I can confidently say that I would take the Adventure over the current Royal Enfield Himalayan. And as for the Scrambler, it stole my heart.
BHPian petrolhead_neel recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
My pick from today? The one with my lid on it!
The local Jawa-Yezdi dealership asked me if I would be interested in riding the new Yezdis off-road and volunteering for an event for them. I am not being paid, but I have full access to the Scrambler and the Adventure for two days. Today, I rode them for the first time. Here’s what I think.
The Yezdi Adventure
I hated the design when it came out (so uninspiring, copying elements from the Himalayan, X). Motorcycles mean a lot more to me than just how they are technically, and something like the Adventure will never appeal to me. That said, it impressed me today. I was reluctant to ride it at first, preferring to spend my time with the Scrambler. When I did hop on it, my feelings changed. I still don’t love it, but it’s a very competent motorcycle. I have ridden a Himayalan extensively (and loved it, mostly). However, I can confidently say that I would take the Adventure, with no character and design language, over the current Himalayan (especially with all its issues). The Adventure has been tuned to be as impressive on-road as well, and I didn’t even try that today. In terms of feel, it’s very similar to the Scrambler. It seemed to be lacking the initial punch, it feels a bit more tedious in technical sections, the brakes were mushier on the one I tested… but that’s mostly it. I am not a fan of the busy cockpit and this isn’t the best bike ergonomically when riding off-road. Bad roads, flowy trails, mixed pavement tours should feel amazing. It does seem to heat up more than the Scrambler, but it’s all very manageable. I did stall it a couple of times (the Scram didn’t).
The Yezdi Scrambler
The Scrambler stole my heart. I got off my XPulse, had a good look and turned it on with very standard expectations. It surpassed all of them and how! It took me two minutes to get comfortable with it, and then it was all throttle wide open. I rode through deep sand, gravel, went into ditches and took jumps. The bike did not stutter once. You ride a wave of torque as this Yezdi glides through everything. It carries its weight very well, I had no problems in leaning the bike almost as much as the XPulse when doing 0s and 8s. I have ridden a modified Himalayan with competition level Pirellis and the Scrambler had more grip.
The front suspension is on the stiffer side, and you do need to stand up if you want to ride any sort of an off-road trail. There isn’t a lot of room to move around like the Himalayan but if you do get the standing right, the bike feels one with the body. Ground clearance was a little bit of an issue, but I was probably pushing it more than what it’s designed for.
This is me on the Scrambler. Unfortunately, the only time that they got it on camera is when I endo-ed it. Recovering from this wasn’t too much of an issue. The bike landed on its nose, maintained its stride and went on to the next ditch a few feet away.
The engine is great. It picks right up from the low end (especially on the Scrambler) and delivers power very linearly. Until the midrange, the vibrations are very controlled. Past that, if you gun it, you will feel it in the pegs and the bar, but it doesn’t mind being revved out. Gearshifts are very precise and smooth, but shifting on the fly was difficult with MX boots. I was riding the Scram like I ride my XPulse.
We went all out on these bikes today for an hour and a half, and even though it’s way too early to even start a discussion on reliability, the bikes seem very well made.
The Scrambler has my heart. The Adventure comes very close, but the design ruins it for me. These bikes aren’t posers. They can scramble and adventure.
I get to spend more time with them tomorrow (other riders will be coming in to test them off-road and I will be one of the riders guiding them) and I am so excited. I will pen down another post once I have collected all my thoughts and have ruminated over them.
Keyword: Yezdi Adventure & Scrambler: Opinion of a Hero Xpulse owner