The motorcycle felt grippy, stable, planted in all roads and at all speeds. I did not find any issues with the tyres. The recommended tyre pressure is 32 for both tyres be it solo or pillion and I am maintaining it since day 1. I am looking forward for the tubeless spoke wheels to eliminate the pressure of a puncture. Accessory-7 - Tubeless spoke wheels irrespective of the price.

Suspension - I am spoiled by 4 years of riding BS6 Himalayan, the first thing I notice in any other motorcycle is the suspension performance. Happy that Himalayan 450 performs better than BS6 Himalayan in most scenarios (Other than off roading which I have not tested) and that was a big milestone to achieve. The suspension just glides over everything if we are in the right speed. What surprised me more is its performance in high speeds. The motorcycle always felt planted irrespective of the road condition or the speed. However, the long term performance of the suspension will have to be proven.

Riding Experience - City - I have to make significant change in my riding style to have a smooth city ride. It is work in progress and if at all I perfect it, I will update this post. That said, I moved past the annoyance of frequent gear shifts and started enjoying the learning process. Squeezing the motorcycle between cars in a bumper to bumper traffic is not that easy due to the width of the handlebar. However on a moving traffic it is nimble and fast. U turns are not an issue, but the motorcycle will extend beyond the parking lines in most of the places due to its length. Be prepared to answer a few questions at the signal stops in your first year of ownership and don’t be angry on that person if he keeps on referring to it as a “Bullet”.

Riding Experience - 4 Lane Highway - For my use case, this was the most important factor and I am happy to report that Himalayan 450 delivers. Due to my riding style and considering the bike is still new, majority of my highway ride was between 80 to 95. The max I saw in the console was 105 km/hr. A more skilled rider can easily maintain 120 km/hr. The in-gear acceleration after we slow down for that slow moving vehicle or barricades is divine. On multiple occasions during the ride, I had to slow down to around 40 to 50 km/hr and pick up speed back to 90ish. The bike pulls really fast between 40 to 100 in right gears and almost everyone gets left behind.

The motorcycle can munch miles without a sweat. I completed 400 kms of 4 lane highway ride from Chennai to Dindigul in 9.5 hours and while returning, the same stretch was covered in 8 hours including 4 breaks and I never crossed 105. This is easily 90 minutes faster than my BS6 Himalayan and I have no intention to reduce this further. The ride in the highways is engaging. While travelling in my BS6 Himalayan, I sometimes enter the state of highway hypnosis which never happened in Himalayan 450. The motorcycle has enough capacity to keep us engaged.

There is a noticeable buzz in the handlebar between 4000 and 4500 rpm, which translates to around 80 to 90 kmph in 6th gear. And it magically reduces post 4500 rpm. I have not noticed this phenomenon in any of the other motorcycles I rode. I did repeat this multiple times during my Kodaikanal ride and I was able to reproduce it every time. I am not saying there is no vibration at all post 4500 rpm, but it definitely reduces.

• Riding Experience - 2 Lane Highway - It is easy to overtake a slow moving or fast moving vehicle in the 2 lane highways. I almost never plan/do risky overtakes due to the limitations of BS6 Himalayan. I maintained the same with Himalayan 450, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I finished those overtakes. I have to resist the urge to plan risky overtakes in the future. 5th gear was mostly used in those roads with occasional switch to 4th and 6th gears.
• Riding Experience - Mountains - The name is Himalayan. 3rd and 4th gear was my friend depending on the traffic and the inclines/declines. Overtakes are really easy, but again I need to control my urge to plan risky ones in the future. Once I had to come to a abrupt halt and I was not in the right gear. This stalled the engine, thankfully the road was flat and hence no issue. More learning opportunity as a rider.
• Riding modes - I forgot about this completely in the initial 500 kms. I did switch to eco mode once, but to be frank did not notice a meaningful difference. The motorcycle will stay in performance mode forever. Thankfully this is also the default mode whenever the console is restarted.
• Headlights- Headlights did not inspire confidence. Accessory-8 - Yet to plan.
• Fuel Consumption - I got an average of 34 Kmpl with 20% city and 80% 4 lane highway and 30 kmpl in a mixed use of 4 lane, 2 lane and mountain roads. This is calculated based on auto cut off tank full to tank full method. The reading in the console showed 2 kmpl more.
• Switchgear - Switch gears are better than BS6 Himalayan and everything feels long-lasting. I noticed a couple of issues. The switch on the left side of the handlebar which is used to shift between high beam, low beam and pass light, the pass light option should have been on the left side and high beam should have been on the right side to make it more useful. The button which is used as a home/back button to navigate in the console requires couple of presses before it registers the input. I had issues with the primary console navigation button initially, surprisingly, I got used to it very quickly. I now almost never miss the select or 4 way navigation with or without the gloves.
• Console - The console is really helpful and easy to navigate. It provides all the information that is required for a rider. Maps works fantastic with my iPhone. I used it for 20 mins in Kodaikanal to find the resort and it was a bliss. A point to note, my phone lost almost 5 % charge in those 20 minutes. Need to invest in a good power bank if this has to be used longer.
• Footrest - Footrest is comfortable both for rider and pillion. Never in my ride I felt any kind of discomfort. I did stand on the footrest while riding and the placement along with the tank shape felt very natural.

First Service Experience & Issues

First service was done on Dec 25th at around 425 kms on the odo. I dropped the motorcycle at 10 am and picked it up at 5 pm. Due to Chennai floods, there are several motorcycles lined up for service, but the service associate was kind enough to return the bike on the same day after I explained about my planned ride. Also Himalayan 450 gets a special attention. I enquired about the list of items that will be done and also ensured they have the stock of the new grade engine oil required for Sherpa 450.

While taking delivery, the team explained that there is an issue with the console which was not there when I dropped the bike for service. The console showed an error “Ambient Sensor Failed”. Apparently this sensor is used to show the ambient temperature in the console. They also showed me a video where it worked and the next moment it stops working automatically. They have taken an appointment from me this week to meet the engineers from the plant, who will analyze this issue as well as get my feedback about this motorcycle. For a moment I was afraid if this sensor is also used to diagnose the engine heat and handle the cooling mechanism. I was assured it is nothing to do with that and I did see the fans operating as expected.

I did notice an improvement in NVH post first service, but it is not significant.

Conclusion

To me, Automobiles are like any other human being, it will be good in certain things and will show it flaws on other things. Are we prepared to adopt to it and live with it is all that matters. I searched for a perfect motorcycle for over a year across capacity and price ranges. But ended up purchasing one which was not even in my shortlist. If this is called as Fate, it turned out to be absolutely fine for me. Himalayan 450 met my needs and based on my initial impression, this is going to stay with me for a very long time. It is not without its flaws. It demands me to change and I may never grow as a rider to use its full potential. But this is what excites me.

If you are eyeing to purchase one and reading this, I hope this helps you in someway to decide in favour or against it. If I missed anything in this post, do let me know I will be happy to add it. I hope to update this thread about all the important milestones and our experience with Himalayan 450. Thanks for your time and wish me good luck.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.