Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 is a comprehensive improvement over its predecessor, on most fronts.
One thing to particularly love about this motorcycle is the suspension. We rode it for 500+ kilometers, over 4 days. Here's everything you should know about it.
The new Royal Enfield Himalayan suspension setup is very interesting. It gets 43 mm Showa separate function USD forks at the front, and a Linkage type rear monoshock, also from Showa.
The rear suspension on this motorcycle offers preload adjustment.
The suspension has 200 mm travel at both ends- front and rear.
The first generation Himalayan, if you might recollect, had 200 mm at the front and 180 mm at the rear. The new motorcycle thus offers 20mm more rear travel.
The tuning of this suspension is brilliant. It feels equally brilliant on rough roads, terrains and out on the highways.
The motorcycle feels stable at high speeds, and delivers impressive damping and control on ruts and gravel.
Road manners too, is excellent. The new Himalayan feels stable around corners. You can be comfortably fast around turns.
The ride doesn't feel too soft, nor too firm. There is no excessive nose dive either. You feel quite connected when attempting fast turns.
This could, in our opinion, be the best suspension among all off-roaad capable motorcycles with comparable price tags.