Royal Enfield Scram 411 Review

I've just come back from riding a Royal Enfield Scram 411 7000 kilometres on and off road around New Zealand. I've been asked a lot of questions about what the bike's like and how does it compare to the Himalayan 411 that the bike's based on. For those who don't know, I've ridden the Himalayan 411 about 50,000 kilometres around Australia, so I've got some idea what that's like. So this is my look at the Scram, how it went in New Zealand, some observations and who the bike might suit. Firstly, you have to know what the bike was designed for. It's no use looking at a Ferrari sports car if you're going to go four-wheel driving. Maybe something like a Toyota Landcruiser would be better. The Scram, I'd say, is designed for exploring both in the city and out in the country and off-road. So cruising through the city's back lanes, coastal esplards, then up into the winding hills, then into the country where you might come across a dirt road and decide to go explore down it and see where it takes you. Creating something that's designed to do more than one thing at a budget is going to mean compromises. So it's not going to perform as well as a high-performance street bike on the road or be able to keep up with a dirt bike off the road. But you're not going to be able to take a street bike off-road without having some clearance issues or damaging it or getting it stuck. And riding a dirt bike on the road, it's not the best. Believe me, I've tried it. So taking that into consideration, how did this bike perform in New Zealand? Well, I was there to explore. Wanting to go along the coast roads, into the mountains to explore some of the more famous tracks and also some of the less known ones. The first thing I noticed coming from the Himalayan 411 to the Scram 411 was the way it turned on road. It was a lot lighter and faster steering. It actually caught me off guard the first time I tipped it into a tight corner. It went a lot quicker than I was used to. The reason was the Himalayan has a 21-inch front wheel and the Scram has a 19-inch front wheel and that's what you would expect from a smaller wheel with a smaller diameter. So the lighter quicker turning in of the Scram is probably one of the biggest differences between the two bikes. So I found the Scram better on the road through the tight twisty turns and more fun. So that begs the question, what was the 19-inch front wheel like on Scram off-road? A 21-inch front wheel enables the wheel to roll over obstacles a lot easier and it's a bit more stable because of the size of it. On dirt roads that were maintained the bike was good. I had no issues even on that skatey gravel. It was punchy enough when riding up steep side tracks with the loose powdery dirt when James and I were exploring Skippers Canyon Road. I did take the bike down some rocky tracks, not hard enduro single tracks but more like tracks you might wander down when exploring to a point you can't see a track anymore and well I didn't have any issues. Remembering I'm not gunning it like I would on a dirt bike. I didn't get bounced around much to the point where I thought I might lose control. It just kept tractoring over everything and I found it quite stable. Very similar to the Himalayan 411 where it has that low center of gravity feel. I went through a bunch of water crossings maybe 50 and again I found the bike really stable. A few times I hit unseen submerged rocks which pushed me in a different direction but never felt like I was out of control. I did climb up one track that was decently steep and had a lot of loose rocks but again like crossing through the water the bike was stable and just tracked it up so I felt like the 19 inch front wheel was big enough to deal with that kind of terrain. I think if it was steeper and the rocks were looser and larger that's where the Himalayan 411 would probably become your preferred option. If it then went the next level you'd probably be wanting to look at a lighter more powerful bike, almost a dirt bike. Fuel wise when cruising on the road not pushing it I was getting just under that 450 kilometers to a 15 liter fuel tank so it was basically the same as the Himalayan which you would expect as they use the same engine. That works out to about 30 kilometers per liter. If you're pushing it then obviously you'll be getting less range. I don't know if my Himalayan is just a bit tired and I was carrying a lot more gear when using it in Australia but the Scram seemed to have a little more power but that could also be to do with the fact the Scram has less stuff on it which I'll get to in a minute. Talking about power, most of New Zealand roads are 100 kilometers per hour which the Scram handled comfortably. I never felt like I was pushing the bike. There are a few stretches that are 110 kilometers per hour on the main highways and again the Scram sat comfortably but note I didn't come across any headwinds like experience crossing the Nullarbor in Australia which when I did that did drop the top end speed of the Himalayan. Braking I found that they were competent and did the job on the Scram. Remember when I'm riding I'm exploring. I'm not pushing a bike hard like you might on a street bike, accelerating fast, braking hard into corners but if you want to ride a bike like that you're probably not going to be looking at a bike like this. Standing position for me was good on the Scram when off-road and it probably wouldn't take much to adjust to suit unless you're quite tall. The seating position is upright and comfortable for all-day riding and basically the same as the Himalayan 411 which again you would expect. The actual seat on the Scram I found more comfortable than the one on the Himalayan. I never got a sore butt. Now the Scram has a few differences to the Himalayan. There is no windscreen on the Scram. There wasn't a lot of long stretches with a lot of wind so I didn't feel like I needed one and on the highway I didn't really feel like I was getting buffeted by the wind but again I didn't get a lot strong winds which actually New Zealand is quite famous for. The dashes are different whereas the Himalayan 411 is analog. The Scram is all digital and I found it easy to read but I do like a simple bike so I'm really just checking if I'm on or under the speed limit and how much fuel range I've got left as I'm normally looking out there at what's coming up. There is one thing that the Himalayan 411 has that the Scram doesn't and I was a little disappointed when I got a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have a centre stand. If you have to fix a flat tyre on the side of the road a centre stand makes life a lot easier. I mean I did it without it so it didn't stop me from changing a flat tyre and over 7,000 kilometres I only had one flat tyre so it's not a common occurrence. Also not having a centre stand is a little less weight so the bike's a little lighter which gives it a little bit more performance so there's always that compromise. I did make one adjustment to the Scram. I swapped out the back section of the Scram for a back section of Himalayan. It has that plate where you can put a back bag on as I've traveled with a back bag and a backpack. Having the backpack means you need more space to be able to put a back bag on so if you didn't have a backpack you'd be fine to have a back bag on the back of the Scram. So what did I think of the bike overall? Well I think it was fit for purpose for what I was doing in New Zealand. When exploring you're not commuting from A to B trying to do it in the fastest possible time so it didn't need to be the fastest bike in the world and the fact that I was stopping a lot having a smaller bike which is a bit more nimble was actually quite handy as I go down a track and need to reverse out. Obviously another bonus was that it was quite fuel efficient. For the types of tracks I was going on the bike had enough off-road ability to handle those kind of tracks fine but as I mentioned before if you want to go for more technical tracks, steeper, you might look at something different. So if the kind of tracks I rode was what you mainly ride the question becomes why would you pay more for the extra ability if you were never going to use it. Another thing is the price. In Australia it's around $8,000 so at the lower end of the market there are other bikes out there two, three, even more times the price. I wouldn't want to get to a track or a road I want to explore and think I might drop it all the costs of repair and all those sort of things coming into your mind where if it's a cheaper bike you just go and ride the and even though it's a cheaper bike I didn't have any issues. Like with my Himalayan I've done 50,000 roughly k's on it and again no issues. Originally when they first came out they had some teething problems but from what I've heard you don't seem to see that many issues anymore and what I like out of a bike when exploring is to forget about it. Just it does its thing like a tractor it just keeps going doing the job no matter what you throw at it it just keeps going and again I found this like the Himalayan the Scram did the same thing. Now to answer the most common question I get what is the difference between the Scram and the Himalayan? Well they do overlap a lot obviously the Scram's based on the Himalayan. The Scram I found was a bit better on the road with that small front wheel and just a little bit more dynamic in that situation. Capable off-road as if you've watched the series you'll see where the Himalayan probably comes in especially with the 21 inch front wheel more stability is off-road. I found it just I didn't push the Scram as much but I found the Himalayan a bit more capable off-road so it depends what you ride which one you might pick. If you were going to commute on it or you ride around town a lot more but you still want something to be able to you know go out the weekend and blast some trails or something that aren't too difficult the Scram's probably your bet but if you're going to spend more time on the dirt exploring tracks and trails and getting lost probably I would lean towards the Himalayan but in saying that the Scram was great had a ball traveling around New Zealand on it it did what I needed it to do it's a good traveling bike. If you have any questions I might be able to answer just write them below and I'll see you in the next one.