Best Bikes in India | No.1 Two Wheeler Magazine
The Hero brand is synonymous with two-wheelers in India and is the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer. By 2018 they had already sold over 7.5 crore two-wheelers and reported annual sales of 75,87,130 units between April 2017-March 2018. The auto major has one of the widest networks in India, with more than 6,000 dealerships and touch-points across the country.
The company was established by Mr Brijmohan Lall Munjal and was a joint venture with Honda of Japan. This alliance ended in 2010 as the two companies parted ways and became arch rivals in the Indian two-wheeler space. As of 2018, Hero have eight manufacturing plants across the globe. The five Indian facilities are located at Haridwar in Uttarakhand; Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana; Neemrana in Rajasthan; Vadodara in Gujarat; and the newly made Sri City facility in Andhra Pradesh. Hero also have international manufacturing plants situated in Villa Rica in Colombia, and Jessore in Bangladesh. The company also has its R&D centre located on the outskirts of Jaipur.
The top selling bikes from Hero include the Splendor, Passion and Glamour range, along with its scooters such as the Maestro Edge, Duet and Pleasure.
It has now been just over a month since the Hero Xtreme 160R has joined our long-term fleet. The motorcycle was launched to appeal to young riders with its modern streetfighter styling and has been derived from the Concept 1R that was showcased at EICMA 2019.
This is the final account of our time in Odisha. We talk you through the memorable bits of this amazing road trip astride the Hero Xtreme 160R
Hero MotoCorp are planning to step into the premium motorcycle segment which will be accelerated due to the Indian motorcycle manufacturer’s tie-up with Harley-Davidson. [Read more…]
The Hero Xpulse is extremely capable straight out of the box, but this rally kit can take you even further off the beaten track.
Story: Anosh Khumbatta
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
Since its launch last year, the Hero Xpulse has quickly established itself as the go-to bike for beginner off-roading enthusiasts due to its attractive price tag. While it may be underpowered, the excellent pairing of that diamond frame and well-damped, long-legged suspension has proved to be extremely capable off road or over the worst roads India has to offer. The stock Xpulse strikes a fine balance between on-road manners and off-road ability, but now you have the option to turn your Xpulse into an ultra-capable off-road machine with the beans to take on a proper, cross-country rally raid.
While the standard Xpulse is pretty capable as it is, Hero MotoCorp have gone the extra mile for serious off-roaders with the introduction of a bolt-on rally kit that transforms the bike from a competent dual-purpose machine to a full-on, off-road beast. They recently sent us a rally kit for our long-term Hero Xpulse, and I wasted no time in heading out of the city to some nearby hills to put it to the test.
The rally kit for the Hero Xpulse swaps out the stock suspension for taller units with more travel, boosting ground clearance by 50 millimetres to 275 mm. The fork is adjustable for compression and rebound damping and boasts of 250 mm of travel, while the monoshock gets preload and rebound damping adjustability, with 220 mm of available travel. The stock Ceat dual-purpose tyres are pretty good in most conditions, but the aggressive Maxxis knobbies that are included with the rally kit take things to a whole new level. The kit also includes bar-risers for a more natural arm position when riding standing up on the pegs, a flat bench seat to allow the rider to easily slide fore and aft, and a longer side-stand.
The taller suspension and higher, flat seat raise the seat height by 110 mm, pushing the saddle up to a lofty 933 mm. At 5’ 5”, I found this quite worrisome, and even clambering aboard was a bit of a struggle. But I soon got used to sliding off to one side at stops and by the third day with the bike had gotten rather comfortable. While the knobbies felt quite odd on the road, they amazed me with the amount of available grip as I rode up a soggy trail, and the suspension seemed ready to take on anything, with no sign of bottoming out, no matter how hard I landed.
While I cursed the flat seat for making it so hard to reach the ground, I soon got to appreciate how easy it made moving my weight around, sliding forward to dig the front tyre into the dirt to make corners, and back over the rear wheel when accelerating.
After spending a considerable amount of time with the Hero Xpulse equipped with the rally kit, I came to the conclusion that there’s just one word to describe this machine: unstoppable.
We pick up the story of overlanding Odisha on the Hero Xtreme 160R from Debrigarh. In this leg, we explore Odisha’s wild west
Is the BS6 Hero Glamour all show and no go? Is it more than just a pretty face? We look beyond the Glamour’s glamour for the answers.
Backed by an elite R&D team, Hero MotoCorp have taken off in a new direction and we find out what their first step, the Xtreme 160R, has to offer.
We are road-tripping again. This time we explore Odisha with Kalyani Potekar and the Hero Xtreme 160R.
The Hero Glamour Blaze has been introduced in the country continuing to bolster the Indian motorcycle manufacturer’s commitment to an aggressive portfolio. [Read more…]
