The scooter market in India is big, vibrant and quite diversified. It isn’t just one generic scooter market, but sector with many nuances, and designs specific to certain demographics based largely on age and sex. There’s also a unisex, one size-fits all, mid engine family scooter segment, and after the success of the highly focused Ray and Ray-Z, Yamaha want a piece of this pie too.

Yamaha’s MD, Asano Masaki was reported as saying just that. He mentioned that company intended to capitalise on the success of the Ray, and use it as a platform to catapult it’s new family scooter into the fray. While being as yet unconfirmed, it is being widely speculated that this new scooter could announce itself at the upcoming Delhi Auto Expo in 2014, and is expected to go head-to-head against established segment leaders such as the Honda Activa, Mahindra Duro, Suzuki Access and TVS Wego among others.

Whether or not this new model can propel Yamaha into the big leagues of India’s scooter market only the future will tell. One thing is for sure though, Yamaha will come out all guns blazing in an effort to spread their influence in the scooter market – a market in which their presence is still at a fairly nascent stage.

Story: Harket Suchde

TVS Racing Team rider wins at Raid de Himalaya

R Nataraj, a member of the TVS racing team came out trumps in the Xtreme MotoQuads open class Category ‘C’ for two-wheelers below 250cc at the Raid De Himalaya. Astride his TVS Apache RTR 180, Nataraj battled through the extreme conditions brought about by this high altitude race, this included facing temperatures below the -15°C mark. Much credit for his performance can also be attributed to his hard working service team, who made sure his bike was in peak form throughout the race. His efforts landed him a third placed finish in the overall standings for two wheelers below the 450cc mark as well.

The Raid De Himalaya entered its 15th successive year in existence this year. The competition was stiffer than ever before as the rally saw an unprecedented 153 vehicles participating, including both cars and bikes. The rally covered a mind blowing distance of 1800 kilometres in 6 days, in some of the most arduous terrains, and the highest accessible roads in the country.

Story: Harket Suchde

https://bikeindia.in/15142/

Suzuki bikes have been sold in the US for the last 50 years now, and to mark the occasion, the company have launched a special edition of the Hayabusa there. The venue for the launch was the 2013 American International Motorcycle Expo, and this is their second special edition release in the recent past, joining in with the rest of their 2014 line up.

The Hayabusa’s looks have always been one of its biggest draws, and the 50^th anniversary edition has highlighted them further with this gorgeous red and black two-tone paint job, and red accents for the wheels too. A few licks of contrasting paint around the curves of the bike round up the makeover, and ensure that this bike stands out from the others of its brethren at the very first glance.

The special edition ‘Haya’ is powered by the same 1340cc, inline 4-cylinder engine that is found in the production version, and produces an output of 199PS and 154 Nm of torque. The top speed has been electronically capped at 299 km/h for safety, and the bike will also boast powerful Brembo brakes with ABS technology included. The price of the bike however is yet to be announced.

Story: Harket Suchde