If you’re Royal Enfield and you have a special limited-edition Himalayan to announce, a Royal Enfield-centric moto rally is an excellent place to do it. Rider Mania 2019 took place in mid-November, in Goa, India, and that’s precisely what RE did. However, that wasn’t even the most exciting announcement the company made.

The all-new, limited-edition Royal Enfield Himalayan FT 411 Special is cool and all, but it’s actually just a pretext for Enfield’s new flat-track riding school. The manufacturer rolled out its official Slide School announcement at the fest as well. If you participate, you’ll be thrashing Himalayan FT 411 Specials around the track, so the two things go muddy hand in muddy hand. 

According to Royal Enfield CEO Vinod Dasari, the first Slide School event will take place in Bangalore, in conjunction with Big Rock Moto Park. Dates haven’t been made public yet, unfortunately. If you’re interested, you can sign up at their website to be kept in the loop when new information is available about Slide School.

Gallery: Royal Enfield Slide School

Here’s the coolest part, though: Dasari said that Slide School will be holding events throughout India, not just in Bangalore. More access and more events can only be good things for anyone who wants to improve their flat-track skills on these specially kitted Himalayans.

Which, incidentally, brings us to those bikes. To create the Himalayan FT 411 Special, RE brought in S&S Cycles to tighten things up and trim off all the excess weight. There’s a high-mount S&S performance exhaust, carbon fiber seat pan, side panels, a lighter Full Spectrum Power battery, and 18” spoked rims. Special sprockets and K&N performance air filters are also part of the package.

Although the frame and engine haven’t been modified at all, the resulting bike weighs just 164kg (or 360 lbs.) That’s a weight difference of 30kg over the stock Himalayan as sold in India—or a pretty significant 66 pounds!

It’s not clear yet if the Himalayan FT 411 Special will be offered for sale, although enthusiast pressure to release a limited number probably couldn’t hurt. What we do know for sure is that Slide School looks fun as hell, and this lightened, allegedly faster Himalayan looks like an absolute blast. If any RideApart readers go to a Slide School, please don’t hesitate to tell us if it’s as fun as it looks. 

Source: Royal Enfield, YouTube

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