Royal Enfield Himalayanists

🤣🤣 Plenty of room to ride! Could in theory touch my right elbow but hardly. Not been brave enough to take it out on the road yet though 🤣

TKC 80’s 👍🏻 🛞

Yeah, I may try just the bottom one and see what that looks like.
Or there is a generic Acerbis type MX one that fits I believe.

Anybody see the Royal Enfield Super Meteor on the Motorbike show on the tele?? Quite a nice looking sled

Each to their own, it looks good untill you get to those upside down forks that look like they’ve been borrowed off a Chinese ‘sports’ 125.

I just rode up the Ridgeway for 90 mins. Basically I was chugging along like I have been in the garden but looking for as many rain ruts as I could find. These are my nemesis on all forms of bike but especially so on a M/C as sometimes when following the centre rut, the ruts either side can be so deep you’d never be able to save a fall.
So I just aimed for the worst bits I could find. It was quite good fun but one chalky ascent beat me as it was narrow and over axle deep.

Then coming home, I took a byway I know from the MTB is awful for about two miles.

I did okay, but even better I had a few hiccups that I was either able to save with a dab or I was able to re-start whilst stood up.
Eventually I was able to let the centre rut steer the bike for me at times.

I have zero proper dirt bike experience. I went mtb- quad bike- moped- car as a kid.
Back along when I had a VStrom, Tenere and 1150gs I used to do a few lanes, Byways and gravel tracks but got disillusioned a bit.
So this time around I’m gonna try and enjoy actually learning something.
And despite its weight the Himmy seems pretty forgiving so far.

Wearing the MX boots helped with the confidence but strewth- it makes trying to use the back brake with any finesse almost pointless 🤣

Oh and I saw a squad of Mtb’ers and the whole lot ignored my hellos 🤣🤣🤣🤣

sometimes when following the centre rut, the ruts either side can be so deep you’d never be able to save a fall.

Ummmmm….
So, this happened when I just went out for a quick leisurely blast before dinner. 😳

The lane started out completely innocuous. Just gravel and nice grass with some easily sideline-able dry ruts.

Then it got a bit worse and I should have turned back.

Then it got a bit more worserer, and I really should have turned back.

I thought I could just gently sneak to the side of this massive trench. I suppose being a mountainbiker I didn’t really think that much of it.

Then my front wheel went and the bike was on its side.
It was only when I tried to lift it back up that it slid sideways and down into that uber-rut.
I couldn’t stop it.

Everything I tried to get it out just took the bike deeper. I tried to drive it out but it just dug itself deeper and now the exhaust was underwater and filling up.

I had absolutely zero purchase on the ground. I was almost waist deep in the rut, one boot came off and there was just not enough strength in me to move that 200kg out at all.
I struggled for ages just not knowing what the hell to do, and heard a tractor in the distance.

Left the bike and walked out of the lane and eventually found the tractor. It was a really busy evening farm operation and the guy was really hesitant to say that he could help. Said he’d try and get someone on the radio and drove off. All I needed was a bit of a pull.

Meanwhile I called my bro in law, who was happy to come and help but was half hour away.

The tractor guy came past eventually (there had been a steady stream of them with massive loads of….farmy stuff coming past but nobody stopped) and he basically said they were flat out and couldn’t help.

Bro in law turned up after a while and we made our way up the lane. With just brute force we hoiked the back end out of the ditch a little and tried to wedge a log under the back wheel.
Then we dragged the front up a bit (the kickstand and pegs were digging deep into the mud) and then the back a bit more, then the front, then the back.

Eventually we managed to pull it clear and get it upright. I was able to start it and give it a blast to blow the water out.

I thanked him profusely. I owe him big.
I carried on the rest of the lane keeping well away from any more ruts and texted him when I’d got to the road.

Holy carp. That was a little more excitement than I needed on a school night.

Lesson learned. Don’t be cocky, and only attempt stuff like that with company!
😂

You can all call me an idiot now 😊👍

Wow, that’s another proper adventure 🤣🤣

It’s crazy how fast things can go wrong isn’t it!
Well done on getting it out- glad you’re both okay 😮‍💨

Cheers. I think I need some of those TKC80s too. The stock tyres are not much up on slicks.

I did ponder just walking off and leaving the bike forever to become a fossil, I was so embarrassed about having to ask for help 😂

Was lovely after that at least.

Excellent story, the Himalayas seem to be very good bits of kit but maybe a winch as well as knobblies?

Chatting to a guy in northern Sweden years ago about snowmobile crashes and he said it isn’t the crash that kills you, it’s the heart attack trying to free the bloody thing afterwards!

Thanks for making me laugh. It reminds me of one of those cartoons of someone stepping in a puddle and disappearing up to their neck.
Glad you got out and sorry about the schadenfreude 🙂
The new bike looks great and could almost tempt me to ride a motorbike.

Wow!  No water in the engine? Whereabouts is the air intake on these? Looks like the exhaust was close to swallowing a load of water.  I might have been tempted to crank it over with the spark plug removed before trying to start it.  Fair play that it seemed to take it all in its stride though.  Proper adventure bike!

Kayak you mentalist 😆 🤣
There has to be some kinda prize for giving it a go. 👍
Glad the bike was OK though,and the only thing damaged was your pride 😃
This summer the Midlands….Next year Dakar 😉

At the very least, a crack at this 😎 🤣

Nice😆

Reminds me of that Danny Mac video from a few years back.

Just to be clear, I didn’t try to ride through the puddle like Danny Mac, the bike slipped into it sideways 😉👊

The air intake is behind the Lh side panel but I don’t think that ever got low enough to be submerged.

The exhaust did though. Sounded like a Venice motor launch!

It started no issue and I let it burble a bit before giving it a rev to clear the water.

It drove home without issue about 30 minutes.

the bike slipped into it sideways

Of course it did 🙂

I took one out for a demo today, partly off the back of reading this thread. I really enjoyed it, felt smoother than I expected and was nice and light, dead easy to ride. I found I was using the gears a lot but the lack of power was not an issue most of the time. Took it on a short bit of potholey gravelly road, and some cobbles but nothing too adventurous.

I don’t think it would work for me as my only bike. It really felt like a great second bike for weekend exploring and getting muddier than usual (as demonstrated above!). It made 30mph fun, which is good. But I wouldn’t want to do all day/hundreds of road miles on it, without at least an extra gear.

Now weighing up whether to look at something else to trade my V Strom in for. It’s a great bike, but I really want something with more character. My head says keep it as it does what I need very well (and maybe look at upgrading suspension and tarting it up), but…

They had a Kawasaki Z900RS in there which looked lovely. Maybe I’ll just save up a bit longer and try some other bikes.

Yeah that makes sense. I used to love my VStrom as a mid range tourer. But there is no way I’d have spent an hour trying to ride back and forth along a 12ft piece of 4×2 in the garden as I did this evening 🤣🤣

Also practiced doing rolling dismounts and pulling away from standing alongside the bike 🤣🤣

(Basically the things she goes over in this vid: )

I joined up with a group from Facebook yesterday, a Himalayan group for an organised ride in Shropshire.

Never met them of course and arriving at the service station meet point I quickly felt massively out of my depth! 😳

There was only three of them and actually only one on a Himalayan.
His Himalayan was absolutely awesome looking. Big knobblies, loads of navigation stuff, single high front guard etc. Sounded mint too with a Lextek pipe.

I was bricking it to be honest looking at their bikes, having only had my bike two weeks and last week being buried up to my waist with it.

I had the standard tyres on which are little more then road tyres.
Be gentle with me!,I said.

Well, it felt like we must have been down every single track lane and byway in Shropshire. Luckily it was pretty dry and so the tyre situation could have been worse. A lot of really overgrown singletrack, trying to keep it on line, some really steep descents that I would blast down on the MTB, but on a 200kg motorcycle with road tyres and abs that I hadn’t worked out how to turn off, it was frikkin scary!

Did a crazy steep uphill too, which afterwards the guy leading said he went into and then suddenly remembered that I was behind him with limited experience and road tyres 😂

I actually got up it really well, and I honestly think that a lot of the skills you have in MTB transfer over well.

Absolutely knackered at the end of the day. Their pace was a bit high for me to enjoy all the absolutely gorgeous places we rode all around the Long Mynd area. I normally have to take loads of photos on rides, but only got the chance for a couple on this.

Anyway, incredibly impressed with how the bike handled it all. It made absolute sense here. Ground clearance could do with being better, better tyres obvs, and more practise needed.
The bike made slightly less sense on the 1.5hrs of motorway home.
Much harder when you’re tired and need a cup of tea. 😊

Ah wicked. That looks like an awesome day out.

I’m just doing the dogs before heading out to a beach or three 🏍️ 💨

Do you know what high guard he had fitted?

No, just looked like a fairly standard trail bike mud guard really

Just stopped for a pasty and ice cream at Swanage 😋
Filtered down the chain ferry queue and got on as the ramp was about to be lifted 🤣😎 Beautiful.

That was a fun ride. Another 250 miles. Real mix of everything from rutted byways to gravel, to C roads, B roads and A roads up to dual carriageway.

It was literally only the dual carriageway it was out-gunned but that’s fine as it’s not too hard to plan a funner route.

I purposely aimed for a 2 mile section of ruts on the way home across the Plain (one that I used to hate on my XTZ) and the garden drills are definitely paying off. Even after 6.5hrs in the saddle, I was able to clear them no bother.
The only annoying thing was worrying about my pegs rubbing the sides in places but mainly because I’d compromised and worn ankle boots.

The only slight issue to sort is a rattly heat shield type noise. It made me sound very uncool through the towns 🤨 🤣🤣

Easy loose bolt to find and tighten. Hopefully will be cured now.

I took the full pannier set today and I’m glad I did. It meant I could lock literally everything I was wearing other than my cycling shorts and T shirt and go for lunch un-encumbered by hot gear.
I remembered to take my cheap fake croc things too to wear.

The only annoying thing was worrying about my pegs rubbing the sides in places

Yeah, ground clearance isn’t the best.
I’ve ridden motorbikes most of my life but always hated biker gear, so never had boots or anything. Now though, I can see how they are a must riding ruts etc, so got a pair the other day.

Ah nice one. Yeah it almost feels inevitable that you’re gonna drop what is a pretty heavy bike on your lower leg at some point and I’m still getting over the last time I broke both my fibulas 🤣

I need to make a puncture plan too. When I changed tyres I put sealant in the old tubes as a ‘maybe it will do something’ option.

I like the idea of some 45g co2 cartridges if I can find some. But with tubes it would mean carrying:
-Enough decent tools to get the wheels off.
-Tyre levers
-puncture repair kit and/or two inner tubes
And
-2x 45g co2 cartridges and or an electric pump.

A not inconsiderable bundle of gear.

One idea I saw and liked is just taking ten big cable ties to hold the tyre on the rim to get you back to civilisation.
Realistically, the state of the ByWay network means you’re never *too* far from a road (I’ve got RAC cover with my insurance) so whacking a few cable ties on and limping out to a main road should be achievable most of the time.

I need to make a puncture plan too. When I changed tyres I put sealant in the old tubes as a ‘maybe it will do something’ option.

I like the idea of some 45g co2 cartridges if I can find some. But with tubes it would mean carrying:
-Enough decent tools to get the wheels off.
-Tyre levers
-puncture repair kit and/or two inner tubes
And
-2x 45g co2 cartridges and or an electric pump.

A not inconsiderable bundle of gear.

I’ve got a couple of these tool tubes that you can get from ebay etc for around a tenner.

They’re pretty good.

I actually smashed one of mine off the other day when I fell into that trench above up there.

But until then, I had a spare tube in there (you can get away with one spare tube, as it’ll do either wheel in an emergency despite the different sizes) and a couple of tyres levers and a small bike pump(hard work but no reason you’d not get enough in to limp away)

Mind you, I’ve not changed a motorcycle tyre myself before so I imagine it’s an absolute mare of a job compared to an mtb.

I had the tool tubes mounted behind my pannier racks but that might change as I have bought a cheapy universal pannier rack off ebay because I don’t think I need something so elaborate for just medium sized soft panniers, plus I may take them off when not in use.

Accidentally ordered the Lextek silencer today too after following the Himalayan fitted with one at the weekend. Oops.

Oh yeah good shout on the tool tube 👍🏻

Changing the tyres wasn’t too bad it seemed. Easier than the XT rims.

Not a quick fix though.

Out again on the Ridgeway this evening. Working on loose gravel rather than ruts.
This time I was in second gear and aiming for the deepest gravel patches I could find and really trying to keep the bars relaxed.

I was consciously trying to grip the bike between my legs whilst ‘steering’ (I know, I know, you can jump up and down on a foot peg as hard as you like and it does not technically change direction without a counter-steering input but you know what I mean 🤣) with my feet/body weight and keeping my hands and arms as light as possible.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is bog standard stuff but it felt really good and for the first time since starting to play around on ADV type bikes I was able to have a bit of fun and go where I wanted rather than nervously bumping along on top. I was riding sections way faster and cleaner than I ever have before.
Obvs pride comes before a fall so I just need to keep a lid on my expectations and remember getting me and the bike home intact is always number one priority but it was definitely fun feeling like I’d actually gotten better at something.

Sounds great.
I went for a quick blast on mine, just on the road, but then I couldn’t help myself and went down this byway I know. It’s horrendous in winter because of (who else?) 4x4s, but just about passable this time of year.

No kit on or owt, but it’s so nice being able to do these little off road bits on what would otherwise just be a road ride.

One minute I was riding down an overgrown path with ruts and across a field, next I was in the next town in Saino’s picking up some Houmous 😂

🤣🤣🤩 Yeah they’re definitely like motorised gravel bikes in that respect. (At the 1x and 650b end of the spectrum 🤣)

A little numberplate/tail tidy change trying to use all of the original bits from the bike.

Original look of numberplate and tail tidy with Enfield panniers (not my bike)

Royal Enfield pannier racks removed as I intend to get more minimal ones as I only need soft luggage plus they get in the way of the rear fender numberplate mounting option.
Removed tail tidy and removed numberplate light.

Drilled a hole in the back of the numberplate light assembly, allowing me to bolt it to the fender with the nut hidden by the tail tidy. Wiring routed through original hole, tiny bit of material ground out from numberplate light to allow cable to lie flat the other way.
Indicators relocated up to the fender.

Tail tidy cut down to just longer than where it bolts to the fender via two bolts at the side.

New 7×5” plate drilled for two bolts fairly low down so that access to the nuts is possible below the end of the tail tidy.

Approx 10mm rubber spacers between the plate and the fender to stand it off from the numberplate light wire that’s laying behind the plate.

Job done. Looks so much better imho, and only a little bit illegal with the smaller plate. 😊👍

Nice! I like that 😎

I can’t stop going for little rides down little lanes 😊
Really enjoying the bike, much more then I thought I would, what with the engine down sizing.

Yeah, it definitely defies logic.

I clicked on the tool tube with a lock bracket and didn’t realise it was the bigger size so I’m not actually sure I can find a home for it 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣
May replace an ammo pouch on the front rack with it.

More mucking about in the garden earlier. Walking alongside the bike whilst inching it forward with the clutch, balancing the bike off of its stand and moving all the way 360degrees around it with just finger pressure, right side dismounts, full lock circles and that sort of stuff.
Then I thought sod it and took it to fill it up with petrol via about 5 miles of Byways each way 🤣

There’s a little ‘whoop’ section and I could barely get the front to lift on the throttle. To be fair, my XT didn’t used to either so I ended up fitting a smaller front sprocket on that but I’m not sure I want the Himmy to be any slower 🤣

There was one moment where I came into a turn a bit hot and grabbed a handful of front brake without thinking but the ABS cut in which was kind of good and kind of bad as it of course started accelerating again 🤣 Prob best leave the fuse in for now 🤣

Sounds like you’re getting some good skills practise in. I recognise most of what you’re doing from that video the lady did. Worth doing I reckon.

Prob best leave the fuse in for now 🤣

I don’t believe you can just remove the fuse on the Euro 5 bikes as the ECU wotsit is different to the older bikes.

I’ve tried the sequence for turning mine off but no idea if it worked or not. It resets itself every time you switch the engine off though annoyingly.

Yeah I just want some muscle memory so when things go pear shaped up a narrow, bramble filled lane with angry horse riders or in front of a load of 4×4’s or any other scenario- I can get out of a pickle smoothly and quickly 😀

Ah okay- I know Fortnine does it to the Scram in that dunes vid but not sure which engine he was reviewing.
I can get my ABS cutout to work. Ignition on, hold button for 5 secs, release, start engine.
But that’s rear brake only.

This vid has some variations on the same ideas too.

I can get my ABS cutout to work. Ignition on, hold button for 5 secs, release, start engine.
But that’s rear brake only.

It’s pretty annoying really as I found them other day while riding with the group, you tend to kill the bike and restart it quite a lot.

Quite often you’d have gates that were slightly downhill, so you’d want to leave it in gear and kill the engine so you could leave the bike on the sidestand without it rolling away.

Resetting the abs every time becomes a pain.

Does it reset if you turn off the bike with the kill switch but don’t turn off the ignition switch?