RE Himalayan issues have been terribly widespread – this is known but let us rewind a little and highlight two events before launch which predicted the fate – only the company failed to read them…
When we got the first glimpse of the Himalayan prior to its launch, we were ecstatic with the thought of getting an affordable, reasonably powered, go-anywhere motorcycle and those barebone looks sealed the deal for us. However, what has happened thereafter has been a mess – the brilliant concept was completely mismanaged by the company.
In the hindsight let us look back and talk about two events that predicted that the Himalayan was destined to create history – a history which no company would be proud of.
RE Himalayan Issues: Event One
It all started before the launch when Royal Enfield released the pre-hype-building videos of the Himayalan. In one video where RE wanted to showcase the “might” of the motorcycle, which featured our rally champion CS Santosh, the footpeg broke off. A lot was written on this by the media back then and eventually RE had to remove the video and Siddharth Lal had to pitch in citing it as a “one off case”.
We passed it off and did not carry this snippet considering it as a pre-production mule.
RE Himalayan Issues: Event Two
Fast forward to the D-Day when Royal Enfield was all set to unveil the motorcycle to the world officially. We attended the event and while everything looked okay, there was another glitch waiting to happen. During the sequence, RE had to start the motorcycles and this is when one of the two Himalayan display motorcycles at the podium refused to come to life, even despite repeated cranks! Siddharth Lal had to cover it up once again and they moved onto the other motorcycle (which, thankfully cranked on).
Media events, specially of this magnitude, are pre-planned to the last second and glitches like these are very, very rare. In this case, clearly the motorcycle did everything right while coming to the podium and suddenly failed to come to life – which gave us a precursor of things to come.
Also Read: Himalayan BS3 Had Failures But BS4 Version Has Zero Issues: Siddharth Lal
What has happened after that is known to the world. Issues in new motorcycles are not uncommon and every brand new product goes through a “cooling off” period; but the “kind of” issues Himalayan has reported are appalling and terribly severe!
When the company understood that the product has gone out of hand they tried every bit to present a better picture however, issues, even till now, have failed to die down! Recently, Siddharth Lal said that during Himalayan times they had lethargic processes which have been tightened (link to story). The only positive takeaway has been the fairly helpful attitude of the company towards the sufferers – the first buyers of the motorcycle.
Also Read: Bigger, More Powerful Himalayan Twin Confirmed: But Issues…?
Also Read: LEAKED: Royal Enfield 350X and 500X Spotted Out of Nowhere
We are living in times when manufacturers like Yamaha announce a formal recall upon issues such as defective fuel tank brackets or loose bolts. And this is when we understand that we are very far from becoming “world-class”. For that Indian manufacturers will have to change their attitude from “chalta hai” to “nahi chalega“!
