Last weekend I had the Royal Enfield Scram 411 with me for a little over 2 days. And the most obvious question everyone asked me was – How is this different from the Himalayan?

Well, to set things straight right from the start, I have been a Himalayan owner for about 3 years.

And the Scram 411 is DIFFERENT!

So, what’s different you might ask?

The first thing you would notice is the missing trail/headlight frame. The headlight now sits directly on the fork and has an offset mounted speedo. The headlight cowl flows into that design language as well. This takes visibility to a different level. The 21-inch wheel gives way to a 19 which now sports a wider 100/90 tire, adding to the visual appeal. The split seats are gone and in comes a single seat for both rider and pillion, firmer and a new textured seat cover. The new wide handlebar gives the rider a slightly front biased seating posture, making it easy to flick around. So, the frames up front, the seat, and a smaller wheel, is that it? No, let me get to the engine.

Sure, you will jump on and say it’s the same 411 engine from the Himalayan, right?

It is the same engine! But the way it is tuned now, is where Royal Enfield has managed to hit the ball out of the park. Start the motorcycle and you will now hear a smooth thump. It’s a prominent difference from the older generation engine. It does not sound clanky at all. The 410 on the Scram is the best tuned variant of the LS410 till date. I am glad and honestly, pleasantly surprised that Royal Enfield went on to tune the engine to make it suitable for Urban use. Most manufacturers don’t even bother with ergonomics, let alone tuning the engine when they come with stickered variants. You know what I mean!

Take Scram 411 for a spin and immediately you notice how much easier it is to handle and flick around in traffic. The shorter wheeler base owing to the 19-inch wheel makes hell of a difference. The power delivery is on point and all that jerky feeling at lower revs is gone. The engine is a lot peppier and more eager to get going in any direction you point it at. If you want it to, it can behave like the hooligan, you all secretly want it to. You can continue doing the same off road as well, since the off-road tire treads have been retained and suspension travel is same as before. The suspension now is in a firmer state of tune which makes the handling point on and agile.

The braking has improved, and the dual channel ABS works well and is non-intrusive. However, the ability to switch off the ABS has been removed. Not a big concern, we all know pulling out a fuse can fix that for you, if needed 😉. In the list of items dropped, center stand & luggage rack as well. It’s optional and can be added later. There is a provision to add a Tripper Navigation console as optional as well.

Overall, I think this variant of Himalayan, err Scram. It’s called the Himalayan Scram 411 for a reason, right! It’s gone from a functional, purpose-built motorcycle to a peppy multipurpose motorcycle. It still has all the good things of the Himalayan and Royal Enfield just made it better.

And we thought, why fix it, when it isn’t broken?