Best royal enfield for india
 

We have a 12 month visit to India coming up and want a royal enfield for the journey. I have had a test ride on a Himalayan and like it but have heard a few horror stories about reliability. Would I be better off with a bullet?

The «new» revised model BS4 seems to get fairly well reviews. Long time reliability is of course hard to tell at this stage.

Bullets are great too. You wont go very wrong with either of those.

New bike?
 

Will you buy a new bike?

I will flight to India in december for 3 1/2 month and want to buy a royal endfield too.
I am thinking about a bullet 500 secondhand because for half of the trip we will be two person on the bike.
You have any suggestions for eastern india?
Would like to drive around in west beganl and further east to the provinces of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and meghalaya.

Himalayan is good option. I have Himalayan and have no issue till now. already did many trips to Ladakh and spiti. Recently I had completed the spiti circuit which have the worst road condition with full of boulders. Himalayan maneuver very well.

Personally i would choose the 350 bullet,reliable,good on juice,the 500 is thirsty,the 350 has plenty of poke for the roads,had one around India and Nepal,would of loved to of shipped it home,great little bike and easy to fix if theres an issue

Which Bike
 

Bullets are fine as well.
But if you are planning for offroading then I would suggest you to go for the Himalayan.
Have used it for my Leh and Ladakh trip and trust me, it was smooth.
Faced some small glitches but okay.

Bike for India
 

Would suggest you to give you a read to this thread

Review about royal enfield
 

hi.. firstly, I would like to appreciate your choice. In fact, Royal Enfield is one of my vehicles which I like the most. It's a very big and strong vehicle. You no need to scare of it... It would be the best choice.. And if we talk about a look.. as you told. you have already driven this vehicle and I know it feels you royal look.. so either you buy it or take on rent. it always is a good choice.

Thank you

Dont doubt on the Royal Enfield Himalayan.. So far this is the best dual purpose bike launched by Royal Enfield. Ofcourse Bullet is a good bike too, but it totally depends on your riding style. But there should be no doubt regarding their performances or reliability.
(The chasis problem has now been rectified which was faced by Himalayan earlier)

Hope this helps!