Bike India Team

Revised R15

February 6, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Yamaha have upgraded their first true Indian super sports bike, the R15. We take a ride to find out how it fulfils the aspirations of those who were eagerly looking forward to version 2.0 of this bike [Read more…] about Revised R15

Pitstop Beauties

February 3, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Pune’s most happening educational hub (Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies (Under Graduate)) is back with with bang this year with its bustling college fest -‘Sympulse’

Following in its foot steps, the college as it did last year, held an event titled ‘Pit Stop’. As the name suggests, the campus’s outdoor parking lot was a stop over for some of the fastest and most expensive bikes and cars Pune has to offer.

The event started off with car show, displaying the world’s finest and most sought after supercars and included a few classics. Students and onlookers were in for a treat with the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, Bentley MK VI, Porsche Boxster, Ferrari F430, Audi RS5, Mercedes SLS AMG, Mercedes C63 AMG, Mercedes SL 500, Mercedes E350 Cabriolet, Aston Martin Vantage, Jaguar XJL, BMW 650i, BMW 645i and the historical London cab. Everyone watched in awe as each car turned the key to enthrall the crowd with the heart soothing sound that makes heads turn.

After gawking at these beauties for an hour, our eyes and ears turned to take a look at the ground shaking two wheeled marvels coming out of the garage and onto the courtyard. As the crowd surrounding the bikes grew larger, each owner who brought his/her love on two wheels started to talk about their bike and regaled the crowd with the screams of each ones engine. The bike that came for this year’s show and tell were the Indian Chief, BMW R60, BSA shooting star, BSA Golden Flash, Norton Dominator, Ducati 848, Ducati Monster, Suzuki GSX 1000R, Aprilia RSV4 and the BMW R1200GS.

Pit stop by Sympulse was definitely an evening that make you walk away with a smile on your face and longings in your heart to one day own one of these beauties. But the main message throughout the show was ‘ATG ATT’ which translates to ‘All the Gear, All the Time’. Safety first people.

BIKE India is proud to be an associate sponsor of this fest and contribute its part in fostering education and love of automobiles amongst the emerging youth of our country. and More information can be had from the Sympulse website at www.sympulsefest.com.

Launched! Honda Dio 2012

February 2, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

dio scooter Close to a decade after the original launch of the light-weight Dio, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has given the automatic scooter a much needed upgrade.

And thankfully, the scooter gets a thorough revision, with a bigger and more powerful 109-cc motor, which has been borrowed from the new Activa, and produces 8.11PS of power @ 7,500rpm and 8.66Nm of torque @ 5,500rpm. Honda claims that this will improve fuel efficiency by 15 per cent, the fiber bodied scooter will now return 55 kpl.

The re-styled 2012 Dio looks chunkier and more sporty with the new aerodynamic design. This is the first gearless scooter in India to sports tubeless tyres and in combination of Honda’s ‘Combi Brake System’ which would improves stability and braking. Other new features include a maintenance-free battery, viscous air filter, 3D emblem and enhanced luggage space under the seat. All this for an attractive price of Rs. 42,362 ex-showroom New Delhi. The new Dio will be available at Honda showrooms from the last week of this month and will be offered in five new colours – Sports Red, Matt Axis Grey Metallic, Pearl Sunbeam White, Candy Palm Green and Leblon Violet Metallic.

Speaking about the launch N.K. Rattan, Vice President – Sales, Marketing & Corporate Affairs, HMSI said, “The increased convenience and comfortable riding position of New Dio will appeal to both style conscious young males and females.”

Stormy New Classic

February 1, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Royal Enfield’s new Desert Storm claims to be a tornado. Does it have enough force to sweep you off your feet? Let’s find out

Story: Ravi Chandnani
Photography: Sanjay Raikar

Royal Enfield launched the Classic 500 at the end of 2009. Since then it has been one of the best selling models in the company’s line-up. The bike has the right aesthetics with a nostalgic appeal that attracts customers without much effort even in these times when performance bikes seem to rule the roost. However, since evolution is inevitable, Royal Enfield have launched two new variants of the Classic with a few tweaks, claiming it to be better than ever.

This new bike, called the Desert Storm, incorporates changes to the front end and the ECU along with a new cool paint job to lend the bike a new character. Firstly, the new paint job, which I am sure every Bullet fan will appreciate. The Desert Storm comes clad in a matte-finish shade of khaki, which lends the bike a raw, rugged and minimalistic character. The Royal Enfield lettering in plain white gels well with the whole retro character.

Let’s now move on to the next big change – the ECU. Now, there was nothing wrong with the ECU of the older bike. However, Royal Enfield have re-mapped the ECU of the new Desert Storm for a smoother power delivery, though we were hardly able to notice the difference between the Classic and the Desert Storm.

Another thing that has changed is the front-end, which now has conventional forks instead of the offset forks seen on older models. But in appearance they look very much like the old forks. The front wheel has also been replaced with a 19-inch one, though the tyre profile (90/90) remains the same.

Royal Enfield claim that the handling of the bike has improved considerably. That is not what we found. Looking back in history we can see that the older bike had a neutral handling compared to the Desert Storm/Classic range because of factors like the placement of the engine and the offset front forks. The original bike had a lower centre of gravity as compared to today’s Classic. However, when Royal Enfield decided to replace the old engine with a modern ‘unit construction engine’ (UCE), the handling of the bike suffered seriously. Today’s Royal Enfield bikes have engines mounted higher in the frame to bridge the gap between the cylinder head and the petrol tank.

Another easily evident problem is the heavy front end. Because the new bikes use the compact UCE motor, the weight becomes concentrated in the front. Besides, the front wheel has moved a little inwards because of the conventional forks, thus adding to the already heavy front. The Royal Enfield engineers have also increased the length of the swing-arm in order to fill up the gap created by the compact engine. This has resulted into a slightly increased wheelbase and also the centre of gravity and has made the front of the bike heavy. We reckon that if Royal Enfield address the aforementioned problems, the handling of these new bikes will certainly improve considerably.

Overall, the new Desert Storm, priced at Rs 1.55 lakh (OTR, Pune), is basically the same old Classic with just a new paint job and new front forks.

Mettlesome Apache

February 1, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

We take India’s first ABS-equipped motorcycle, the TVS Apache RTR 180, onto the twisties of Mahabaleshwar to see how well it fares in real-world conditions

Ever since Adhish came back from his visit to the Oragadam race-track, near Chennai, where he experienced the stopping prowess of the TVS RTR 180 ABS at its extreme, he couldn’t stop singing paens of praise about it, making the rest of us at Bike India impatient to get a feel of the bike in question. “Even on practically frictionless tarmac the RTR ABS imparted to its riders a confidence that definitely wasn’t there earlier,” was how he summed up his experience astride it. That was nearly a year ago and, as most of you know, the bike had gone on sale since then.

So when a sparkling white RTR 180 ABS made its way to our garage one fine Thursday, I immediately pocketed its ignition key and refused to let it go until the editor assured me that I could have the bike for the ensuing weekend. That decided, I set about searching for a picturesque location that would give me ample space to check out the ABS set-up, one that would also not be too distant to make me miss office on the following Monday.

Only one destination fulfilled this requirement: Mahabaleshwar.

Being only about 120 kilometres from Pune, Mahabaleshwar, the highest hill station in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, was an easy choice. And since most part of the ride leading up to it would be on the superbly paved National Highway 4, I was confident of an easy and brisk journey. Spread over 150 sq km of pristine nature at an elevation of 4,500 feet above mean sea level, Mahabaleshwar is a tourists’ paradise. It also helps that the zigzag road leading up to it is one of the best paved in this side of the country. As it turned out, however, I was forced to share it with a number of lumbering lorries and overbearing MUVs, which, frankly speaking, took some of the fun away from my ride. There were a number of occasions when I had to rely on the brakes to save myself from getting plastered onto the windscreens of oncoming vehicles and that was when the electronic aid first proved its usefulness. The short-stroke engine of the RTR shone here, letting me sprint in and out of slow-moving traffic without the slightest delay.

The TVS boffins have calibrated the ABS system on the RTR to just the right extent. It is never intrusive, never feels like an electronic nanny cutting you out on a bit of fun, and yet you can feel it doing the utmost to keep your rubber side down. Once you get used to the slightly softer feedback from the control levers – a pleasant departure from the conventional braking systems – it imparts to you a confidence that things won’t get out of hand easily.

Confidence is also something that is imparted in a great measure by the longer wheelbase of the TVS Apache RTR 180. The bike feels much more stable and planted than before not only round corners, but also on the straights.

This being the off-season, I also had the opportunity to take the RTR to the famous Harrison Folly and indulge in a bit of off-roading. On gravel and loose soil, the ABS set-up showed a discernible increase in its functioning, eliminating almost all wheel lock-ups and skids. Even jabbing the front brake in a deliberate effort to unsettle the bike did not result in stoppies. And just in case you are in the mood for some skidding fun, there is a knob above the RTR’s LCD readout that enables you to turn the ABS completely off. Doing this prompts the LED display (with ABS etched on it) on the analogue tachometer to blink orange, which serves as a reminder to turn it on if you had inadvertently turned it off in the first place.

After four hours of revelling in the sights and taking in the scenery, it was time to head back to the hustle and bustle of the city. The sonorous burble from the RTR’s exhaust did a good job of parting the evening traffic and, before long, I was out of the town centre. While riding down the Pasarni Ghat after Panchgani, I had an aerial view of the flatlands that gradually grew dimmer and dimmer as the sun set behind yonder hills.