Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 First Ride Review: Sherpa Goes Rogue

Have you ever heard of a sherpa going rogue? Well, Royal Enfield’s one has and it has taken a name: the Guerrilla 450. This bold and brash motorcycle is meant to take on an aggressive approach to motorcycling. It isn’t a scaled-down Himalayan 450, far from it. In fact, the work on the Guerrilla 450 started parallelly alongside the ADV in 2019. So, here’s what makes the newest member of the Royal Enfield clan the most aggressive one as well. 

Loud And Funky

The Guerrilla 450 is a smashingly handsome motorcycle. Loud colour choices, eye-catching accents and neat little touches just make the Guerrilla look wow. The loud front and lean rear end work well, giving it a toned muscular roadster look. It has the presence of a large capacity motorcycle without being stretched like the Himi.

I particularly like the Brava Blue colour scheme. The electric blue wheels and subframe contrast well with the gloss white panels. In fact, each one of the blue lines on the fuel tank are hand masked. And it does have the same feature set of all-LED lighting, colour TFT screen with connectivity and Google Maps screen mirroring, and USB-C charging as the Himalayan. Only, the base Analogue trim misses out on the TFT screen and instead you get the same semi-digital dash from the Super Meteor 650 or the Hunter 350.

More Oomph = More Thrills

Despite the Sherpa 450 putting out the same 39.5 bhp and 40 Nm on the Guerrilla as the Himalayan, the motor has a lot more excitement and thrill associated. And that is primarily down to two reasons. 

Firstly, thanks to a more prompt initial throttle response, you have a bit more oomph to help you get off the line quickly. The acceleration is pretty hard and the torqueyness of the motor helps you reach triple digit speeds in no time. The chunky mid range surge of torque isn’t one that will scare and put off newer riders. It has the approachability for a rider stepping up from the 160-200 cc class to enjoy the new experience without overwhelming them with a lot of power. On the other hand, it still manages to keep the experienced folk hooked when hooning around.

Secondly, it also helps that the Guerrilla is a whole 11 kilos lighter (check the chassis section to know how) than the Himalayan, aiding acceleration. At 185 kilos, it is still quite a lot heavier than the Triumph Speed 400 and the Husqvarna Svartpilen 401, but the engine does feel more alive here. Since we were mostly riding on a cool day in Barcelona with far from chaotic traffic conditions, we couldn’t let you know how well the engine heat management is or just how tractable the motor would be in our Indian scenarios. 

What we did find out is that the engine buzziness is spread out quite a bit more across the rev range when compared to the Himalayan. The vibes creep in at 4000 rpm itself and are present all the way up to the red line. At 100 kmph in 6th gear, with the engine sitting at 5000rpm, it doesn’t feel quite as harsh as the Himalayan. But unlike the ADV where matters smoothen out at higher speeds, it just gets quite a bit more pronounced on the Guerrilla. The overall buzziness isn’t quite as harsh as the first gen TVS Apache RR 310 or even the old Classic 350s. And for a single cylinder motorcycle, it is fairly okay. 

Royal Enfield has received a 29.5 kmpl WMTC certified fuel efficiency figure for the Guerrilla 450, 1 kmpl more than the Himalayan. However, since the fuel tank is just a mere 11 litres and not 17 litres like the ADV, the claimed range is roughly 300 km. And in case you want the engine to be a tad bit more frugal, then there’s always the Eco riding mode where engine response is dumbed down. 

Make It Lighter And More Accommodating

While the construction of the chassis remains the same as the Himalayan, Royal Enfield has tinkered along quite a lot with the foundations to make the bike lighter and more approachable. The rake has been sharpened (21.8-deg now, 4-deg sharper), the subframe is shorter and lower, the swingarm is slightly smaller, all of this is suspended on a telescopic fork and a monoshock setup both of which have lesser travel than the Himi but adequate enough for a roadster. It rolls on 17-inch wheels that come wrapped in specially-developed wide profile Ceat block pattern radial tyres. 

And all of these changes contribute to a massive weight saving of 11 kilos. And when you hop on to the 780 mm seat, you are neatly positioned in a rather canter forward riding stance that is great for urban hustling. The scooped seat does help shorter riders find their footing easily and while the footpeg to seat distance is smaller here, I didn’t find it to be quite as cramped on our 200 km ride around the hills in Barcelona. 

Yes, on the highway stint, you do face a lot of wind blast as the speeds rise but there is a small windshield in the accessories catalogue that should help deflect the wind in case you are too bothered by it.

Fun Handler

All of the aggressive attitude that Royal Enfield wants to evoke from the Guerrilla is easily showcased the moment you enter the canyon roads. It can be pushed hard and fast and ridden like a modern roadster should. There is just so much feedback from the chassis as it really allows you to carry some serious lean angles without showing any signs of washing out or throwing a fit. It flicks from one side to the other in a quick but neutral manner without scaring the rider of its sharpness.

The sense of ultra stability comes from the wider profile radial tyres provided on this bike by Ceat. The block pattern might be a design choice but it doesn’t come in the way of you having fun as the traction offered was just fantastic. And then when you want to shed speed rapidly, the brakes are strong and sure footed enough to let you do so. But just like the Himi, if you do go a bit hard on the rear brakes, the Guerrilla will side step a bit before the ABS works as intended.

The roads surrounding the city of Barcelona were pristine with hardly any potholes to test out the suspension. Over the small city rumblers or minor road undulations the ride was okay. However, we shall provide a more thorough take on the ride quality once we have a proper go on the bike on our Indian monsoon-affected roads.

Rogue-ness Appreciated

The Guerrilla is Royal Enfield’s daring choice to make something that is sporty and brash and yet quite approachable and very Royal Enfield like. It adds a new dimension to the brand as the handling package is just truly wowing. If Royal Enfield does manage to isolate and subdue the vibrations a bit more, it would be a far more enriching experience. But just the sheer presence and command the Guerrilla gives the rider is something that is truly unique in the sub-400 cc Indian neo retro roadster space. And with the asking price ranging from ₹ 2.39 lakh to ₹ 2.54 lakh (ex-showroom), Royal Enfield has got a cracking roadster package on its hand at a good, solid price.