Near-finished prototype looks production-ready – but is it a 650 or 750?
Royal Enfield’s long-awaited big-bore Himalayan-style adventure model is finally nearing completion, and we’ve caught a near-production prototype being tested in Europe.
Based on Royal Enfield’s air-cooled parallel twin, this model has been part of the company’s product plan since as early as 2022.
So far we’ve seen the 648cc, 35kW (47hp) twin in such models as the Continental, Interceptor, Shotgun, Meteor 650, Bear 650 and Classic 650.
It’s given a very different home in this model, which is expected to borrow the Himalayan name used previously on the 411cc and 450cc Himalayan singles and possibly displace 750cc. It dispenses with the retro style of all Royal Enfield’s current twin-cylinder models, opting instead for a modern approach to its chassis design and styling. There’s a monoshock at the back, where all the other twins use dual coilovers, and an upside-down front fork. The frame is still a tubular steel design, but a modern design rather than Royal Enfield’s more usual retro style.
The bike pictured here runs a 19-inch front wheel but as the Himalayan 450 has a 21-inch front, we expect two versions of this bike to appear in showrooms. One would be more road oriented. The round LED headlight and tallish windscreen are similar to what appears on the 450.
The engine is somewhat of a mystery, despite its apparent familiarity. Royal Enfield is known to be developing a higher-powered version of the twin, expected to clock in at 750cc rather than 650cc, which will be launched later this year in the expected Continental GT-R, a faired, cafe-racer version of the Continental GT. While based on the existing Continental GT’s chassis, the GT-R gets dual front brakes instead of a single disc, reflecting its added performance, and we’ve seen prototypes festooned with datalogging cables connected to the updated 750cc engine.
While the Himalayan-style twin spied here lacks any sign of such datalogging, suggesting it might use the familiar 650 twin rather than the new 750 version, it does feature dual front brake discs, hinting that it has a performance hike compared to the 650s. In theory this could easily exceed 40kW (53hp).
Until definitive information emerges, either in the form of an announcement by Royal Enfield or leaked type-approval documents including specifications, we’re left guessing as to the engine’s actual size and performance level. As well as the proposed 750 version of the engine, even bigger 850cc variants have already been made – including one used in an adventure-style one-off that Royal Enfield demonstrated at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. That bike was not intended to be a preview of the new Himalayan, but certainly shared some tech and styling cues with the upcoming machine.
If it does displace the 750cc, we expect Royal Enfield to bring out a new range of models using this capacity.
From the look of this prototype, we won’t be in the dark for long. At the very latest, Royal Enfield is expected to unveil the new model towards the end of 2025 as a 2026 model.
A BIG IDEA THAT WORKS
ROYAL ENFIELD’S one-off adventure bike was a standout at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Built as a joint project with UK’s Death Spray Custom, it paid homage to the Dakar Rally bikes of the late 1980s. The 650cc twin was punched out to 850cc but no details were provided on whether this was a simple overbore or it had been stroked. A large fuel tank and slab fairing extended down to the engine’s crankcase. A rally-style navigation console was fitted. The frame was built by Royal Enfield subsidiary Harris Performance and featured top-spec Ohlins suspension. There is no doubt the 650cc engine is capable of performance upgrades as Royal Enfield has been involved in American flat-track racing for five years, running overbored engines. Racing development has seen power increase from 52kW (70hp) to over 67kW (90hp).
