The Royal Enfield Scram 440 gets a more refined engine and a six-speed gearbox
Story: Anvay Mahajan
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
The 2025 Royal Enfield Scram 440 was unveiled last year at the MotoVerse, which was followed by its soft launch in January 2025. I personally feel that this bike is the lone ranger, an odd duck in the Royal Enfield stable that wants to carve its own niche—customers who want everything from one bike, but one that is not too extreme in any respect. Those who want to go off-roading or café hopping or highway cruising or for a ride in the countryside, but do everything at their own pace.
The new Scram 440 is very similar to the previous Scram 411. The chassis is based on the old Himalayan, albeit with a few tweaks. Now the 440 has a higher 10-kilogram payload capacity and it can fit a top box should you so desire. Visually, it gets new colour options. There are two variants: Trail and Force. Whereas the Trail features wire-spoked wheels, the Force, which is the top-spec variant, features alloy wheels with tubeless tyres. Wire-spoked wheels with a tubeless tyre option, just as on the Himalayan 450, could have been of great convenience, but it would have increased the cost of the bike. The lighting is now all-LED as well.
The principal update is the engine. By increasing the bore diameter of the LS 411 engine by 3.0 millimetres, the new LS 440 engine now displaces 443 cubic centimetres (cc) and produces 25.07 hp and 34 Nm. The increase is just one hp and two Nm but the engine feels noticeably more refined and easier to ride. Equipped with the new six-speed gearbox, the bike is good enough for highway cruising at around 100-120 km/h. However, because the engine is air-cooled, it can get quite hot in city traffic, but on highways you would not feel the heat. The best part is the exhaust which provides great entertainment in traffic with its pops and bangs.
The ground clearance of the new Scram, at 200 mm, is similar to the old Scram’s, and the seat height is a reasonable 795 mm. Being a 5’ 5” guy, I was able to get astride the bike easily, but I was not able to flatfoot it. The kerb weight is 196 kilograms; some might find that to be heavy. I had a few instances in the parking lot where I was not able to move the bike as easily as I would have liked.
The new Scram has a 41-mm telescopic fork with 190 mm of travel and a monoshock at the rear with 180-mm wheel travel. This suspension set-up worked really well on highway and during mild off-roading, but it is not at the Himalayan’s level. The brakes are really good. Their efficiency has been improved by the addition of bigger-piston callipers. I did a very short stint on an off-road section, and the dual-sport tyres worked really well. But I feel this bike is more highway-focused; maybe, because it had alloy wheels.
The Royal Enfield Scram 440 is a very raw motorcycle. It is not equipped with many tech features. It only has a USB Type-A port and an optional Tripper pod. This makes it more usable for long-distance riding.
What I did not like about this bike was related to quality issues. The specific Royal Enfield Scram 440 which we were allotted had done just 1,300 km and the clutch lever already had some play and there were few clattering noises once I got up to moderate speed.
The price of the Royal Enfield Scram 440 starts at Rs 2.08 lakh and the top-spec Force variant is priced at Rs 2.15 lakh (both prices ex-showroom). Currently, it competes with the Triumph Scrambler 400 X, priced at Rs 2.67 lakh. The difference is more than Rs 50,000, and the Royal Enfield Scram 440 stands out as a better option if budget is a constraint.
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