His name is Hunter. He’s a Himalayan 450.
The slowest sensible bike I could buy, set up for slow roads. The honest ledger of what’s running, what I’ve changed, and what’s broken.
Specs.
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.
Honest record of every service, every part replaced, every thing that broke. The older entries are sparse — I’ll back-fill from the channel as I migrate the records here.