Good news for Honda CB Twister fans. Honda CB Twister has been honored as Indian Motorcycle of the Year 2011. Indian Motorcycle of The Year (IMOTY) is the India’s most prestigious award for motorcycles. It is decided by a jury panel which includes senior journalist from India’s leading automobile magazines.
To qualify for IMOTY awards the bike should hit the showroom in India before 30th November in the corresponding year and should have been homologated for Indian type of approval. Apart from these bikes with facelifts, minor changes in specification and power do not qualify for these awards.
Thereafter the nominated motorcycles are judged on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, performance, safety, design, comfort, functionality, rider’s satisfaction, ergonomics, environmental responsibility, technical innovation and value for money. The motorcycle will be allotted points for each parameter by jury panel. The motorcycle which gets maximum points will be declared as IMOTY bike of the year.
This time there were total 13 member in the jury IMOTY 2011 awards which included Bertrand D’Souza and Shubhabrata Marmar from Overdrive, Girish Karkera and Debabrata Sarkar from Top Gear, Aspi Bhathena from Bike India, Pablo Chaterji from Business Standard Motoring and Vikrant Singh from Auto Bild.
Motorcycles which made their names to final list for the Indian Motorcycle of The Year 2011 were Bajaj Pulsar 135LS, Bajaj Discover 150, Honda CB Twister, Mahindra Stallio, TVS Jive and TVS Max-4R.
There was very close fight between Honda CB Twister and Bajaj Pulsar 135LS for the first rank. But at the end Honda CB Twister defeated Bajaj Pulsar 135LS with margin of 3 points. Honda CB Twister got 66 points while Bajaj Pulsar 135LS got 63 points. The difference between second and third rank was very large. TVS Jive got third position with 48 points, 15 points less than Bajaj Pulsar 135LS.
Congratulating the winners of ICOTY & IMOTY, Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. said, “We are here to celebrate the achievements of the Indian automobile industry and to honour the focused and rigorous efforts made by auto makers in the areas of Design excellence and innovation and R&D. The ‘Indian Car of the Year’ and ‘Indian Motorcycle of the Year’ awards recognize the auto manufacturer with the highest level of performance in terms of product development, quality, timely delivery, competitive pricing, project management and customer service.”
In the past, the Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY) awards were given to Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi (2008), Yamaha R15 (2009) and Kawasaki Ninja 250R (2010).
– Mahavir Kothari
