Bajaj Dominar 400 vs Royal Enfield Himalayan 450: two answers to the same highway

Both of these motorcycles make the same promise on the same piece of paper: forty brake horsepower from one large cylinder, enough to carry two adults and their luggage at a genuine highway pace. The ₹67,000 that separates their entry prices is not a quality gap. It is a statement about what each company thinks you will be doing with that power, and the interesting part of this comparison is how consistently each one sticks to its own theory.

The engines, which are not the same tool

On the dyno sheet they look like siblings. In the saddle they are two different characters.

The Himalayan’s 452cc liquid-cooled single puts its 40 Nm down at 5,500 rpm and keeps pulling to a peak at 8,000, which means the rider selects a gear for a corner exit and the motorcycle finishes the job. It rewards a high revs-in, late-braking style in a way no Royal Enfield has before, and on a ghat road it is a genuinely athletic machine — the chassis holds its line, and the 21-inch front wheel and slim tyre section let it turn in more keenly than its size suggests.

The Dominar’s 373cc unit is flatter and more blunt, in the good sense. Its 35 Nm arrives from just above idle and does not fall off much anywhere, so the six-speed gearbox exists mainly to reduce noise. You ride it in fifth and sixth at 60 to 100 km/h, you rarely touch the clutch, and you arrive. It does not rev with the same enthusiasm and the peak lands 800 rpm later, but for the specific task of covering ground without asking anything of the rider, it is arguably the more appropriate engine of the two.

Wind is the other half of the highway argument. The Bajaj’s two-part screen adjusts through four positions and its under-seat exhaust keeps the heat away from the pillion, so at 110 km/h the Dominar is the quieter, cooler place to spend an hour. The Enfield pushes air at the rider, and its heat in slow, hot traffic is a known complaint that the catalogue does not bother to hide.

The Dominar is a motorcycle that has been to the shop and bought the touring equipment. The Himalayan is the touring equipment, fitted at the factory.

Where the Himalayan stops being a comparison

240 mm of suspension travel at both ends, 230 mm of ground clearance against the Bajaj’s 170 mm, a 21-inch front wheel on spoked rims shod in tubeless tyres, and ABS that can be switched into an off-road mode so the rear wheel is allowed to slide on gravel in a controlled way. The higher variant adds IMU-based cornering ABS, which is the sort of equipment that was reserved for far more expensive motorcycles until recently.

Ride both on a broken metaled road and there is no contest. The Dominar is a 17-inch-wheeled tourer being asked to do something it was not designed for and its wide 150-section rear tyre hunts for ruts on coarse tarmac exactly as you would predict. The Himalayan stops feeling like a heavy motorcycle and starts feeling like a light one, and the rider spends the day picking lines rather than enduring them. This is also where the extra money went. It was never hiding.

Two-up, and the everyday maths

For a pillion on tarmac the Bajaj is the easier sell: a low, flat dual panel, mirrors on the bar rather than the tank for a wider view, and heat routed away from the passenger’s legs. The Enfield counters with suspension that absorbs what the seat cannot, a hill hold for a loaded ramp start, and a taller saddle that gives the passenger a better view of whatever is causing the traffic.

In a city, weight is almost identical at 193 kg against 196 kg, so the difference comes down to height and width. The Dominar is undeniably broad but its 810 mm seat means most riders put both feet down, which is worth more at a long signal than any specification. The Himalayan’s 825 mm saddle is challenging below average rider height even with the lower seat option, and the servicing bill on a liquid-cooled engine with a six-axis IMU is the highest Royal Enfield asks of anyone in this line-up.

On claimed efficiency the Enfield wins on paper at 30 kmpl against 28, and its 17-litre tank is sized for the kind of crossings it is sold for. Our own mixed-route riding gave up around 27 kmpl from the Himalayan and 25 from the Dominar, both with a passenger and both in heat, which is the sort of gap that pays for itself about once every two years.

Choosing

Buy the Dominar 400 if your riding is 90 per cent tarmac, if you carry a passenger, and if you would rather spend the difference in price on fuel, tyres and a second helmet. Buy the Himalayan 450 if there is a real chance you will turn onto a road that has no surface, because nothing else at this money is equipped for that day, and on the way there it is the more involving motorcycle to ride.