Marketplace Find of the Month: 2021 Royal Enfield Himalayan
It’s common for someone to be born in one country, move to another, and then, eventually, to take citizenship in their new homeland. But it’s very unusual for this to happen with industrial manufacturers. Especially when the product is closely aligned with its birthplace. Champagne from Wisconsin? Doesn’t sound right. What if Lamborghini, in a spat with Sant’Agata Bolognese over property tax rates, up and moved to Rome, Georgia? Not quite the same thing, and not to be confused with setting up facilities abroad—Honda has manufactured in the US since 1979 while maintaining its Japanese identity. But changing identities is exactly what Royal Enfield has done.
English Roots, Global Revival
Most every English motorcycle manufacturer of the last century has stayed true to its roots. It’s part of their charm. And part of the reason they all failed, before revivalists brought a select few back from the dead (Triumph, BSA, and Norton come to mind). And no English brand was more conservative than Royal Enfield. Royal Enfields were known for simplicity, longevity and ease of maintenance. Exactly what the Indian government was looking for when, in 1952, they ordered 800 Bullet 350 cc models for police use. The arrangement was such a success that Bullets began to be assembled under license in India in 1955 and, to this day, production continues decades after having ended in England. And despite struggles in the early 2000s, Royal Enfield has become one of the great successes of the motorcycle industry. In 2026 Royal Enfield is estimating production will reach two million motorcycles. Or, in other words, far more than KTM, BMW, and Ducati combined.
Joining the ADV Revolution
With success comes elevated expectations. Royal Enfield, realizing further growth would require a model beyond its classically-styled range, sought to join the burgeoning ADV-craze. The so-called ADV (acronym-speak for Adventure) motorcycle is a natural fit for Royal Enfield. While its homeland India is rapidly becoming a modern nation, India’s transportation infrastructure has yet to catch up, if my visit to New Delhi last year was at all an accurate barometer. On one stretch of road my Royal Enfield Interceptor (naturally) was nearly swallowed whole by a cow-sized pothole. A motorcycle with off-road and bad-road capability would surely be a hit. And the Himalayan, the motorcycle that resulted from Royal Enfield’s attempt to join modernity, has been just that.
The Mountain Goat
Styled by South African Pierre Terblanche, the man who brought us the sublime Ducati Supermono and the perplexing Ducati 999, the Himalayan, introduced in 2016, is anything but avant-garde. With a steel chassis and an air-cooled 411 cc single making a modest 24 horsepower, the Himalayan adheres to the blue-collar ethos of the brand while being its first model that isn’t unapologetically retro. A theme continued with the all-new second-generation Himalayan in 2023. For the redesign, the bike gained a larger 452 cc engine, an additional gear in the gearbox and, shockingly for Royal Enfield, water cooling. The result? A heady 40 hp. But don’t overlook the charms of the first-gen model, like our 2021 feature bike, currently up for sale on Cycle Trader and owned by Viktor Bojilov of Denver, Colorado.
Colorado is one of the great places to ride a motorcycle in America, and Bojilov had great plans to trek though most of it, though life, as life does, got in the way. Most of his traveling has been shorter two-and three-day jaunts. Bojilov spared no expense in outfitting the Himalayan in the “spirit of what I wanted to do,” he says ruefully, including outfitting the bike with an auxiliary Rotopax fuel tank which, Bojilov admits, isn’t really necessary as he routinely achieves a range of approximately 200 miles with the bike’s stock fuel tank.
Ready to Ride
Perhaps what’s most appealing about Bojilov’s Himalayan is that he’s spent the money on the bits you really want on an adventure bike. The bright red fuel cell certainly looks the business, but the hard bags, fresh tires plus sump and hand guards are really what you want. All this and it’s been exclusively dealer serviced, too. It’s not the cheapest Himalayan out there, but rather than buying a bike that’s merely an entry point to how you’d like to have one outfitted, better to buy one exactly the way you want it. For $5,000, I can’t think of a better fly-in, ride-home adventure.
Marketplace Inventory
Neil Graham
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