Kawasaki Ninja Marching its troops into India

Following Ninja 250, Kawasaki is all set to action to introduce a variety of sports bike into the Indian Market.

Yes Obviously it's true...

After the success of Ninja 250R which eventually rocked roads, but due to its higher price for a lower capacity bike prevented many to go for Lesser priced R15, Pulsar or just go a step beyond and buy higher end bikes.

After looking into the thirst for higher end bikes in the Hearts of Indians, Kawasaki wanted to quench the thirst by introducing its further ninjas (bigger than 250c). The most expected was the 650R.

Definitely 650R is going to be priced above 4Lacs which will be too costly for most of us, but still who wants power to rock around will not be a deal for them.

To be frank, there is no objection from the Govt. for driving these monsters on our roads provided we follow proper traffic rules.

Also plan for getting Z750 and Z1000 are also confirmed by Kawasaki.

The question is CKD Kits (Completely Knocked Down kits) can be brought at a price of nearly 1.5 Lacs (estimated) for Ninja 250 to be imported to india but the bike costs more than 2.5Lacs. So its again a onfusion that prices would make the bikes unreachable by customers.

Why can't Kawasaki has its own Marketing Zone in India?

Its not my question, its probably the question from all the Kawasaki fans of India...

Lets expect for the best.

Cheers!!!

Harley Davidson - Strong in the Indian Market

The World's leader in Automobile manufacturing, Leader of Cruiser bikes, Professional motorcycle manufacturers, creator of Heritage Bikes of the world - Harley Davidson motorcycle co., has recently launched its Indian HQ near Delhi.

Address:
Harley Davidson Motorcycle co.,
M.G. Road,
Gurgaon,
Delhi NCR.

The Headquarters was has one among the most sophisticated workshops of the world which is operational. It seems that the Harley theme was implemented all over the headquarters by the architects who were among the best in the world.

The most eye-catching thing in the Workshop is amp full of space has been allocated for training.

As the first step into the indian market, HD (Harley Davidson) has launched 6 range of cruiser bikes whose price ranges from 7Lakhs to 35 Lakhs with respet to hte engine capacity from 883cc to 1800cc.

The range of bikes that were launched in Indian market are:

1. Sportster (7L - 12L)
2. Dyna (14L-15.5L)
3. Softail ( 18.5L-19.5L)
4. V-Rod (19L)
5. Touring (20.5L-22L)
6. CVO (35L)

Discover 150cc - The Smaller gets Smarter

Discover 150cc has come up, but not in its Sprint edition, but in its Newer edition. The expected Discover was much different from actual one. But not more disappointing. To be frank it has it has met the requirement for which it was expected in the 150cc segment. Yes! Mileage! The best mileage in the 150c segment was currently provided by Unicorn and Suzuki GS150R with an best mileage of 63kmpl and 62kmpl respectively. But the new Discover 150 provides you with an awesome mileage of 72Kmpl which is even hard for a 125cc motorcycle.

Everybody would be thinking that when mileage is good then definitely the performance will be bad. astonishingly the performance side did not disappoint too much for the bike's side. The bike delivers 12.75nm@5500rpm which is one among the best torque producing engines which over performs more possibly the Unicorn which has 12.8nm@5500rpm. We could possibly support that Unicorn has better torque but still we should mind the weight of the bike which is around 27Kgs more than that of weight of Discover 150cc.

Specifications:
Engine capacity : 144.8cc
Output capacity : 13Bhp@7500rpm
Engine Torque : 12.75nm@5500rpm
Gear : 5 speed (5-Down)
Fuel Capacity : 8 Ltrs
Weight : 121 Kgs

Pros:

1. Lightest bike in 150cc segment with just 121Kgs
2. Excellent mileage - 75Kmpl on Highways & Overall average mileage of 65Kmpl and more
3. Coolest Top Speed of 110Kmph
4. Excellent torque 12.75nm@5500rpm with superior accceleration from 0 to 60Kmph within 6 seconds
5. Disc covers (Truly not a Pro)
6. Price range of 53K to 54K

Cons:

1. new 150cc Engine in the Old 100cc chassis
2. Lesser output power (even lesser than Pulsar135cc)
3. No fairing cowls as in Sprint edition
4. No Digital Speedometer
5. No Tachometer
6. No special handling features implemented
   

Cheers!!!

Best Buy Bikes - Options chosen for you

Below are the list of Best bikes which has been selected based on the Three factors which has been discussed in our previous post.

I believe that detailed explanation are not required for why the bike has been chosen.

1. Less than 100cc- Economy - Discover 100 DTS-Si from Bajaj
2. Less than 100cc- Performance - Splendor NXG from HeroHonda
3. 101cc to 110cc - Economy - Star City from TVS
4. 101cc to 110cc - Performance - CB Twister from Honda
5. 111cc to 125cc - Economy - Platina 125 DTS -i from Bajaj
6. 111cc to 125cc - Performance - Gladiator from Yamaha
7. 126cc to 135cc - Economy -XCD 135 DTS - Si from Bajaj
   
8. 126cc to 135cc - Performance -Pulsar 135 LS from Bajaj
   
9. 136cc to 150cc - Economy - Discover 150 from Bajaj
10. 136cc to 150cc - Performance - R15 from Yamaha
    
11. 151cc to 160cc- Economy - Apache RTR from TVS
    
12. 151cc to 160cc - Performance - Apache RTR EFI from TVS
    
13. 161cc to 180cc- Economy - Pulsar 180 DTS - i from Bajaj
    
14. 161cc to 180cc - Performance - Apache RTR 180 from TVS
    
15. 181cc to 230cc- Economy - Pulsar 220 DTS - i from Bajaj
    
16. 181cc to 230cc - Performance - Pulsar 220 DTS - i from Bajaj and Karizma from HeroHonda
    

Above 230cc are pure performance oriented bikes and cost jumps above 2 Lakhs. Hence they are not considered in this list.

Discrepancies may exist and kindly post them as comments. Let's discuss...

Cheers!!!

Best Buy Bikes - Just to Help you to identify your bike

Dear Friends,

It is not new to get confused to choose a bike in India whose automobile market is well diversified. Even when everybody says that it is easy to choose a bike but definitely it is not. To be frank i have noticed many of them including my colleagues who just bought a bike because of his uncle's word suffered a lot with it and sold it within six months for the price which made me to feel for him.

While choosing a bike one should think about three major factors, they are:

1. Physical ability
2. Usability
   
3. Maintainability

Physical Ability: refers to the ability to drive the bike. Usually these factors can be easily met as a tall person will know that he can't drive a short bike and short guy will not choose a tall bike. even when some people make wrong decision, the probability of the people who make wrong decisions on physical ability factors will be less than 2%. So this factor need not be considered as a priority factor.

Usability: refers to the usage of the bike. In detail, how the rider's traveling patterns will be? Generally, people choose bike by their external appearance. But that is not fair. The Patterns of your usage requirements play a vital role here. (e.g: A professional reasonable doesn't need more than a 100cc motor cycle if he travel for short distance say within 10Kms, But it depends... because a merchant who need to travel 100 - 150kms a day will also choose a 100cc bike for him for good mileage). So we have the options to choose but choosing your option will be influenced only by you.

Maintainability: refers to the level of care a rider pays to his/her bike. more than 50% of the people forget this or not aware of this factor. let us consider a person who bought a fuel efficient 100cc bike and use to travel for 150kms daily, he needs to change his engine oil more frequently (once in 1000Kms), bike needs to serviced every month so as to improve the life of the bike and quality of the bike. else the characteristics of the bike will soon begin to fade out. If he had chosen a bike with engine capacity of 150cc or more, he might not have to worry much about the bike provided proper maintenance plays a role there also but not as frequent as e have to do for a 100cc bike.

Hope you got the important points to identify a right bike for you, we will discuss on the Best buy bikes in the next post.

Cheers!!!

Indian Bikes - Segment Width increases

As per the current scenario in our Indian Automobile Industry especially the motorcycle segment is itself increases its width and in volume. Each segment bike has Economy and Performance range with in it. (Say100 cc segment which is meant for Economy has also got performance range included in it)

The change in the market segment is actually based on the requirements of the people of India who actually have varied taste in choosing their bikes.

Initially 100cc segment bikes ruled the roads in 90's. But later 2000 every thing started to change and the new era has begun. Pulsar, CBZ, Karizma are one among them who increased the demand for performance bikes.

However, today the trend has been changed and people look into performance even for the 100c bikes, this can be understood by the overwhelming response for the CB Twister. Very soon we'll be analyzing the best bikes that were released in the market recently.

Cheers!!!