2024 Yezdi Adventure Review: Buy It Over The Himalayan 450?

Some new bits about the updated Yezdi Adventure actually make us think that some people should go for it over the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450

The last time we rode the Yezdi Adventure, it had some major issues which held us back from recommending it to riders. But with its 2024 update, Yezdi seems to have addressed a lot of those changes. We rode the bike for a while and here’s if the changes have actually worked in the real life: 

Design 

Design-wise, the new Yezdi Adventure looks very similar to the older bike. With its beak upfront, knuckle guards, spoke wheels and plenty of ground clearance, the Adventure still looks like a typical adventure bike and yes, it still looks similar to the older Himalayan 411. Of the 2 major visual changes, 1 is the fact that the front cage has been gotten rid of, which is good riddance, in our opinion. That has been replaced with a lighter panel which has ‘EST. 69’ branding on it. 

The 2nd visual change is the tucking of the wires. Yezdi has tucked them better and there’s now a new panel right under the console to hide the wiring better and it has helped. The Adventure does look a lot cleaner now and there aren’t any majorly ungainly areas to look at.     

Performance 

The biggest change to the updated Yezdi Adventure is the work that’s been put into the engine. The 334cc engine is now smoother, more tractable and doesn’t feel as clattery. Up until about 6000rpm, the engine feels reasonably smooth and holding 100kmph in 6th gear can be done all day long. That said, the engine is still fairly loud and if you plan to tour on the Adventure, we’d recommend you to get a pair of earplugs. 

As for the tractability, you can now open the throttle right from about 17-18kmph in 3rd gear and 25kmph in 4th gear and the Adventure chugs along without any major knocking. What that means is that the bike should be a lot easier to ride in the city since you don’t have to keep slipping the clutch as much. 

Where it feels even better is when off-roading since you can be in a gear higher and just opening the throttle will get you chugging along instead of it threatening to stall. In fact, given that the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 now isn’t as beginner-friendly, we actually think a lot of beginners will enjoy taking the Yezdi Adventure off-road a lot more than the Himalayan. And that’s because not only is the Yezdi easier to ride in the low revs, but it’s also about 9kg lighter than the Himalayan 450. Given its smaller fuel tank too (15.5-litres against the Himalayan 450’s 17-litre tank), it doesn’t feel as top-heavy as the Himalayan and we think it’ll be easier to pick up as well, when the bike inevitably tips over during 1 of your off-roading sessions. In sum, if you’re really looking to learn off-roading, we suspect you might prefer the Yezdi over the Himalayan. 

Handling & Ride Quality 

 Ride quality is another department where the Yezdi Adventure is significantly better than before. Yezdi has softened out the suspension and it does feel a lot more comfortable than before, exactly what a big adventure bike should feel like. You can now take potholes and speed breakers much quicker and the bike doesn’t threaten to get unsettled. Even lighter riders (riders as light as about 60kg) weren’t getting tossed around even when speed breakers were taken at speed.

As for the handling, the Yezdi is just as good as it was before. Despite the big 21-inch front wheel, the Yezdi changes directions quite quickly and commuting on it will be quite a breeze. Even if you take this big ADV up a twisty road on your weekend ride, it will definitely prove to be fun. The brakes are also nice and sharp, like before, and we’ve no complaints there. What we did like is that the 3 ABS modes (rain, road and off-road) feel quite different from one another. Rain mode is quite intrusive, ensuring there’s absolutely no lockup and it’s for those extremely wet days when our roads are just too slippery to ride on. Road mode is for your everyday riding scenarios and it does feel a bit less intrusive than Rain mode. Off-road mode, as the name suggests, deactivates ABS at the rear. You can hence slide it around and it’s for the days when you decide to go off-roading. 

The biggest hurdle for off-roading on the Adventure were the tyres. They didn’t feel quite as grippy, especially when riding through muddy tracks and hence weren’t exactly confidence inspiring. But again, they are an easy fix since Reise Moto makes some very nice off-road tyres for these sizes and reasonable prices. Check them out below: 

Features 

The Yezdi Adventure gets the same LCD console that it did earlier with Bluetooth connectivity and other basic features. And hence our issue with space utilization still remains. It’s a large console but the actual display part occupies about 60% of it, and the other parts just have nothing. And we think that space could’ve been utilized better, maybe by increasing the font sizes on the console. But apart from that, it’s a reasonably easy-to-read console so we had no major complaints there. 

Should You Buy The Yezdi Adventure?  

*The updated Yezdi Adventure’s base variant now costs Rs 6,000 less than before 

All the updates on the Yezdi Adventure have come together to make it a more wholesome product than before. And when you factor in the lower price, it does make the bike a lot easier to recommend than before. At Rs 2,09,900, the Adventure’s base variant sits nicely between the Hero XPulse 200 4V (Rs 1,47,391 onwards) and the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 (Rs 2,85,000 onwards). And as we said, in some aspects it’s actually a lot easier to ride than the Himalayan. 

The first-gen Yezdi Adventure felt like Hulk from Avengers 1: brash, demanding and rough-edged. This new Adventure feels like Hulk from Avengers Endgame: easy-going, more sophisticated and most importantly, a good mix of brain and brawn. So for those who find the Himalayan’s now increased size and price a bit too much, but want something that’s more powerful (and hence a better tourer) than the XPulse, we’d recommend you to get a test ride of the new Yezdi Adventure.