The Royal Enfield Himalayan is currently priced between Rs 1.91 – 1.95 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), and comes equipped with a 411 cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine
The Royal Enfield Himalayan is one of the most affordable adventure-tourer motorcycles in the Indian market right now, and for what it’s worth, it also certainly is one of the most value for money off-roading motorcycles in the country. However, the lack of power makes it an inferior on-road tourer as compared to its rivals.
Royal Enfield fans have been asking the automaker to build a bigger twin-cylinder Himalayan for so long, however, RE seems to have some other plans for the near future. Hence, Manpreet Singh aka Gola bhai, the owner of Sehgal Autos workshop in Patiala, Punjab, decided to take the matters in his own hands.
In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Abhinav Bhatt takes a first ride on a parallel-twin Royal Enfield Himalayan built by Manpreet. With no work during the lockdown, Manpreet decided to try his hand at building a twin-cylinder Royal Enfield Himalayan, probably the first in the entire world.
For this project, he took a 400 cc DOHC parallel-twin engine from a 90s Suzuki GS400e lying around in his garage. This engine can put out 39 hp of maximum power, a massive 15 hp more than what the stock RE Himalayan produces, while the 28 Nm peak torque remains unchanged. The engine is mated to a 6-speed transmission, unlike the 5-speed gearbox on the standard Himalayan.
With some tweaks to the Himalayan’s chassis, the engine fit perfectly in its body. The modified bike is running two 36 mm Mikuni carburetors, and has some other tweaks made to it as well, which are explained by the owner in the video. According to Bhatt, the bike revs clean, makes linear power, and being a twin-cylinder, does not vibrate at all.
As shown in the video, the motorcycle can now be ridden at 140 kmph all day long without any stress to the motor. The owner says that the top speed that he achieved on this twin-cylinder Himalayan was 150 kmph, which is certainly more than what the stock Himalayan can do.