Is Honda Developing A Royal Enfield Himalayan Rival?

The entry-level adventure bike segment is seeing a lot of action lately. There’s quite no other success story as the Royal Enfield Himalayan, now in its all-new avatar with a bigger and more powerful engine and even better off-road capability than the earlier model. The first-generation Himalayan established Royal Enfield’s footprint in the ADV segment, not just in India but across the world, including Europe and the US. Now, patents filed by Honda reveal that the Japanese brand is also embarking on introducing not just a single-cylinder ADV, but a scrambler model as well.

The second bike illustrated in the patents seem to be a scrambler-styled model, quite like Royal Enfield's Scram 411, based on the last-generation Himalayan 411.

Two bikes illustrated in the patent filings show Honda’s plans. Both bikes seem to ooze the rugged appeal of on-road performance with off-road capability and share some components like the fuel tank and the tail section. What’s different is the front end, with the ADV version displaying a tall windshield with a bikini fairing and the typical ADV-style front ‘beak’. The scrambler version seems to display a slightly different rear subframe as well as swingarm, as is the exhaust end can. 

Also Read: Honda H'Ness CB350 Review

The Honda CB350 is the latest model in the CB350 range, with a design and styling which seems to be a straight shot at the Royal Enfield Classic 350.

The illustrations seem to be just that, simple technical patents rather than design registrations, so it’s still not certain if the final production models will follow the same styling as outlined in the illustrations. But what is clear is that the powertrain is from the Honda CB350 platform, which already has the Honda H’Ness CB350, the Honda CB350RS and the Honda CB350, all three sharing the same basic single-cylinder, long-stroke engine and half duplex cradle frame. Like the original Royal Enfield Himalayan, the Honda H’Ness CB350 was originally intended for the world’s largest motorcycle market, that is India. Clearly, it’s not just Royal Enfield’s domination of the single-cylinder modern classic segment that Honda wants to take a shot at. 

Also Read: Honda CB350RS Review

The engine of Honda's upcoming ADV and scrambler is likely to be the same 348 cc, air-cooled, long-stroke single. 

As is evident from the illustrations, the new models are likely to be powered by the same 348 cc, air-cooled, single-cylinder engine which makes 20.8 bhp at 5,500 rpm and 30 Nm of peak torque at 3,000 rpm in Honda’s current CB350 line-up. Those numbers are more or less in the range of the original Himalayan 411, but Royal Enfield has upped the game with the launch of the latest-generation Himalayan, which boasts of a bigger Sherpa 450 engine (452 cc) with liquid-cooling and a performance jump to near 40 bhp and 40 Nm of peak torque.

Also Read: New Royal Enfield Himalayan First Ride Review

The 2024 Royal Enfield Himalayan has already established itself as a true-blue adventure bike with superb off-road capability.

The question that remains is in what stage are Honda’s new ADV and scrambler models in currently, and when they will finally be launched? The more pertinent question will be if Honda will be able to take the fight to Royal Enfield in a segment where the new Himalayan certainly seems to have established a new benchmark. In all likelihood, we should get some more clarity on Honda’s plans later this year, but by then the new Royal Enfield Himalayan would have already taken over the market, both in India, and overseas. 

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