Royal Enfield Himalayanists

Nice one 🤩 Looks fun 👍🏻

No riding here. Getting withdrawal symptoms 🤣

Hopefully life will be realigned by next week 🤞🏻

Nice pics all!  Will have to get out and take a few myself…

Meanwhile, returning to the question of the screen, I’ve fitted a cheap adjustable extender from Ebay.  I’ve realised that the adjustment is quick enough that if you want to drop it down during a ride (say, for an off-road section) then you can do so in about 30 seconds.

Up: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XLNrkJJV_AgHwKVvrwuuDJcN0M8vcOC2/view?usp=sharing

Down:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XPOGsW67wdfqUTSEfXDGIBZ2-fSAaHVy/view?usp=sharing

Neato. Looks like a good solution.
I’ve got one of the other types.

In place of the 4 little m6 grub screws used to attach it to the screen, I’ve fitted 4 m6 thumb screws, which means I can flip it upside down mostly out of the way such as yours, or remove it completely nice and quick without tools.

Removing it completely is my preferred option as off road, there is actually a fair bit of weight in the thing wanging about everywhere.

Really nice to have that extension on a long journey though 😊👍

Noraly rides the incoming, pre production version 450 Himalayan in Ladakh.

Wow, I think that tank might just be the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen 🤮🤮🤮

https://youtu.be/XKibLgw6JJ4?si=_rxOlTMfg6Pb35NY

Could have been a great upgrade but they’ve really ruined what was special about how the original bike looked.

Yeah, I said similar on Weeksy’s forum. Even if they’ve addressed the flaws with the original- it’s no longer got the classic British bike look 😞

the flaws with the original

Sorry, what flaws? 😉😂

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well, it appears to go well & Nora Batty seems to like it, maybe they’ll give her one long-term when they start production? I imagine the only issue will be the price and how it compares to European offerings. Personally I couldn’t give a monkey’s about the looks, loaded up it’s fine.

Personally I couldn’t give a monkey’s about the looks, loaded up it’s fine

I do unfortunately. It’s a cross I have to bear 😂
But yeah, part of the appeal of a bicycle, motorcycle or a lot of things, to me anyway, is how they look too.
I think that’s true for a lot of people, whether they admit it or not.

The original is absolutely refreshing to me. Understated and looks like it’s been designed with paper and pencil, rather than some cad programme that fits as many angles and facets in as possible until it looks like a Transformer.

If it was a completely new model I think I’d be less surprised, but looking at the design language of Royal Enfield across the range past and present, this one is something of an ugly duckling imho.

I’ll look forward to seeing one in the flesh though. Despite all these teaser images, we’ve still not really seen a decent picture set of one, and so maybe it’s not as fugly as it initially seems.

They have a bit of a pricing problem too. Triumph have come in hot with their new 400’s.
The Scrambler 400 X is going to be £5595 otr.
And the roadster sub £5k.

My hunch is that RE are going to have to knock a huge chunk off of their intended launch price to compete with that.

The Scrambler 400 X is going to be £5595 otr.

Not really the same sort of bike is it?
Road bike with an off road look, by the look of it.

Can’t see the new Himalayan being more than that really. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Gorgeous Sunday sunny blast this afternoon into the Cotswolds.

Weston Sub Edge

Pumpkin pie. Snowshill

Snowshill

Kineton

Guiting Power

A gentle pootle north of here for me. Couple of photos taken on Manmoel Common:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z8aTh9nC_DxpXc1z5PXKj4CnDDDnTwVd/view?usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZqzsK_zeNf4V9NkyS8oTNeybIG0IT_07/view?usp=drive_link

PhilO

Noice 👍

What crash bar bags you got?

They’re a rather elderly pair of Carradice cotton duck front panniers that I bought in the late ’90’s. It must have been a very short-lived model, ’cause I’ve never seen another pair and can’t find any reference to them online.

Ah right.
I’ve just ordered some Lomo ones to try.
£12 cheaper as a pair than the single Rhinowalk 6l bag I bought to house my puncture tools.

Lovely pics both of you 🤩
After completing all the within-reach TET I can do without staying out overnight, I took a break from the bike and have been messing around in the sea, catching bass from my Paddleboard and spearing my first fish with a snorkel and pole spear 🤣
Work has gotten a bit more serious too but I really do need to schedule a slot each week even if it’s just doing some skillz sessions around the local Common. Miss the braaaaapage.

👆 You’ve got an awful lot of green lanes down your way.
Not TET, but loads of routes you could put together.

Here’s a few zoomed out.

Oh for sure. That’s what I’ll do over the winter etc

I used to put 100 mile loops together when I had my XT660z back in the day and much of that wasn’t what I now know to be TET .

But for me, half the fun of the TET is following a route someone else has created and being like “oh wow, that comes out there!” about places I thought I knew 😀

I’ve just ordered some Lomo ones to try.

I’ve not tried those, but I have a couple of duffel bags from Lomo and they’re well made so hopefully they’ll be good.

On the subject of Rhinowalk stuff, has anybody tried their ‘pannier base’?

Universal Saddle Bag Mounting Base

Or the similar-pattern panniers?

Waterproof Motorcycle Pannier Side Bag 18/28/48L – Pair/Rackless

I’ve not seen those but they look pretty good if you’re not running the standard pannier racks.

I have a pair of medium Lomo panniers which originally I used with the standard pannier rack, but I have since removed that rack as I don’t intend to use hard cases and they weigh a ton.

I now have fairly minimal and cheap bag supports from eBay that will work with the Lomo bags.

Better off road too. I like the look of that bag base though. The Rhinowalk bags are pretty nicely made. Actually a fair bit more expensive than Lomo who I’ve used for years as a kayaker.

Here’s my eBay pannier supports.

By the way, I’m joining a ride around the Peak from Buxton Saturday morning with Grims Himalayan Facebook group.
Nice bunch of riders.
Anyone very welcome if they fancied joining. Unlikely to be anything overly gnarly, but it’s the Peak, so plenty of rocks. 👍

Returning to the subject of the panniers on my crash bars, I still haven’t found any reference to the Carradice ones, but I have found these, which look almost identical save for being made from recycled tarpaulin: https://upsobags.co.uk/product-category/bike-bags/potters-pannier-small/

ETA: And I’ve just twigged that they share Carradice’s address, so that’s probably not a coincidence! 🙂

They look good them, although the ‘hanging’ system definitely looks more suitable for a horizontal rear rack on a bicycle. The crash bars on the Himalayan are kind of all over the shop.

I’ve been spending too much money lately and have these to go on today 😊

Lomo crash bar bags, an Enfield Accessories gps mount thing and a Quadlock for the blower.

Hopefully it’s fairly easy to wire the gps mount in. I plan to piggyback onto the wires for the horn.

Nice one 😎 💼 💼 📱 🧭 

The Himalayan ride from Buxton has been cancelled because of the levels of rain and flooding.

Bit of a nightmare as I was halfway there, driving up to a campsite.

Localish one tomorrow then.

The Enfield Accessories gps mount is going to need some modifications unfortunately I think.

With the Quadlock mount on there, plus the vibration dampener thingy on it, my phone is right at the top, maybe slightly higher than the top of the standard screen so not ideal really.

Wiring it in, I had heard that many people will wire a USB port into the horn wiring but I tried that temporarily and couldn’t get anything working.

I’m certainly no 12v electrical expert, but surely the horn only gets power when the handlebar switch is pressed, presumably completing the circuit?
Maybe you take the power wire from the horn but earth it to something besides the horn earth? 🤔 Just thinking out loud.

Anyway, I ended up taking a feed from the side light wires inside the headlight shell which felt much neater too. They are switched so only on when the ignition is on plus the USB itself has a little on off switch.

I’ll have to fiddle with modifying the bar height later.
Time to get muddy 😊

If you go back to page 10 you can see what I did with the 5 litre bottles in the Lomo bags. It gives them enough rigidity to stop them flapping around when they’re empty. Also stops you from having to undo the straps to make room for stuff every time you want to put something in there.

I still really need a Quad Lock, I was hoping for some kind of black Friday sale but maybe I should stop being tight.

I haven’t been riding. Originally because of a hip injury that makes it really uncomfortable to sit on the bike but then a few weekends with family obligations. Before you know it the months are stacking up.

I definitely won’t be going anywhere this weekend. I’m home alone with junior but also there’s floods and closed roads everywhere. It’ll be a bit dramatic out there I think.

Yeah, hence why our ride up there was cancelled. Looks pretty terrible. Hope everything is ok for you.

We’re fine because we’re on a hill but we’re really close to some serious damage. Going out for a walk now that it’s stopped raining to see what’s going on nearby.

Well, that was a good ride out but maybe a little bit too character-building for me today.

I ended up making a route in Warwickshire and into Northamptonshire, down towards Silverstone.

I knew the ground might be a bit challenging here and there what with all the rain we’ve had and it being generally on the muddy side in middle England, but yeah. I think I was lucky to not get stuck again, and stuck badly.

Started off from home, with some nice lanes around Warwickshire. Muddy fields and cow poo.

Started down this ominous looking section. Lots of heavy grass, flooded ruts and mud.

After about the third one of these…

… I thought, nope. I need to be sensible here. I’m on my own and if I get stuck… I’m on my own.

So I started trying to turn round. Christ it was hard. There were basically 3 really slippy and deep muddy ruts that I was trying to turn the bike around on. It’s just sooooo heavy and I was trying to drag the back end over towards me so that I could get it into the hedge, and then hopefully back out where I came from via a few more backs and forwards.

That didn’t happen though. I slipped in the rut while I was pulling and the bike fell down, me on my back and the bike on my leg.
I genuinely couldn’t pull my leg out. I tried pushing it off me with my free leg, but i just couldn’t get any purchase.
I was trying to wiggle my leg in the mud and work it loose but my leg was kind of between the gap in front of the pannier bag and side panel.
I weighed up my options and didn’t really have any. Absolutely exhausted and breathing heavily I took my helmet and gloves off and kind of thought, oh shit.
I did more heavy wriggling of my leg, turned over onto my front and pulled as hard as I could. My foot actually started coming out of my boot but eventually I was able to pull it through the muddy edge of the rut and get free, despite quite a painful pressure through my boot.
I’m bloody glad I got those mx boots now!
Sat for a bit, got my breath back and then got the bike up ready to struggle some more.

This photo is after I had turned round. I was between that trench and the one in the photo above it.

I managed to coax it through the middle of that with some momentum and paddling the ground.
Not enjoyable to be honest 😐

Marston Doles

Lovely little tarmac relics that nature was slowly reclaiming.

Railway bridges

This was a ford/river. The trail went round to the right and basically up the river about 100yds.

I didn’t know it so had no clue how deep it was and whether there might be any massive 4×4 ruts, plus it had been raining so heavily that it was likely to be deep.

I gave it a miss and went up the raised path on the side.

Next I was into this long section I had done before. It starts off a main road, drops steeply down a hill on a gravelly track before skirting a field edge. This is a section where 4x4s are allowed and so if course it had some pretty horrible ruts.

There was a fairly clean line on the left that went on for ages but it had a tendency to suddenly go deep and gnarly out of nowhere. It’s where I had fallen off before during the summer.

I started along it, all going ok, 2nd gear with a nice chilled pace. I was just thinking to myself that I was actually getting much more relaxed and competent in ruts.
Next thing, a big rut appeared and I went down! Picked up again and carried on.

I was choosing to ride the cleaner ground on the left of the main track which seemed much better, although it was a bit too close to the ditch along the side, so I was saying to myself to just chill and whatever you do, DON’T FALL IN THE DITCH!

Yup… I got cross-rutted again, fell left and rolled down the bank right into the flooded ditch!

Doh!
I quickly got out, soaked through my clothes on my left side, phone in pocket a bit soggy.
Got the obligatory photo.

This photo was just after a really horrendous section that I honestly didn’t know if I’d make it through. After a lot of hauling and pulling I managed it.

Turned out the next section was just as bad.

My first problem, going through the gate was that I just couldn’t leave my bike on its stand to go and shut the gate. Just kept sinking no matter where I put it.
Eventually found a spot where it was sinking slow enough for me to peg it back and shut the gate and get back to the bike at about 45 degrees 😂

This section was more horrible deep muddy ruts with nowhere to go at the sides, only through the worst of it.

I was trying to keep momentum and blasting through but the ruts were really deep and my pegs and gear change kept grounding out.

I got really stuck coming out the other side of one trench. Just couldn’t move it. Just got off the bike and it stayed there, supported by the rut on each side.

I tried jamming logs under the wheel but couldn’t physically get anything in there as the rut was so deep.
Got to the back of the bike, grabbing the luggage rack and with everything I had i just managed to lift the back end and shove it forward half a foot.
Just enough to start up and give it a bit while pushing.

After that, i was knackered. I’d actually fallen off maybe 2 or 3 other, inconsequential times so was doing a lot of power lifting which was tiring me out no end. I decided after that to just stick to the road and head home. No more claggy shitty lanes today!

Tank showroom at Brackley

Great day out, but not the wisest of rides for me today, on my own with a cold. 😬😂

The Scrambler 400 X is going to be £5595 otr.Not really the same sort of bike is it?Road bike with an off road look, by the look of it.

To an extent, yes, a bit of a green-lane bike. It’s certainly got me interested, especially at that price; the bike shop in town has a Trek e-bike that’s more expensive and that with the price reduced! I’ve never owned a motorbike, although my brother has had them since he was legally allowed to ride them, but I’ve had a liking for off-road styled bikes for donks, basically a mountain bike with an engine that I could ride a lot further and explore the little narrow lanes and BOATs/RUPPS that my neck of the woods has quite a lot of, and which some of the photos here have covered, across Salisbury Plain. I certainly wouldn’t be attempting anything like that last ride, kayak, I physically couldn’t deal with anything like that nowadays, I’d struggle attempting it on my old hooligan hardtail, and that only weighs around 30lb!

I’ll wait and see what sort of lump sum I get when all my pensions are finally glommed together, it would be a fun way of getting out without using the car, being able to take lanes that the car couldn’t handle, without needing a snorkel!

Also, I think it’s just a great looking bike, perfect for pootling around, I’ve no desire to look like a Power Ranger at my age! 🤣

Well, that was a good ride out but maybe a little bit to blah blah blah

Adventure is the word which springs to mind reading all that.

Ace.

Slightly OT but a really good feature in Classic Bike this month about a man and his XT500.

Great write up @kayak23 👌🏻👌🏻 Sounded pretty hellish 🤣🤣👍🏻👍🏻

I sometimes feel like I’ve cheated myself out of ‘fun’ by going for the Voge and Michelin Trackers. Then stuff like your story jogs my memory 🤣

Getting trapped under the bike is one of the very real problems about solo riding that makes it more of an extreme sport than the terrain suggests!
I had it on my XT first time around when I was wearing dealer boots. It took every ounce of strength and determination to get it off of me and was what prompted me to buy the boots I still have.
It’s one of the rare times being a big lad  helps maybe as I’m only wrestling something 1.5x  my weight rather  than 2.5 🤣🤣

I finally got out for some hero gravel today. Just nipped across the plain 20 or so miles each way to visit my mum.

I deliberately wore my ADV boots so I didn’t get tempted to go mad on my first ride back 🤣

Coming out the other end of my 2nd time with the Rona so not riding bicycles this weekend.
Thought I’d knock off a few more pictures from the photo challenge thing I’m doing.

Place in a Poem
Death in Leamington by John Betjeman

Film set location
The classic 1990 arthouse film, Three Men and a Little Lady
They used a country park near me and stuck a phonebox there for a scene in the movie with Tom Selleck

Brewery
Purity Brewery, Alcester, Warwickshire

Village water pump
A little two-spout job.
Kineton, Warwickshire

Nice little ride out for some air.
Stayed well away from any green lanes this time after last weekend! 😂

Jebus. How on earth did they make the tank so completely fugly?

Looks not too bad apart from the tank.

It’s enormous but apparently only holds 17 litres, I think because it houses other gubbins underneath.

Screen doesn’t look worth bothering with either.

Son#2 might be getting a 450,he likes the tank. 😆 👍