Kiwi Rider December 2023 Vol.1 | Page 69

the more modern lines to the integrated LED brake and indicator lights at the rear end . Royal Enfield let its designers go all out on the new Himalayan . At its centre is the all-new Sherpa 450 engine - a modern engine design that breaks away from all of Royal Enfield ’ s traditional norms . Gone is the traditional long stroke of the rest of Enfield ’ s range in favour of an overly square 84mm bore and 81.5mm stroke combination . The cylinder head moves to a DOHC design and the cylinder itself is now made of aluminium while critical components have received a DLC ( diamond-like carbon ) coating to reduce wear . The biggest moves however come in the cooling and gearbox . Air-cooling is now a thing of the past with the Sherpa 450 being the first Royal Enfield to utilise water cooling . This has allowed a bump in compression ratio from a wheezy 8.5:1 to 11.5:1 . The gearbox also moves into the 21st century with Enfield finally giving riders the sixth gear they ’ ve been wanting . It seems pretty clear that the new bike looks set to split the difference between the popular Honda CRF300 Rally and KTM 390 Adventure and offer
a bit of both worlds to riders wanting more power than the Honda but similar levels of tech to the KTM . While heavier than both , it carries its weight well and boasts features that will be incredibly tempting for riders wanting a smallcapacity adventure machine . Tubeless spoked wheels in 21 and 17-inch sizing will be standard in the global market ( interestingly India has yet to homologate tubeless spoked wheels ) while the new TFT Tripper dash is the first to integrate Google Maps directly onto the home screen . At 4-inches round ,
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