Lot of names and bikes are coming in Indian market. But don’t you all think something is missing? I do appreciate that all Indian manufacturers are trying their best to launch best of the best but still I feel the Power and Technology is missing and that’s why I feel we are still leaving in stone age. I check many magazine’s, I meet many people. The discussion is always about vehicles. Well I am not a specific car lover but yes I am automobile lover.
In the magazines we always sees high power super bikes and then start drooling. At this moment India has got a maximum of 535cc engines. Higher CC motorcycles just made an appearance in India but not manufactured by any Indian company like TVS, Bajaj, Royal Enfield, Hero Honda neither Yamaha, Honda or Suzuki is manufacturing their SB’s.
But when R15 came in the market my hopes where high. When I saw the reality, I was really zapped. But then I found they have R125 for Europe, that time my hopes went on toss. In fact later on I did more digging for 125 series I found there are 125 series motorcycles in abroad which are better than R15. In India buying power has been increased rapidly. But neglecting market demand is always bad scenario from company or government.
There are companies who have 125 series for example Honda CBR 125, Derbi 125 GPR (2 Stroke), Aprilia 125cc RS (2 Stroke), Cagiva Mito 125cc etc. And Should we call our bikes POCKET BIKES?
TVS has got RTR, I never understand why they are coming with that commuter body style. Pulsar somehow changed the style in 220 but still feels something is missing. This generation is not like kind of a Priya scooter, Chetak segment. The segment is gone beyond that level and it is the Super Bike segment.
Indian government may not allow other companies to launch their products due to norms & laws and so they may not be allowing Indian manufacturers to manufacture higher CC bikes for some reason. But why Indian manufacturers are still launching bikes with old style. In 125cc, 150cc they can do body styling in a better way. Are they stuck up with their old dies? Sometimes I feel Chinese bikes are better at least they are good looking for example KC118.
In cruiser segment Bajaj and Royal Enfield did very good job though they just changed the body and chassis. But availability of the segment which I appreciate. Yamaha started getting cruisers but some how they couldn’t make it for long, they stopped with Enticer.
Karizma and Pulsar 220 are very good for Dakar Rally. But unfortunately we are not taking part in that rally. Well I know the engine capacity is too small for Dakar Rally. I was expecting something good from Honda, but they broke everyone’s hope. The next wait is Kawasaki Ninja 250R, but recently I heard they are going to launch that bike a bit late. KTM will be out of our question for the time because of it’s segment & the cost.
I think we should go on unlimited strike, we should not buy any motorcycle from any manufacturer until the manufacturer gets better segment and so government should allow for better looking and powerful motorcycles for Indian buyer. All our technical knowledge and work experience is just a waste. No matter what we discuss about current motorcycles you and me still knows it’s an absolute waste.
We are still away from MOTOGP and F1. Countries which are smaller than India are participating in MOTOGP and we just watch them on TV. We don’t even have proper circuit racing tracks in major cities. By having only one or two tracks will not help rider. Lack of availability of tools means giving birth to illegal street racer. Due to that accidents. When the tool is available we use it proper way.
Few months back I was thinking about putting supercharger in the motorcycle. My last article was related to Torque, in that you must have seen some of my modifications of carburetor arrangement with higher carb size & KnN filter. My aim was to put supercharger in between filter and carb. But unfortunately the supercharger which I bought was not good, which was scrap for my purpose. But soon or later I will be putting supercharger in our Indian motorcycle for sure. Some of the electric supercharger may help to increase the power, but it’s a big affair to experiment with it.
The blankness in Indian market is like a Black Hole. Companies are coming with some small innovations for example led lights in tail lamp, lights in switch console, side stand light, TCI ignition system, Endurance clutch, Gas filled shock absorber, DTSi, DTS Fi, does it increase the performance? In High RPM engines we reached till 22 bhp (I think). Well the only thing what we can do is wait and watch.
As we know recently TVS and Bajaj launched their new products in the market. But do you all think they will do better?. Well for me Bajaj is like a Pop Corn Machine, I am sorry if I am hurting Bajaj Lovers but that’s the truth. We have seen products from Bajaj all the time, they are launching products with some changes by keeping same engine or whatever, face lift but whats the use?
- Chinmay Dangre
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article Deepak, I enjoyed a lot.
Thanks, but FYI, the appreciation is forwarded to Chinmay Dangre, who wrote this article.
Thank you Dinesh for giving some time and look at my article. It may not be related to any technical issues of motorcycle. But I am sure it is related to one big technical problem between buyer, manufacturer and government…
Chinmay, I would not agree with you one bit about Bajaj. They may facelift a bike but they do try to extract more power from the engine, but HH never does that. They just slap on new stickers. So Bajaj is way better then HH.
May be you are right….but frankly speaking, at one point all the companies are same…
Dear bike enthusiastic people, please do not blame the govt, this is a marketing strategy employed by every bike manufaturer to get into the bike industry, Only few are interested in performance oriented bikes and every performance oriented bikes cost a huge pile for ordinary users, just imagine the people working in garments, working as farmers and working as sales guy would they prefer to buy performace bikes, they need real commuter which offer low maitanence and high fuel efficiency and that is what manufaturer provide, they will not set up a new factory for performace bikes, this will cost them a lot, as we see the 125 CC performace bikes in UK and other countries they have higher BHP but their fuel efficiency is as low as 18Km/ltr, but the yamaha 150CC R15 is tuned to provide 40Km/ltr, we can choose only one either power or economy, this was also the same reason why yamaha failed in the 4 stroke segment from past a decade. Now Bajaj is trying to get most out of its engine is a bullshit statement as bajaj engine build quality is very low, it vibrates at high speed, the materials are not of highest standard, same goes to Hero Honda hence they limit the speed of the bike to compensate the vibrations.
Yamaha recently has imported goods on it but it will lose quality once the production starts in India for R15. this happened to Rx135.
If we are looking at real performace bikes then the best way is import them, do not wait for the local manufactures to provide them that is another decade far from current suituation
U said exactly what i’m thinking for the last 10 years..from the time i own a YAMAHA RXZ…1998..lol
Now my hopes r over…anyway i wish the next generation for a better luck…
I enjoyed reading the article a lot more. Any way good luck for the next generation that at least they have the chance to ride a performance machines with cost not making a whole in the pocket.
Is it good to mix oil with petrol in a four stroke motorcycle at least 2 or 3 times a month to prevent petrol tank from rusting and to keep the engine and other related parts from rust.
perhaps, chinmay is right, bt i would blame d govt rather den manufecturer.
in india, d trafic nd road quality doesnt allw users 2 flow. most of our dearer pets r alws on roads. nxt is economic cndtn, many of us cant efrt more den 1 or 1.5, many of us just nid gud bike at cheap rate. manfr r nt supps 2 lunch bike just 4 thourand odd ppl.
bt at least dey cn upgrate d power.
Awesome Chinmay ….. I feel U are absolutely rite!!! We shud go the harder way around!! Stop buying these in-efficient bikes…..
Well, superbikes will never be manufactured in India, because when we might reach there petrol prices would be very very very high. Our only hope is government reducing import duty to make bikes affordable, which I doubt would ever happen.
hello chinmay can you and me work togethr cos iam also a total freak of motorcycles i will love to work under u if u think so so pls reply soon
This article is full of fantasy and fantasy is better watched in movies. India is underdeveloped in many ways. We have too much problems to worry about MOTOGP or Performance super bikes. many Indians are struggling economically. Many are middle class with severe cuts in budget to keep their life running. Even they can afford super bikes, its not for all but for some groups of people who race, speed and stuff. First we must have well organized traffic control, well built roads, decent riders with road manners (not with illiterate pimps with pulsars) etc., when all sorted out, naturally india will shift to performance bike. If you have money, so many of em and don’t know how to use them. Import the bikes you like.