Suzuki did not play the lead role this time at the Auto Expo 2010 in two wheelers. It remained an underdog and did not even book an exclusive stall for them. Probably due to cost cutting and money saving measures, Suzuki Motorcycles shared the floor with its car division stall, Maruti Suzuki. However, they did not fall back on the latest cutting edge products they had on display. The stall was not as dazzling as we would have expected from them but still the scintillating products made for the absence of the ambience.
The tremendous piece of machinery that was on display was lead by an innovative 400cc two cylinder Maxi scooter, Skywave, with a gigantic console which, by the looks of it, felt like a small cockpit which can throw loads and loads of data to the rider. The scooter seems to have taken a few styling cues from the big daddy, Hayabusa.
Other bikes that were on display included the insane Hayabusa itself and the torque monster Intruder which have been recently launched in India. Semi faired SV, 125cc scooter named as Skydrive and the Burgman Fuel cell scooter along with a Gixer were the other offerings from Suzuki on display. Most of the bikes followed the white (with blue stripes) theme which included the supreme Busa, SV and the Gixer and needless to say they looked incredibly sexy.
We were all laurels for the kind of bulbous looks the busa carries and the paint theme it was showing off. After observing the Gixer, we were a little surer that somebody must have had the slightest of traces of Gixers in mind while designing the Hero Honda ZMRs, that the headlamp assembly looks strikingly similar. SV’s back reminded us of today’s Pulsars with similar twin dash rear brake lights.
There were no traces of any of the Indian commuter bikes in the expo which was probably due to the lack of space available and Suzuki wanted to utilize every inch of the available space. Ohh and did we miss upon the other half of the story! Yes, Suzuki carried the best looking models among all the manufacturers and how many noticed that we are (currently) talking about the living ones! Super scintillating machinery with glittering girls made Suzuki a must visit for almost all enthusiasts (we only meant ’automotive’ ;))
Apart from the absence of Indian commuter bikes, there was no trace of the much speculated Gladius also. According to the reports we have, Suzuki might launch the naked Bandit 1250S towards the start of the new financial year at a price of close to 10-11 lakh Rupees. Even the 1000cc GSXR is expected to be rolled into India officially around the similar price tag. Talking about the regular offerings, speculations are ripe about a scooter and a bike from the company. All in all it was a decent show by Suzuki and considering the way they operate we are sure that something is up their sleeve and we would come to know about it just at the very last moment.