Royal Enfield Is Flying Higher Than Ever, But It Better Remember What Happened To Icarus

Royal Enfield is finally playing with the big boys. It just needs to know when to stop climbing.

Photo by: Royal Enfield

By: Enrico Punsalang

Aug 11, at 7:25am ET

Add RideApart as a preferred source in Google

Comment

Royal Enfield has spent the past several years pulling off something most motorcycle manufacturers would probably kill for. It made relatively small, simple, affordable motorcycles desirable again. While everyone else chased bigger engines, more horsepower, more electronics, and increasingly painful price tags, Royal Enfield figured out that plenty of riders just wanted cool motorcycles they could actually afford and enjoy without needing a spreadsheet to understand the riding modes.

But Royal Enfield isn't staying small forever. Its next big move is expected to be the Himalayan 750, a motorcycle that's been repeatedly spotted testing and is reportedly headed for a debut at EICMA 2026. It'll sit above the Himalayan 450 (which has proven to be a massive success) and, assuming the expected displacement makes production, introduce Royal Enfield's biggest modern production engine yet. That's a pretty substantial milestone for a company whose recent global success has largely been built below 650cc.

The new Himalayan is expected to use a roughly 750cc parallel-twin derived from Royal Enfield's existing 648cc twin, although plenty of its final specifications remain unconfirmed. Current reports point toward somewhere around 55 to 60 horsepower, which sounds almost hilariously sensible when rivals like the BMW F 900 GS are knocking on the door of triple digits. And that's probably exactly the point. Royal Enfield doesn't need to win a dyno contest. It needs to make a Himalayan that can comfortably eat highway miles.

Spy shots suggest it's getting considerably more serious hardware to go with that bigger engine. Prototypes have appeared with inverted forks, twin front brake discs, larger bodywork, touring equipment, and different wheel configurations. That should give Royal Enfield a legitimate middleweight adventure tourer capable of hanging around the same conversations as the Honda XL750 Transalp, Suzuki V-Strom 800DE, Triumph Tiger 900, and other established ADVs.

And frankly, 750cc could be the perfect place for Royal Enfield to land. It's enough displacement to make two-up touring, loaded highway riding, and interstate speeds much less demanding than they are aboard a smaller single. But it isn't so much that the Himalayan suddenly needs 120 horsepower, an IMU with seventeen acronyms attached to it, and a starting price that requires a brief consultation with your mortgage broker.

That's also where things get interesting, because Royal Enfield's inevitable rise up the motorcycle hierarchy comes with a risk. People love these bikes precisely because they aren't trying to be the biggest, fastest, or fanciest things around. A Hunter 350 is approachable. An Interceptor 650 is uncomplicated. Even the Himalayan 450 gives you a surprisingly modern adventure bike without wandering into the financial and technological arms race happening further up the segment.

So what happens after 750?

There's nothing inherently wrong with Royal Enfield building larger and more capable motorcycles. In fact, the Himalayan 750 could fill an obvious gap for riders who've outgrown the company's smaller machines but don't want to leave the brand. The danger comes if 750 becomes 900, then 1,000, then eventually some 1,200cc flagship with radar cruise control, semi-active suspension, 130 horsepower, and enough menus to make you forget you bought the thing because motorcycles were supposed to be fun.

What do you think?

View

Comments

Royal Enfield has spent years climbing, and the Himalayan 750 could be its biggest step upward yet. But there's a reason the company's formula works so well. Its motorcycles have traditionally offered enough rather than everything, and that's increasingly rare in an industry obsessed with escalation. Maybe 750cc isn't merely Royal Enfield's next step toward bigger motorcycles. Maybe it's where the company should plant its flag and resist the temptation to keep climbing.

Icarus, after all, didn't have a problem with flying. He just didn't know when he'd gone high enough.