Royal Enfield’s Guerrilla 450 is a thoroughly fun and exciting motorcycle—it is not that the Himalayan has just tidied up for a visit to the city
By Rishad Saam Mehta
Barcelona–the city that is an open-air museum to Gaudi’s architectural genius is where Royal Enfield launched their newest motorcycle–the Guerrilla 450. The company has christened it as such to suggest that it is a machine that breaks away from compendium of clones and one that personifies the pure and primal pursuit of fun.
And fun it certainly is! I spent a day riding it in the Catalonian countryside through medieval villages and past verdant vineyards, and excitement and exhilaration were the two emotions I felt the most. The same Sherpa 450 engine that is at the heart of the Himalayan also powers the Guerrilla and the superb TFT instrument pod, the LED headlight and the switchgear is almost the same as the former on the top two of three variants that the Guerrilla is being o ered in. The fly in the ointment that has also been carried over is the incredibly fiddly feel of the 4-directional joystick operated by the left thumb to scroll through various pages on the TFT display. It just feels very vague and undefined.
The TFT display is fabulous with the right amount of brightness (which changes as per the ambient light) and a suitable font size. This means immediate cognisance of required information from just a glance at the screen.
But make no mistake, the Guerrilla is not the Himalayan that has just showered, shaved and become presentable for a city visit. It is an altogether new street bike and much lighter. It has a sharper throttle response, different suspension dynamics and 17-inch rims shod with wider tyres (120/70R17 and 160/60/R17 front and rear respectively).
While on the Himalayan, the front and rear suspension both have a travel of 200mm, on the Guerrilla the front and rear travel specs are 140 and 150mm respectively.
This helps reduce the seat height from 825mm (in the Himalayan) to 780mm that is incidentally the lowest seat height in this segment. The Guerrilla also doesn’t feature upside down forks like on the Himalayan. The fork unit here is the right way up and protected by rubber gaiters to keep the dust out.
The Guerilla tips the scale at 185kgs (kerb weight) that is 11kgs lighter than the Himalayan. This has been achieved by a smaller, 11-litre fuel tank and the switch from spoke wheels to cast alloy rims.
This should mean that it has a higher top speed at the cost of initial acceleration. But Royal Enfield’s engineers maintain that the wider tyre offsets any noticeable difference. What I found though is that the Guerrilla goes to 125kmph without breaking a sweat or the engine whining about being overworked. Even past that, the engine is good for few kmph more, but then vibrations set in.
The media ride route was well reconnoitered with a small shot of motorway riding and long stretch of twisty and curvaceous roads. It is on the latter that this motorcycle is an absolute joy.
That day the speed at which I went, and the way I leaned into turns and towards the tarmac as I went around a series of corners brought me to the verge of vertigo. The confidence I carried into corners was encouraged by the obsessive, almost obscene, lust that the wide Ceats had for the tarmac. I probably made Isaac Newton toss and turn in his grave wondering why according to his laws I didn’t behave.
A lot of my confidence had to do with the fact that the brakes on the Guerrilla are adequately reassuring. Upfront, there is a single disc 310mm in diameter that is gripped by a two-piston calliper and at the rear a single-pot calliper grabs a 270mm disc. Both front and rear brakes have ABS and the rear ABS cannot be switched o like it can be in the Himalayan.
There are two riding modes on offer– Performance and Eco. The former is the more fun mode, and the latter dims the power delivery a bit as it dials down the throttle opening and fuel flow to help obtain better fuel economy.
Incidentally, the claimed fuel economy is 29.5kmpl. I estimate my test motorcycle returned about 25kmpl after a day of hard riding without considering fuel economy.
Royal Enfield started work on the Guerrilla back in 2019 and it has been designed in India, the UK and Spain and tweaked to its current characteristic and demeanour over thousands of miles of testing by riders of varying styles, shapes and sizes.
With the Guerrilla, Royal Enfield is foraying into a segment that it hasn’t been in before, but it goes up against quite a crowd. There are the Triumphs (Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X), the Hero Maverick 440 and the Bajaj Dominar 400, all of which are within the Rs 2.2 to 2.6-lakh price ranges.
The Guerrilla is on sale in India now in three variants—Analogue, Dash and Flash, priced at Rs 2.39 lakh, 2.49 lakh and Rs 2.54 lakh respectively.
Reproduced with permission from Mansworldindia.com
