I respectfully disagree. Drastic changes in altitudes require jet changes which is normal for all carburetted engines.

At one one time all the Paris-Dakar bikes were carburetted. They were purpose built.

Carburetors are simpler than EFI and contain far fewer parts and far fewer points of potential failure.

A few jets for altitude correction weigh less and take up less space than a spare ECU, fuel pump and multiple sensors and diagnostic tools.

Those points are now moot.

The Himalayan now comes with EFI as standard fitment.

A bit off topic but related with the carburetor vs injection war

Adv Bike Selection 2 | Sibirsky Extreme

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http://www.wanderclan.com

Ha-ha-ha, I hope the last poster noticed that....

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

No war intended.

The point of my post being EFI or lack thereof is not the deciding factor of if a motorbike is purpose built or not.

Great write up by Rukka. Real life ride reports are what this forum needs more of.

It sounds like if you do your research, address the known weakness' and perhaps fit a fuel filter, a $3000 brand new RE will serve you well. After that report I'm thinking of doing a similar trip

I think the trick here is to buy a new one. I cant imagine second hand ones with plenty of miles will offer the same experience. They're built cheap. That's fact. Another fact is that cheap doesn't last. A reason why chinese bikes are usually scrapped within 5 years

I didn't know they were so cheap new. So for that reason, Ill withdraw my criticisms from earlier posts. At that price you just can't complain.

Re. Jetting. If you're spending a lot of time at altitude then it makes sense to rejet. For a few days there is little point. Rich motors wont destroy themselves. They just tend to carbon up after prolonged milage. Fouls up plugs etc. Pinning it open in a highway does a lot to burn up carbon.

A CV carb does adjust to altitude itself to a certain extent. But nowhere in the realms of FI.

I don't know anything about the RE carb, but often you can adjust the needle height if you dont have jets.

However, as far as I know, the Himalayan now comes with FI as standard ??

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Another thing to consider is the RE dealership skill level. The 2nd largest RE dealership in Nepal had fewer tools than me, and no knowledge of FI. Had never seen a multimeter before. Their main tools were an adjustable wrench and a rock. I'm not exaggerating. They were asked to fit a reg/rec, they wrapped it in newspaper and popped it in the tool box. This is the skill level we are talking about.

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https://fernsforays.wordpress.com/

I Run a service department here in Auckland that has the joys of being a RE authorised dealer so we get to see the worst of it.

Problems we have seen with the Himalayan so far
Clutch nuts coming loose leaving no drive to the gearbox
magnetos coming loose and sheering the woodruff keys out of the crank
Dashes failing
Countless oil leaks
The odd sensor failure
Fuel tank vent issues
This is all low kms like a few thousand at most, obviously covered by warranty but i can't imagine the sort of problems we will see at higher milage with no warranty.

Things we have noted from people crashing them (more than likely due to the useless tyres RE put on the bike from factory)
From the crashed bikes we have seen every one has needed a frame replacement and thus all but one so far has been writeoffs.
The handlebars are like cheese also

Don't get me wrong most people who buy them kinda know what to expect when they are buying the bike and are happy with them but a some of our customers are getting more and more frustrated with them with the constant issues and 6-8 week lead time on some parts.

Drop another $2000NZ and you are in KLR650 territory, i know what i would be doing.

Perhaps not, if you want to ride it rather than spend a load of time having work done under warranty; post 23 above refers.

There has to be a reason why the UK dealerships for RE come and go with great regularity.

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Dave

Maybe there's a gap in the market up around the Mersey area.

Ted's not angling for the local RE franchise is he?

No chance haha

Sent from my G7-L01 using Tapatalk

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Fyi, a mate recently reviewed one here (Indian model).
I also have my doubts but he seemed to like it.

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Got to say this post alone sums up my expirience of owning a new CCM many years ago and as much as I'd like the enfield to do well. No one no matter how much money they have wants a new bike expirience that means the bike spends more time at the dealers than with you riding and enjoying it.

I guess we'll have to see what they are like long term but I hope thats not tested on the first batch of new owners!