New Bike!

 

Unboxing at the dealership

For the first time ever I bought a brand new, as in never been used by anyone, motorcycle.  Ever since my first experience of buying a new car at age 19 and watching it depreciate to half its value before I had paid it off, I stuck to waiting for someone else to depreciate their new whatever before I purchased it.  If you have read some of my other posts you probably already know I am a cheapskate.  

Bein as this is January 2025, my new bike a 2023 Royal Enfield Himalayan,  is no longer as new as it was when I bought it in July 2023.  

The Moto Guzzi California Vintage, I bought back in 2015 was a lot heavier than it needed to be.  It was also the first cruiser style bike I ever owned, and probably the last.  Cruisers bikes do not suit my preferred riding,  getting out of town and riding moderately fast for tas long as it takes to empty the gas tank.  The barn door handlebar mounted windscreen ddid not work well at Alberta highway speeds despite my many efforts to modify it.  Also the California did not like gravel roads, of which there are plenty in Alberta.  There are also plenty of well paved highways in Alberta, but being restricted to just pavement at no buffeting speed got old.  As I was now in  Guzzi world, I figured I should try a fast touring focused variant, sold the California and bought a Norge.

The Norge was great on the open road, it was even pretty good on gravel.  But it was also a pig in size and weight.  If either the Norge or the California fell over (and they did once or twice) I could not pick them up by myself.  And, I was not impressed with the way Moto Guzzi screwed plastic all over the bike, which needed to be removed for even the most basic service.  

Meanwhile I had been watching with great interest the transformation of Royal Enfield from a niche retrobike builder to maker of modern motorcycles that match any new motorcycle for build quality and reliability.  My first big bike was a 1968 and 1/2 (yes really) Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor.  

My biggest gripe with the Norge was that it was too heavy and the plastic body too vulnerable for extended gravel touring.  Meanwhile back on the highway, things were getting too stupid with the proliferation of factory built monster trucks on Alberta's highways, all going  120 kmh or more.  Ironically even though  these beyond silly new pickup trucks are supposedly off road capable 4X4s, the best place to get away from them is on gravel roads. 

When Royal Enfield made the Himalayan bad road travel bike available in Alberta, they got my attention. 

The Internet and You Tube have become my first go to source of information for just about anything, and there was plenty 411 on the Himalayan 411, which Royal Enfield had been selling all over the world except Canada since 2016.  The price was right, about what I would expect to pay for a good used  newer bike, but I wondered about the very low advertised maximum horsepower (24!). The you tubers who had actually bought the bike and ridden it for a while all loved it.   Most of them were older, mostly brits riding in Jolly Old, where you do not really need a lot of power or speed, because you could drop the entire country in Alberta and lose it. With 57 million people England is either city or suburb,  no matter how fast a bike can go for how long, you will never get a chance to find out in England.  There were a few also old guy  American and Australian owner reviews, and their consensus was. so long as you stay on gravel or otherwise pavement-less roads you will be happy.  That suited me fine as I was finding paved highways increasingly less a place I wanted to be on a motorcycle.  All the reviews praised the sturdiness of the build, reliability, amazing fuel mileage and range, the comparatively low seat height all of which said, this is the bike for me.

After nearly two seasons riding, 10,000 Km, a rear tire and two oil changes later, I can confirm that the old guys got it right.  I find the Himalayan to have the right combination of new tech, electronic fuel injection, ABS and ignition, with old school ease of maintenance.  While it would be nice to have more power, it is perfectly adequate for the city and unpaved roads.  It is fast enough to reach posted speed limits,  which are ignored in Alberta, so stay off the major highways if you don't like being passed by just about everyone, including Korean sub compacts.  At my steadily increasing advannced age, this is not a problem.  Handling, suspension and brakes are excellent, especially on unpaved or busted pavement.

The biggest bonus of the Himalayan is the amazing fuel mileage.  I reset the trip odometer at every fill up,  fuel gauge will read empty after 280 Km, but you have at least another 100 Km to find a gas station.  When the fuel guage hits empty the odometer starts telling you how far you have gone since the fuel gauage went to empty, this is pretty standar for any FI motorcycle.  Although I find it annoying that the countdown starts so soon, I understand the reason for it, if you run your tank on actual empty more than occasionally  you can damage the fuel pump.  The gas tank supposedly holds 15 liters, aka, not a lot. The most I have ever pumped into it is 13 and a bit liters with close to 400 Km from full on the trip meter.

In gas station challenged rural Alberta you need to have a good idea on how far you can go without completely running out of gas, the Himalayan will definitely take you 400 Km unless you are running WFO, which you will be doing if you want to stay with the Korean subcompacts on the highways that are most travelled.  Which while we are on that topic, the Himalayan will do apparently forever, but if that is how you are going to ride it, you will probably be happier with a different bike. 

About the only thing I really don't like is the horrible user interface for the electonic display, clock and ABS de-activation, a three button abortion requiring one to know the difference between a long press, short press, dual press, and  remember when to use which.  Fortunately the trip reset is easiest, requiring only a long press, and is the only one I use frequently.  I hate this type of control, lifted straight off a ten dollar digital watch. A useful tip, which took me the longest to discover is that when you are in fuel countdown mode and want to know how far you actually went, if you are using the trip meter to estimate how much gas you got, a short press briefly displays trip mileage before reverting to countdown mode.

Himalayan in its preferred environment

Almost immediately after buying it I installed a top case and two small Givi sadlebags and one of those removable roto-molded auxiliary fuel tanks, which holds about 5 liters of gas.  With the extra fuel tank mounted and full the Himlayan has a range of at least 600 Km.  I chose the  'cruiser' style Givis, for their narrowness, but they are also flimsy, which I am less happy about,  I don't think they will survive any kind of crash. They are not built to the usual Givi standard of sturdiness, and  don't hold much, but I prefer them to wider bags for general maneuvarability.  The top case is Givi made but not Givi brand that is up to the build standard I expect from Givi, and I am happy with it.  

Royal Enfield has announced a new upgraded Himalayan that is rated at 40 horsepower.  I won't be in a hurry to trade mine for the new version, for now I am OK with mine, I like the way it looks, and from the pictures I have seen I don't care for the new one's appearance, but it may look better in the flesh. I really like the simplicity of my Himalayan, which is a refreshing step back from needless gimmickry, intrusive electronics and displays, and user unfriendly maintenance tasks.   Apparently RE improved the electronic control thingy, but we will seel, I just bought a new tire for my himalayan so I will need to get my money's worth out of it.