Royal Enfield put out the information of the highly awaited Himalayan a couple of days ago and it has resulted in a storm in the biking community for different reasons.
What happens when a company releases details of a highly awaited motorcycle? The viewers get divided into two clans and clash of titans ensues. Something similar happened recently as Royal Enfield released the details of the motorbike marking its foray into adventure touring, the Himalayan. While one group of people loved the way the bike has come out, the other group disagrees and are disappointed. So much so that they found out a small flaw in the promotional video and made memes out of it.
The Indian bikemaker roped in rally legend CS Santosh to help test the Himalayan so as to ensure that it meets the demands of its target audience. The man who is used to putting a bike in the harshest of conditions was all set to torture test the new machine as well. In the development stages, it is known that parts may break of fail on the bike as that is the purpose of the testing, to test every part in the most extreme way possible so as to deliver a reliable product.
The video showing CS Santosh put the Royal Enfield Himalayan through its paces shows him jumping off a bump and the right side foot peg breaks when he lands. Screenshots of the same were taken and the same spread across faster than light. However, the company was fast to react on social media and ensured that the part breaking was a part of torture testing and that it has been replaced on the production version. Not only this, the company’s CEO, Mr. Siddharth Lal who himself has been very involved in the whole process took to Twitter to inform that the foot pegs have been fixed.
With the supposed quality issue case closed, it is time to look at the other details that are out there and understand what the Himalayan is all about? It is not a typical Royal Enfield bike as it gets completely different styling, a new engine as well as other mechanical components and it doesn’t have the characteristic thump in the exhaust note too (check video below). It is a motorcycle designed for the ones who like to venture out into uncharted territories and in that sense, it will fulfil its purpose very well.
