We list all 250cc motorcycles in India at present and you will be surprised at the number of offerings we have now in this segment, which was once thought to be dying…!
Slightly more than a decade back, the biggest motorcycles we had were the 223 cc Hero Karizma, 220cc Pulsars, obviously apart from the classics from Royal Enfields. Then came the Ninja 250R in 2009 which was followed by Honda CBR 250R in 2011-12. Gradually we also saw the entry of Hyosung’s burly GT250R, Aquila 250, Kawasaki Z250, Benelli TNT 25 in the quarter liter segment.
But this segment never really got going in India and we can handpick only the Ninja 250 and the CBR 250R as the standout motorcycles that became popular. Moreover, there was this belief that international markets were longing for more power and makers branched out 300cc machines based on the existing quarter liters or the vice versa. As a result, Ninja 250 was upgraded to Ninja 300 in India; Yamaha introduced the R3 instead of R25 and Honda got the CB300R here.
But the baton to revive the quarter liter segment appears to have been lifted by Bajaj/KTM. We have seen the oncoming of as many as four new motorcycles from them in the recent times, apart from the very aggressive 250 Duke. Let us list all the 250cc motorcycles that we have in the market at this point of time…
All 250cc Motorcycles in India
- KTM 250 Duke
- Husqvarna Svartpilen 250
- Husqvarna Vitpilen 250
- Bajaj Dominar 250
- Yamaha FZ25 (and FZ25S)
- Suzuki Gixxer 250
- Suzuki Gixxer SF 250
- KTM 250 Adventure
It is to be noted that the house of Bajaj, which gave us sports motorcycles at affordable prices, is spearheading this segment with as many as five motorcycles. Interestingly, we now have 250ccs starting from around Rs 1.50 Lakh all the way till ~2.50 Lakh – catering to a wide variety of tastes.
Upcoming 250cc Motorcycles in India
If I have to predict, I believe this 250cc segment will continue to comprise single cylinder motorcycles and twin cylinder bikes will start from 300cc.