A couple of images suggest that the Himalayan may be running on side laced spoked rims.
A lot is already known about the Royal Enfield Himalayan 452 and there are a lot of reasons to be excited about this motorcycle. In fact, one of the only known downsides so far was that the Himalayan would not get tubeless tyres. However, an image recently shared by Royal Enfield has raised some interest in this regard as well.
Every spy image captured of the Himalayan testing so far has been with the bike running conventional spoked wheels. In fact, a few months ago some images emerged of one of the test bikes that had had an unfortunate crash and a tube could clearly be seen sticking out of the heavily bent front rim.
However, Royal Enfield recently revealed a short video and a few images of the bike embarking on its final test before the November launch and one of these images reveals something interesting. It is a photograph of company CEO B Govindarajan walking a Himalayan 452 off the production line and the bike in that shot is wearing something we haven’t seen before – side laced spoked rims.
It’s quite clear to see that instead of meeting the wheel rim in the centre, the spokes connect closer to the outer edge of the rim. These are called side-laced or cross-laced spoked wheels and they enable the rim to run tubeless tyres.
Given the fact that this is the first time we’re spotting this, it could be that these rims will be offered as an optional extra. If so, they could end up being quite an expensive box to tick, as such rims are usually quite pricey and seen only in premium big bikes like the Triumph Tiger 900 Rally or the BMW R 1250 GS. Nevertheless, even having the option would be a huge plus point in the new Himalayan’s favour.
None of this is confirmed at the moment, but this one image does raise the hopes of a lot of people who are put off by the idea of dealing with tubed tyres. Hopefully, this does make it to the production bikes and it’s something we’ll be able to confirm soon when we ride the bike in the early days of November.