Royal Enfield Himalayan

GO AHEAD AND LAUGH... I've always been attracted to quirky odd ball women, err I mean bikes.  Not to say exclusively but for example, I can't ride anywhere without someone coming over at a gas station to admire my Thunderbird or my ancient XT 600.  I often imagined what would have happened had I picked up my BMW 600 in Germany in 1973/4 as planned. Who knows... I may have stayed in HU or some other European locale.

I've been a fan of the India Enfield for some time, and there's not many bikes in my expansive riding career much odder than that.  It would be like jumping through a time barrier!  They have had a poor history in Canada, the dealer network scant and often operated by "here today gone tomorrow" operations.  I wonder if there is even any CDN network in business today.

Mr. Handsome, kinda like moi!

Given that India rivals China for motorcycle usage and the market over there in Asia is almost as incomprehensible to us 'sport enthusiasts' as opposed to riding motorized cycles is a lifeline to most.  It's no wonder that they even bother with us over here.

Nevertheless I am very interested in the newest Enfield offerings.  With annual sales from the factory closing in on 1 million (that's 1,000,000) units a year and that's primarily in India, gives you an idea how Micky Mouse we are here.

The modern bikes like the two new 650 cc parallel twins with genuine 60's looks but with disc brakes and off set firing pistons coupled to a 6 speed gearbox and the other, the 411 cc Himalayan single "Adventure touring bike" my quirky genes are vibrating.

The 411 (I'll call it that in deference to my old Victor 441 BSA) has been on the Indian market for several years now, working out the kinks while refining the quirks.  Compared to that BSA I owned for many years it is a "modern" interpretation.  Right down to the single upright cylinder the noticeable engine finning, and of course the unforgettable style.  If you try and compare it to any new ADV offering (insert any model of: BMW/KTM/HONDA/YAMAHA) it comes off as barely wiggling the 'excitement' needle.  IN seismic terms, it would hardly quiver your Indian tea in the cup.

However having said that... we are talking about India the sub-continent here, most heavily populated democratic country in the world.  In a place where profit still applies to independent business'  and where a twin cylinder pseudo mid sixties air cooled twin is a huge leap forward !

Before wiping the slate and with it the 411 off your thought pattern, just remember... if you think the transformer look alike modern ADV is THE hot ticket... you may as well stop reading right now.  Go ahead... I'll give you a minute.

(insert musical interlude here)

The Himalayan is of course named for the mountain range that just so happens to be the highest on the planet... jets fly in the oxygen depleted atmosphere, and it's in RE's back yard. Is RE reaching for the sky... you bet.

If you lived there and enjoyed two wheels, man... all you gotta do is look up.  Like the Friendly Giant repeated each episode... wayyyy up as I'm sure RE is doing as I punch this keyboard.

A simple a/c 5 speed, rugged, yet low enough to paddle if need be, makes a whole lot of $$ Rupee's sense.  Okay, it's not earth shaking in Germany or the USA and certainly not CANADA of all places but in a million unit market, RE has just quietly poised itself to become the largest international motorcycle selling company in the world, just happening to be built in India. Many if the Majors are building bikes in Asia as we speak.

Quirky, yes.  But in a good way.

Bamm.  Just like that.   

Japanese sales world wide required hundreds of models to achieve that status, while RE have done it with decades era big singles (shaken not stirred) and an amazing idea of the Himalayan, that granted is newer technology but come on now... it's still a British model from the past.
Could we be looking at the makings of a land slide in these fledgling new models?

I've been trying to get info from anyone on the new models but alas without a reliable dealer network, your poking a big bear hibernating in a cave is just not gonna do it.

Coming to my rescue however, in the wealthy USA (c'mon, get with the world, and let us 'filter traffic' already) we are seeing an embryo  growing, a very big embryo in fact.  If RE get their shit together and can develop a sustainable US dealer network, and North American for that matter, and can maintain a viable and visible dealer network (key here) we are going to see a huge excited buying frenzy.  What happens if that bear wakes up?  Just look at all the customizing out there on old bikes now a days! The fact that the median age for the Indian buying public is under 30, there could be a landslide of should I say it... Himalayan proportions here.

With no word of a Cdn network, where a years accounting of all the motorcycles sold in Canada doesn't amount to squat to China or India, you can't even sit on an Enfield let alone ride one.

Fortunately I have a home in Phx Arizona, and not too far away (15 minutes by Adventure scooter or XT) I was able to secure a ride on a 411. The nice people at both GOAZ retail stores, the Peoria building only being 15 minutes from me (honestly, the service is so good down there)  arranged for me to have a brief ride on a Himalayan off the showroom floor.  From Tommy, (sales mgr) to Jennifer* and Matt who, at 6' height, in an hour became my little Arizonan brother.

I helped myself to a coffee and sticky bun while I sipped and munched I wondered what this new model means to RE, and to us peons at the other end of the scale, the buying public.

From what I could glean from the two GOAZ stores, consumer feedback was very positive.

Himalayan's, if not flying off the showroom floor are moving out at a steady gait. Let's face it, the US market compared to us here in the Great White North could represent the cherry atop the cake as far as RE is concerned.  Domestic sales of the new 650 twins, the 411 and the buzz of a bigger but not too big ADV's, potentially including a V twin is stirring up mucho interest hombre.

I've been following the travels of a tiny Dutch (Itchy Boots) girl from her starting point in Delhi, traversing the globe with much enthusiasm with her own Himalayan on U Tube. If this isn't a testament to the bike's capability as a go anywhere, do everything motorcycle for the rest of us (shorter/older/smarter) with the promise of simplicity, without technical mode this mode that... in my humble experience riding over 50 years, they are proving you don't need 120 horsepower to move the cart and the soul and especially you just have to "get on your bike and ride" "forget the pickle... just wanna ride on my moto sickle" as Arlo so aptly put it.  Don't imagine for a nanosecond that I am not grinning from ear to ear when approached by someone want to see me "retro" but modern Triumph Thunderbird.

Kind of like your grand dads Royal Enfield, but better, a whole lot better!

I'll have more over the weekend, not because I have less work to do, but because the weather is looking like mid to high teens, and if the rain holds off (the red Isle is already Green) I'd like to get out and ride.

* Nice seeing women involved riding and in the biz

Down Under...

Occasionally I have a Guest Blog on these pages.  I welcome these stories and they are from real people doing real things.  We're not professional road tester's but rather professional 'enthusiasts' as my handle suggests.

Years ago while in the motorcycle industry as an employee or in my own shops I would use whatever means I had at hand to comment, teach, inform, or enthuse other's to take up motorcycling.

I've been asked how my "Dr.N Thusiast label came about, it's a fun and short story.  I was putting together some thoughts I had about advertising my products, usually with ad people in print or TV.  One day while working with a newspaper ad sales person who I'd had worked with over some time, brainstorming (some people claim I have less than half a brain, so it shouldn't take long) about some ads I wanted to run.  He commented to me about my enthusiastic demeanor, with this quip... "you're the most enthusiastic guy I work with..." and started calling me Mr. Enthusiast.  Sometime later, after a particularly long session as the coffee flowed late into the night, we concocted an ad campaign  that was quite funny, had impact and realizing it was nearing midnight, giddy with the result, he says to me... "Man, you're not just Mr. Enthusiast..." but that I had a PHD* in Enthusiasm, and thus I came to be the "Dr. of Enthusiasm." or Dr.N for short!

Anyway... I digress...

Recently, very long time pal, Ron Moropito, enjoyed a motorcycling trip to visit friends in New Zealand down under, courtesy of his lovely daughter.  She'd pay the trip, he'd pick up the incidentals.

He's agreed to write up and send some photographs of his experiences on the other side of the earth.  Stay tuned, we'll try and get this out on the blog shortly.  Ron assures me he is downloading his hundreds of photos so we can expect something pretty soon.

Here's a couple he just sent me...       

I know this is a Harvard or Anson as some were called.  Two seat's so I wonder if Ron handled the stick at all.

Obviously this is a McDonald airlines DC-3

*PHD is that Personal Hair Design?

Now I'm not 100% sure which of these he flew on, but I'll get more info later.

It's been 10 years...

The 1998 XT 350 on my test ride, just before buying her.  Pristine yes! We became friends quickly.

MY first foray to the US SW was early in January/February 1998.  Gosh that seems like a lifetime ago.  At that time I owned a propane fueled Dodge van and two 1990 Yamaha XT 600's.  Then girlfriend and former pupil of mine, Deb and I loaded the travel van with the bikes and headed to Baja California to ride the peninsula.

A very high Lake Pleasant reservoir.  BIG Carp splashing about

Several things I learned on that trip, never take the weather for granted, pay attention to details, don't rush even when you have to, and sleeping with your riding partner could be a benefit or a curse.  Sometimes both!

On the way north to Crown King, some years ago.

I'll admit, she was willing and would try most anything, (riding of course) by the end of that trip on our last ride which first introduced me to the Castle Hot Spring road in the lower Bradshaws, she even attempted and survived a dry riverbed/post flash flood trail ride before we headed back to Canada.  She's probably the best riding partner I've ever had.


She followed me across border at Yuma, across country to Mike's Sky Ranch and then all the way to Cabo San Lucas.  On the return we detoured to Hollywood where her sister still lives.  Both of us got a quick lesson in lane splitting and I have been a big advocate of this technique to this day.  Helps that everywhere I rode in Europe 10 years later, it was expected practice.

My nemesis, dry riverbeds!

FAST forward to April 2019. 

There's been a hellova lot of water under the Confederation bridge and in my current situation, that is certainly true.  During the Global greed induced financial crisis of enormous proportions, I bought myself a southern pad that I could not have conceived of ten years prior.  Dream comes true, as I moved into my Glendale home, sleeping the first night on an air mattress while me buddy Tom languished and dreamed sweet dreams at a local hotel.

In the ensuing decade I have explored much of the general area, from my AZ base.  I rolled on several thousand miles (it is the US after all) and visited a plethora of sights including but not limited to, the Castle HS road, Cow Creek, the Senator highway in both directions across 8000' mountains, rode old stage coach roads, the Mogollon Rim, and dozens of other locales.  Sometimes I got lost, sometimes I fell off, sometimes the trail defeated me, and other times I conquered the destination.

Ahhh, some relief both from the heat and in traction.  This is the Buckhorn road.

I was favored on this last ride...

I now find myself in the unusual predicament of selling my southern home.



As often happens, my thoughts of it being used by family didn't materialize, and once I moved east, my trips became more complex than hopping in the Blazer and driving south.  I've continued to go but this will be my last year.  Not because I've seen everything mind you, I haven't seen a tenth of the state, but I too am aging, the body is less willing even if the spirit is strong as ever.  My costs have to be considered as well as my travel insurance, which entering the USA without, is pure fantasy and you're taking your life savings and shaking them before rolling the dice...

This last trip was a little less than a month, given the variations in flights from little old PEI Canada to the USA.

Last year I was able to complete a ride I'd wanted to do for years.  I did a portion of it a few years back and in 2018 I filled in some much wanted blanks.  I circumnavigated the Roosevelt Lake reservoir, saw my only ever 'Gila Monster' alive and moving albeit very slowly, and not squished on the pavement either!



I made it to Globe, slept in a tent (at least tried to) high in the Superstitions getting if you can believe it, rained out! I spent the remainder of that night in a very uncomfortable Dodge truck cab.

I've done Prescott from both south and north passing through Crown King several times in my travels and will never regret buying the place and basing from here to every mountain range in sight.

Besides that, I've made many friends down south and proved once again, how great people can be.

For my most recent trip amid daily highs in the mid 90's, I put together several pieces of terrain I'd done before and rode the back route to Wickenburg.  As it did once before, the cut-off from CHS rd following the riverbed to Buckhorn road from which I would get to Walker's Gulch if the desert gods were kind to me (they rarely are) and from there west through the Wickenburg mountains to the busy little town on the highway to L.A. or Vegas, depending on your choice.

This time the Buckhorn almost defeated me. Again. I really dislike riding in sand and gravel with the consistency of quick sand.  The front end of the XT plowing and nearly tossing me dozens of times, for old times sake... on a rd(?) consisting of foot deep sand.

In the Wickenburg  Mtns.

Fortunately this time I picked up a little stream water which I could follow to the confluence of the Buckhorn and Castle Creek rds.  Now when you read this after returning from a ride on the 5A on your Burgman 650, "road" is really a misnomer as these places are anything but.  There was just enough water trickling along to get my tires wet, as well as cool my feet inside my Icon boots and keep the tires floating along atop the sand/gravel riverbed.

I hadn't ridden this entire route but once before and although some of it was familiar, for the most part I was traveling by feel once again.  By the time I reached the Constellation road cut off, I could see that even out here, where water is scarce and the cacti grows to the height of a three story building, civilization was intruding from both directions.  In a few more years, mega mansions will be overlooking the valley's I was passing through today, and if not paved, may certainly be graded.

We think the desert as this vast mountain, sand and endless open track play ground, when in reality it's finite and fast getting worn down.  I was proud of myself for sticking to the roads and trails already established.  No veering across the desert like the sixties!

ONCE in Wickenburg I actually came down from the mountains to a (what else) McD's and although I have not been eating this type of food for quite sometime now, it just seemed made to order.  I was even more convinced when I found a parking space open up under the only shade tree in the place!   It's too bad that the food wasn't any better than it is back in Canada!  At least the tall cold Coke was the same.

Not today... !

Sitting there checking my phone messages (I had none) I was approached by a gent in my age range very interested in the Yamaha.  He seemed like a super enthusiast (not quite up to Dr. status but close)  Again, my apologies to his wife who patiently waited for her man to sit down and eat, boys will be boys especially when riding motorbikes!

After getting back onto Grand Avenue route 60, I as thinking of heading to Glendale on the main drag. As an alternative, I could take the 74 turnoff onto what's known locally as the Carefree Highway and cut down through the heart of Peoria to my home in Glendale.

I did neither. 

Normally dry as a dog's bone.

 As the "short cut" to Wickenburg via Buckhorn, had me cutting off the Western portion of the CastleHot Spring rd, I decided to ride to back and cover that final stretch of gravel one more time.  I enjoyed the ride back on familiar terrain, by this time I was stripped to my basic riding gear in the heat, I veered off on Cow Creek and rode the remaining gravel roads into larger and larger summertime crowds,  Lots of ATV, side be sides, R.V.'s, boats of various sizes from canoes to cabin cruisers.  Lake Pleasant which I have seen in drought conditions a mile short of the norm while today, the lake went under the causeway I'd traveled many a time over the years, and filled the little valleys and canyons at the highest levels I'd seen in my 20 years.


As I returned to the highway and settled into a 55 mph cruising speed, now do-able with the last gearing change, it was somehow fitting.  From recession of both economy and reservoir, to seeming excess, both with water under the bridge and economically.

One of my favorite red rock canyons.  

My ride on very familiar streets back to my Glendale home brought back hundreds, no... thousands of memories I will carry forward with me into my aging future.

Just as my last ride in Baja in 2007, this day was a fitting Bon Voyage... to my many days riding the Arizona deserts. 

I'm Baccccckkk...

Good day everyone.  I'm back at my home in Canada, back at my computer and back on the Blog.

First a little explanation. Back in the days I was a financial adviser, I used  heavy security between myself and my clients and brokerage.  Many of those protocols still work like for example, my home "address". When I am down south, I use a secure network I have permission on.  Typically I carry my netbook or tablet and phone of course. This time in addition I took my current laptop without any thought that it would cause problems. Well very quickly I realized that between the security measures, and occasional cat laying on top of my warm keyboard, I lost access to pretty much everything but the basics.  Google and I came to blows (!) almost, with what seemed like an endless stream of, resets, passwords etc. I ended up using my mobile for much of my communication.

Now that I am home and sorted, I should be able to blog on as before.

You'll have to bear with me, I have lots of things to do, the least of which, spring has most definitely sprung here on the East Coast of Canada.  While away, the strait cleared of ice and yesterday I got several of my bikes readied for the season, including registration, insurance etc. 

Of course even though they are on trickle, seems I will be replacing a couple of batteries anyway. Yesterday picked one up for the Serow and now my Citicom will likely need a replacement as well. The Serow Yuasa was last replaced in 2014, the DL 650, I replaced this week even though it was replaced twice in the last 3 years and maybe the lawn tractor as well.  Don't anyone tell you riding is "cheap" at a hundred bucks a crack!

I don't even know where to start but what I will do is add a few pics to get the gears rolling and then begin the catch up of the last 6 weeks.

Cover off, getting ready to service my "Mule" the Adventure 150 

Serviced and ready for the season

Temps when I arrived early April already as high as 100F

One of my favorite walks, the Ranch.

On the outskirts of the city, White Mountains in the background.