I’d like to stress that I’m an amateur and a tinkerer, not a professional. No sense in spending so much for a custom job on an inexpensive bike so I did it myself. I can’t quantify how much weight I saved as I didn’t bother weighing the parts removed. First step was to remove the tank protector/headlight and console cage. The assembly is all steel and heavily built – at least 5 pounds or more.
The stock headlight is also heavy. The dual lights I replaced it with, being the cheap kind, weighed almost nothing. You can find them on eBay. Same goes with the replacement headlight brackets. Both are from China.
I’m no electrician so for the rewiring of the headlights, I had the Royal Enfield service center do it for me. The stock acrylic wind deflector I sculpted with a Dremel tool to fit over the dual headlights and heated with a torch to coaxed it to shape to fit the headlight bracket. I’ve installed a generic (again, China) hand grip protector meant for KTM. Those saved my levers countless times on the trail.
The tank was done by myself. Scraped it to bare metal. The primer, color and flat clear coat I used is a 2-part epoxy can spray paint. The brand is Samurai from Malaysia and is imported here in the Philippines. It’s quite innovative as the mixture is triggered inside the can just before use. I have a friend who owns a printing company so I worked on the decals using Photoshop and sent the files. The finished vinyl decals came with a backing tape so installation was easy.
Moving below, a fellow Himalayan owner here imports engine crash guards from India so I got those from him. Same with the rear brake reservoir protector. RE should provide that as stock – very important in the trail. Lastly, I replaced the (heavy!) stock mufflers with locally made single chamber titanium ones. Equivalent to US$230, this was my biggest expense. Again I didn’t weigh them but it seemed to weigh half as much as the stock one when I lifted each to compare. With only one chamber, it is said to give an extra 10% power boost and it indeed feels it.
In the end, the Royal Enfield Himalayan feels lighter and nimbler both on the road and on the trail. More importantly, I can see the ruts and rocks in front of my tire much better. Now the down side. Because the wind deflector is lower and closer to the rider, it is less effective on the highway. So it is less of a tourer. Also no front cage to protect the tank when dropping the bike or a place to strap extra gear.
Apologies for the long post, but I felt I needed to answer the questions being asked. Hope this helps! Cheers…
