JANUARY 2026

Heartening Momentum

The year 2025 just flew by, but, contrary to what we thought, the pace of activities has not slowed down. We recently witnessed TVS MotoSoul and the India Bike Week (IBW). Both events had a good turnout, despite a last-minute change in venue (from Goa to the hill station of Panchgani) in the latter’s case.

The prestigious Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY) Award ceremony was held last month. There were some strong contenders for the awards in various categories from most of the manufacturers in the country, except for Hero MotoCorp. The new Hero XPulse and the Hero Xtreme 250 missed their entries due to some misunderstanding. The Ultraviolette X-47 was the second runner-up, the KTM 390 Adventure was the first runner-up, and the TVS Apache RTX was the overall winner. For the first time in the history of these awards, we saw an electric motorcycle among the top three vying for the IMOTY.

The TVS Apache RTX is the first ADV by TVS, and it has been long overdue, considering that TVS is the first Indian manufacturer to have an official motocross team and a rally team. They have won many motocross and rally championships titles, and that is why it was surprising to see that the company had not yet added an ADV to its portfolio. As they say, it is better late than never. The Apache RTX looks big for a 300-cc motorcycle. Moreover, the new engine is very compact in its dimensions, considering its capacity of 300 cc. This adds to the bike looking big, as compared to the size of the engine. Looks apart, the motorcycle is built well, rides and handles well, and performs equally well. TVS’ racing experience in rallying and motocross has helped it build a very capable dual-purpose motorcycle. Even in the past, we had occasion to observe that TVS R&D had used its considerable racing experience to improve its road bikes, and, once again, the RTX is a very good all-round motorcycle from the company.

We wish all our readers a happy New Year. Please ride safely.

Aspi Bhathena

Editor

Editor of Bike India. After 22 years of racing motorcycles in India and abroad, building bikes and engines, he now leads the team that publishes India’s only dedicated two-wheeler magazine.

Aspi Bhathena – who has written 26 posts on Bike India.