Curtain raised

All of us are familiar with our full fairing pocket rocket YAMAHA R15 which hit the roads about more than 2 yrs ago.. It was a fine ticket for Yamaha to restrengthen its roots in India, also it threatened the rivals and redefined the Yamaha stategy for India.. But the story was ok for only this much time.. With constant efforts of r15's rivals , it was a sure thing that no sooner despite of its innovative technologies it will cry for some more refinement..

Now here comes the all new Yamaha r15 2.0 which is nothing more than a complete cosmetic makeover. Although bike fanatics were expecting some performance upgrades too but this time a serious disappointment on this sphere .

There seems no change in performance values, the power output still remains 17bhp instead of expected value of 22bhp. The company is claiming to have changed the gear ratios to meet the requirements of wider tyre without hampering the decent performance values of outgoing version but, this makes no sense to performance freaks who were waiting eagerly for this chunk.

For those who prefer looks, this new R15 is fully satisfying option.
Major upgrades include-

♦ Newly designed exhaust muffler with R15 badge on it

♦ Redesigned fairing

♦ LED taillight

♦ New 10 spoke alloys

♦ Split seats

♦ Redesigned rear

♦ Floating rear fender

♦ Tyre hugger

An ImpUlse

New Hero minus Honda on capture..

Here’s the new product, not only a product but starting of a new range in domestic market.

Recently renamed Hero Motocorp (Hero Honda – Honda) has cleared up its intention by quickly stepping into new range of dual purpose motorcycles or dirt bikes suitable for both on-road and off-road fun which is  good news for bike enthusiasts.

The bike was spotted several times while its testing, but now it has been announced officially by Hero Motocorp under the name of HERO IMPULSE along with the introduction of new Logo for the company..

spotted test mule

It is supposed to feature a short stroke revvy mill of 150cc mated to 5 speed transmission while producing the peak power of 13.8ps which might not be the one which is powering the current range of HERO HONDAS.  It is expected to bear a high ground clearance of 244mm and a 12litre fuel tank with a kerb weight of just about 120kg that means a nice crunch of power to weight ratio..                                                                                                                                                                             

There isn’t any single word about pricing, but it’s obvious that if Hero Motocorp is first to take this risk of bringing totally new machine to India, they might be expecting a nice scoop from it.

Well, considering what experts say it may hover over the range of 1.2 to 1.3 lacs...

Official display of HERO IMPULSE

What snapshots reveal is its close resemblance to Honda’s NXR- Bros which is already vrooming on Brazilian roads. So if again it’s another Honda then where’s the HERO!!! 

HONDA NXR Bros                                         


                                  

So far company has kept its fingers crossed over any peculiar details of it but surely this one is going to pave the roads for a new segment to burn the Indian tarmac. 

250 mania

Well it was all about 150 cc in previous post, now its time for 250cc segment.

Although we all know that there was a single option of Kawasaki Ninja 250r in domestic market, but a new invader Honda cbr 250r has heated up this segment.. Besides this there are also rumours of pulsar 250, whereas Yamaha is also working on its 250cc.. So there’s a  lot to come for it.

Now there comes talks about 2 main rivals of this segment- Honda CBR 250r , Kawasaki Ninja 250r.

Honda CBR 250r

Kawasaki Ninja 250r

In terms of POWER Ninja is a leader with about 33 bhp of peak power as compared to 26 bhp of CBR 250r. Obviously Ninja is a scorer in terms of speed and peak torque but in terms of middle range grunt cbr 250r is no less, also it excels in terms of handling in city traffic like baby Ninja.. These differences are something that differentiate the two. The basic difference is due to the reason that CBR sports a single cylinder engine with counter balancer mechanism for reduction in vibrations and smooth power delivery unlike that of double cylinder engine of Ninja <KUDOS to Honda for providing counter balancer> !! 

Therefore technically somewhat more advanced baby CBR features the advantages of single cylinder engine to that of double cylinder along with punch like double cylinder.

Honda also sports gadgets like a hi- tech looking digital speedo unlike a simple analog of that of Kawasaki. These things provide it more advanced techy look.

analog of baby ninja

digital HUD of mini cbr

There’s one more feature of CBR 250r that is worth to be applauded is option for ABS along with Honda’s combo break system. Wow , Honda thought about safety of its riders during designing of mini CBR.  That means more confidence in opening the throttle of this beast and sudden application of brakes.

Ninja is available in Black and kawasaki’s hallmark green colour schemes whereas CBR is available in Black-Silver , Red-Silver colour schemes (well no Blue-White for now).

Although there are numerous fans of baby Kawasaki, with its sales figures crossing 1000 units but Honda has kept this thing in mind while pricing its 250cc tool.

Ex showroom price of KAWASAKI NINJA 250r in Mumbai is about 2.84 lacs whereas that of HONDA CBR 250r is about 1.5 to 1.84 lacs( with abs).

So, there seems the big difference which is a boon for riders who want a package similar to that of NINJA 250r by shredding less money.