His name is Hunter. He’s a Himalayan 450.
The slowest sensible bike I could buy, set up for slow roads. Every spec, every modification, every dollar; the things that worked, and the things that broke.
The bike, by the numbers
Headline mods.
The seven that define how the bike rides today. The full breakdown — every part, every dollar — is below.
The 452 cc, after rain. The engine is the part that doesn’t need upgrading — everything else is just helping it do its job.
Outside Motociclo, Sydney — the day Hunter came home. Mid-2025. The slow leaving had a starting line.
Wash-bay maintenance after a long ride. The bike asks for two things: keep him clean, and ride him often. He keeps his side of the bargain.
The build, in full.
Twenty-nine changes, in seven categories. Roughly ten thousand dollars in parts — the price of turning a sensible commuter into a long-distance adventure tool. Every line is a thing I bought, fitted, or had Motociclo fit, and a sentence on whether it earned its keep.
Six bags, one box. The bike carries what I need for two weeks off-grid.
The cheap insurance against the rocks and the slow-speed drops.
60/40 dirt-biased. Loud on tarmac, quiet on gravel — which is the right way around.
Two changes only. The 452 cc didn’t need much; the front brake did.
Two screens, one satellite, one cruise lever. Routing lives off the phone now.
The small differences between a long day and a sore one.
One box that does three jobs.
The video version of this list — with the Christmas Eve flat-tyre debacle, the speed-wobble that sent me to the UK for a brake hose, and the parts that didn’t quite work the first time — is on the channel.
In New Zealand, on paper.
Hunter shipped to Auckland in February 2026 on a Carnet de Passages en Douane — a twelve-month temporary import, issued by the AAA in Sydney. Australian rego HUN50 still on the plate; insurance now through Kiwibike Brokers in Auckland; the bike currently parked near my parents in Northland while I work out where it goes next.
The carnet expires in late January 2027. By then Hunter has to be re-exported — back to Australia, or onward to wherever the next chapter starts. The slow leaving turned out to be a slow arriving.
HUN50 still on the plate. The carnet says the bike is Australian until late January 2027 — by which time it’s either home, or somewhere further on.
Maintenance log
A record of every service, every part replaced, every thing that broke. Older entries are sparse; I’ll back-fill from the channel as I migrate the records here.