Remember that Chinese motorcycle which was a blatant rip-off of the Bajaj Pulsar RS 200? The same has now happened with the Royal Enfield Himalayan, otherwise known as the OG of affordable ADVs in the Indian context. The case in consideration here is of the Hanway G30. The motorcycle is available in China in two variants: Standard and G-30X but we will get to that later, after we get over the fact that it looks strikingly similar to the Himalayan. The Chinese ADV does pack some nice bells and whistles that makes us wonder, is this what the 2021 RE Himalayan should have been?
Pricing
Prices of the adventure tourer have been pegged at CNY 17,280, which roughly translates to INR 1.92 lakh, making it cheaper than its original inspiration.
Specs and features
To begin with, the G30 is powered by a 249cc single-cylinder engine which churns out 26bhp of maximum power and 22 Nm of peak torque. The powertrain comes in a similar duplex split double-cradle chassis as seen on the Himalayan. The only difference is that the Himalayan utilizes a long stroke motor. It claims a fuel efficiency figure of 32.2 kmpl while it can clock a maximum speed of 128 kmph.
Talking about its underpinnings, the Hanway G30 is built around duplex split double-cradle chassis. This frame is suspended on 35mm USD forks at front with a 120mm travel and a mono-shock at the rear. Braking duty is handled by a 280mm front disc and a 240mm rear disc, aided by dual-channel ABS. The Chinese Himalayan also gets a massive 19-litre fuel tank (the Himalayan gets a 14-litre unit). Coming to its off-road credibility, it is safe to assume that the Himalayan will still beat it at decimating the trails as the Hanway G30 makes use of 19/17-inch spoke arrangement as opposed to the 21/17-inch setup on the Himalayan.
We are saving the best bits for the last. Unlike the Himalayan, the Hanway G30 makes use of LED headlights up front which, logically, should provide better illumination than the Halogen setup found on the Himalayan. Like we mentioned earlier, the G30 has been launched in two variants: Standard and G30-X. The latter comes with tubeless wire-spoked rims and a TFT instrument console. The TFT console too, looks heavily inspired by the KTM Duke 390.
Although RE did its best to update the Himalayan for MY2021 but we still think the updates would have been more skin deep rather than just minor bug fixes. We are still hoping to see the day when RE decides to plonk its 650cc parallel-twin motor in the Himalayan because that would be an absolute hoot to ride and will eat the Hanway G30s for breakfast!