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My forks are scored on my cheapo Vstrom and I'm weighing up the pros and cons of paying £500 to get it fixed vs part ex-ing it for something new.
I've quite enjoyed the extra power over the old Meteor, but not the fuel costs so much as a commuter. My local dealer is pumping out the old ones at £4000 which seems like a bargain, are they still useful? Or should I hang on fix the Vstrom and get something different in 2025?
Or is there anything else good, cheap (£5k or less) and reliable for a year round commuter?
I wouldn't still buy a new old Himalayan.
There are so many part used ones about now for not much over 2k and often pretty low mileage.
Seems like a great choice for a commuter.
There seems to be quite a few sets of VStrom forks about if you search.
My Strom is the 1000, are the forks interchangeable? Looks like most people are asking about going the other way. Used forks would probably the best answer tbh, it's getting difficult to get someone to take my money to sort these at the moment. Guessing everyone is trying to get bikes on the road now.
Whatcote
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296491075351
I might regret this but I've seen something else I want and need to free up the space and the cash. I'm not desperate to sell it but the 'other thing' would be very nice.
Had an unexpected opportunity for a spin on the new 450 Himalayan today.
Much quicker off the mark than the 411, but I felt really lacking in character in how it rides AND looks.
That tank is just as eye-wateringly ugly in the flesh as I'd thought in photos.
Very much felt like you were sat ON the bike, rather than IN the bike like the 411.
Not sure what it would be like off road but it lacks the lovely low down chug of the 411.
Seat height is noticeably higher which I think makes it likely to instill less confidence off road for a shorter rider trying to get a foot down.
I didn't get to ride it off road unfortunately as I was stuck in an endless series of Midlands traffic lights and suburbs.
I'm sure as with most things, you'd get used to how it rides but as a direct comparison to the 411, not for me.
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Just a heads up for those looking for things to add to puncture kits. Ordered one of these last week and it turned up yesterday.
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Did an MTB tyre up to 30 psi in <5 mins this morning and the battery indicator didn't change. Not had time to test on a motorbike tyre yet. Seems solid https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005855215638.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.3114f19ccBvG2u.
Should be good for airbeds and the like for camping trips too.
It's about the size and weight of a laptop power pack, usb-c quick charging.
It was on a ridculous deal when I bought it so I got it for <£10 delivered but I think it's still reasonable value at £16.
Yeah I've got a similar one.
Works well but I don't think I'll carry it on the bike.
Getting to be carrying way too much kit!
It does most stuff but maxes out at 50psi and my van rears are 54 if I recall.
If you open a new account you can get it for £2 plus a bit of postage.
When I sell my guzzi I'll be looking at a Himalayan for trundling about on and it looks an easy carry.
I'll test it on a flat tyre on the Guzzi at the weekend and see how it copes.
Shirley carrying a pump with an on-board rechargeable battery is a bit pointless when you could just plug a 12V pump into the vehicle's electrical system? :-/
I'm sure it has its uses, but I'm struggling to thing of one where you don't have another power source or a mini-pump would suffice.
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Fair point, well made. 🙂 I got around this by removing the casing from a cheap 12V pump (it's amazing how much is for show/wasted space!) and carrying it in a little pouch for protection. On reflection, the cable and plug probably take up as much space as the battery in the self-contained unit...
Great weekend up to my ancestral homelands of the Wirral visiting fam.
Camping near Chester.
Dee Day today.
I took the scenic route back loosely following the River Dee from Chester down to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Llangollen.
Did some diversions and caught some really good green lanes around Llangollen. A bit maybe at the harder end than I'd have liked on my own with a fully loaded bike but all good.
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Liverpool yonder
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Formby from New Brighton
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New Brighton
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Top of One Giant Leap downhill tracks above Llangollen. It's a really steep hill so I bet the tracks are pretty rad 👌
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I don't want a bike. The idea does nothing for me.
But I see photos of my Kashmiri friend riding his and I really really want a RE Himalayan. Like REALLY want one. And going to Kashmir - it seems beyond wonderful. Possibly even nicer on the back of a Himalayan.
The 2024 version - is it much better? The original version was everywhere when I was in Ladakh last year - the hire places had them by the hundreds.
They said we were crazy. They said it couldn't be done. They said...
Ok, they didn't say any of that but, on 10th of July 2024, 7 intrepid riders from Grims Himalayan Group set out to ride 1000km or about 635 miles over 4 days, on as many legal green lanes as possible from Chepstow and the confluence of the Wye and Severn valleys to Jedburgh in the Scottish borders.
The riding days were long, mostly 9-12 hours and the bikes were heavy, loaded up with camping gear, some of us more delicate types even choosing to pack folding chairs.
The ride was tirelessly planned, researched, put together and adjusted on the fly by Mr Roalfe from Grims Himalayan Group. It was a great route and had just the right mix of difficulty for everyone on the trip with some utterly sublime scenery along the way.
We had plenty of thrills, lost count of the spills and every single Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 on that trip just stood up to the abuse remarkably well, the most serious 'mechanical' being a new sprocket carrier bearing required which was sorted quickly by a fantastic old school bike mechanic in Buxton.
I actually managed to attain the title for first crash of the trip, and I managed several more. I was not alone however.
Best comedy moment was a river crossing near the end where two riders fully lay down in the river.
It was difficult with big hidden boulders underwater.
Myself and another person elected to get wet boots and walk our bikes across after that!
Looking forward to the next Himalayan adventure!
The route 1000k ish
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Jedward!
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That looks like an awesome trip
Ah, the forum has made all the photos I've added previously invisible.
How wonderful.
I've just joined the ranks with possibly the roughest Himalayan in the country 🙂
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Engine bars and panniers and rear racks are already off as it wouldn;t fit in the shed with them on and I can't see me ever using them.
Oh and it turns out you can fit one in a wheelchair adapted Alhambra 🙂
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Rear end tidied up a bit and rear racks now off. Been out for a couple of hours tracking down all of the random vibrations, think I'm down to the headlight rim as the last one to sort now.
Genuinely astonished at how easy to ride it is, makes you go hunting for the narrowest, nadgery, bumpy little lanes where it excels.
How on earth though did they manage to source such a poor front brake when the rear is so good?
It needs some off road tyres before I take it off road but even hitting patches of gravel, potholes and farm muck doesn't phase it !
Got carried away and took a little air on a hump back bridge and it just soaked it up without blinking.
I don't know if I would be as pleased with it if I'd paid £2.5k, which seems to be what all the ones in eBay are fetching, but for £800 it's brilliant.
£800?! What a bargain!
I think you'll be forever searching for little vibrations and rattles. I have a new one on mine lately that I think may be from around the headlight but I kind of can't be bothered to look.
It's such a great bike for exploring all the tiny little lanes and places you wouldn't normally go down and really is nice to ride off road as long as you remember what it is.
I keep finding myself trying to manual it through troughs, forgetting I'm not on a MTB 🙂
Looks great without the racks on there.
It's worth changing the silencer if you can. The original weighs an unbelievable amount compared to the Lextek I've fitted now. Sounds lovely too.
It had been up for sale on the Enfield forums for quite a while but being near Penrith probably put people off. It's s got corrosion to the engine cases and fork lowers and every single nut and bolt will need wd40 if they ever need undoing.
I'm determined for this not to turn into a money pit with me upgrading it, it's done 25k miles of Cumbrian winters already so it's had a hard life and I'm not sure a few kg off the bike would make much difference when I'm carrying at least a dozen too many myself. Tyres will be first then it will be replacing things as they break I think.
Perfect for exploring Cotswolds tracks
Quite a deep ford this at Kineton. Difficult exit step about two bricks high too, unseen underwater. Nearly got me 🙂
So I ended up having to replace the whole exhaust as the original one fell to bits at the join between header and silencer.
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It's needed a few other things as well, clutch cable, front tyre and chain and sprocket kit amongst them
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and a few nice to have's have gone on
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mainly cheap bits from china.
It's mainly done commuting duties this autumn with a couple of days mucking about on small lanes, looking forward to warmer, longer days and trying it out off road. I'm only 30 mins from Salter Fell so that has to be a goal next summer.
Fantastic day on the TET today while staying up North for Christmas. Buxton to Hathersage. Some truly epic cloud inversion scenes and lots of technical and enjoyable riding. Only dropped the bike once, only nearly got stuck once, and only snapped one gear shifter so a great result.
great photos
Oops. Should polish out
Got it's first taste of green lane action under my control (or lack of) yesterday. Managed a steepish descent and a water crossing before getting cross-rutted and having to walk it up a steep grassy climb
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Struggled with upward gearchanges with mx boots on
Nice 👍 🙂
Where were you riding?
Gets a bit heavy when you have to manhandle it up through ruts huh?
I got hold of a lengthened gear change lever for mine which is much better for mx boots.
There's a guy on the owners Facebook group who does them with a folding tip and all painted etc.
A short BOAT near Cowling in East Lancs. From both ends it looked like a gravel track and no indication of the big valley in the middle else I would have tried something easier to try as a first timer (and on my own 😯 )
I think the gearchange issue is the boot in the position I have it in isn't allowing the lever to return after shifting up so I'll have a go at raising it up a bit first but if not a longer lever sounds worth a go.
If I could work out how to post pics I'd post some of my Morocco trip a couple of weeks ago on a yam xt250....you can here Enfields too!!
Let's try.
If I could work out how to post pics I'd post some of my Morocco trip a couple of weeks ago on a yam xt250....you can here Enfields too!!
Let's try.
AA looks good sun and dry 🙂 any more pics? Thanks C
Had a little demo on a 450 Saturday at Midwest Moto near Bewdley. Absolutely lovely roads and countryside around there.
I got on with the bike much more than I did the first time I had a ride of it.
Got used to it a bit better.
The acceleration in 2nd and 3rd is kind of addictive after riding the mellow 411 for so long.
Feels like I could almost attempt some wheelies and gravel burnouts in corners if I had one myself. 😊🤘
Definitely doesn't have the character of my 411 but it's a really fun bike.
Very good, 20HP and knobbly tyres, single engine OK or were the roads/tracks the main issue? Looks great with blue skies.
Did you go place to place and stay in BnBs etc, any info appreciated. Cheers C
Bikes were good, plenty of power for Moroccan roads, you don't need to go fast!!
Belw copied and pasted from elsewhere, it really was an awesome trip. Bike hire was about £350 for 6 days, all the rest was cheap, really easy to find accomodation.
Arrived Marrakech mid dayish, picked up bikes got a Moroccan SIM for our phones and headed out of town (madness on those city roads) took RN7 south to Ijoukak, road dug up for a good 10km before Ijoukak stayed night in a Gite type place, quite cold. Ice on bike in am.
Next day took J3 in Morocco Overland book lovely route, had a very brief ride through some snow. and ended up in Taliouine. Stayed in a big old grand hotel out of town with only us in it. Owner wanted to clean us off in his sauna (sweaty pain cave) we politely declined.
Next day followed main road a bit then took A7 route over Issil pass through Amatzguime, had food in Tasnacht then stayed night in Anzal up the rn10. Freezing bloody cold that night. Then took A8 to Ouzazette stayed in posh hotel. Crashed once on dried river bed extra deep gravel. Then next day went via Talouet to Tizzi n Ticha then stayed about 40km outside Marrakech before crazy ride in the next day to drop bikes with Marrakech Roues. Almost 900km all up.
Himalayan Group ride in Warwickshire on Saturday. Great day out with perfect weather.
Had a few issues with bikes mind... 
Out with the Grim lot again?
Can't believe my luck, all this weather and not able to ride far because of dodgy hips. 🙄 It's been nice commuting the last 2 weeks though.
Since I've done the air injection delete it's getting up to 70 a lot easier but it's very buzzy through the seat there. Is this normal?
Clearances are next in my list of to dos but thinking about a 16t front sprocket to drop revs but worried it will compromise off road.
This thread inspired me to get back into biking after 15 years without a bike.
Saw a 3 month old Himalayan with 250 miles on the clock on a FB group. Managed to get it for £2800 including hand guards and collected it last weekend. Have added a few more accessories this week ready for some adventures!
Sweet!
That's a great bargain. 😊
Managed to get it for £2800
Wow that's cheap!
Yeah, I think with the 450 out, the 411 has dropped in price for both new and used. I've seen some dealers have them new for £3600 now.
Brilliant weekend out at the 3rd Grim's Himalayan Rally in Shropshire.
Lots of stuff going on but the main event on Saturday was the rally rides.
The organiser had gone all over Shropshire, down little lanes, byways, places of interest and either come up with questions to answer about that specific spot, or zip tied an a4 placard to a fence or tree with a number on it.
The idea was that each place had a number of points associated with it. You were given all of the map pins in a gpx file before the rally and you had to plot a route out that would take you to as many of these map pins as possible. Obviously you could tend to favour the ones with more points.
Some of the places were questions rather than just numbers so you might have to look around a bit to answer the question right. (One was a pub in Tenbury Wells and you had to answer what famous band was associated with it. Turns out it was the Beatles.)
There were quite a lot of byways/green lanes to tick off if you wanted to and on the description they were graded so you at least had a vague idea of what they might be like before you chose to ride them which was good what with me riding alone.
Another option you could have done is to follow a rally roadbook which is instead of using os maps or similar, you are given pictorial instructions on where to turn at certain distances. It's not something I've done yet and so I decided to plot my own route using OS maps.
Anyway, the route I put together worked out very well. It took me 213 miles all over the shop and I managed to hit 30 pins which with the points totted up, meant I was the highest scorer! 😊
Schweet. There wasn't owt to win(it wasn't a competition) but I was pretty happy with that and the mighty Himalayan 411 was mint on this sort of challenge.
We had talks too which was interesting. Some blokes who worked for Royal Enfield had ridden bikes to the South Pole.
Then Saturday we had one of the lead designers who worked on the new 450 give a talk with photos about the development of that project. Really cool. Made me like it a bit more even though I still think the tank is gopping.
