Kawasaki has come with all the right ingredients with the Ninja 650R

Kawasaki brought the long forgotten middleweights segment into talks again and launched their much awaited Ninja 650R today. Priced at Rs 4.57 lakh ex-showroom, Delhi (about Rs 5-5.1 lakh, OTR Pune), the bike has already gathered eyeballs for its strategic pricing and tough hit to the competition. The Kwacker’s 649-cc twin cylinder engine offers 72 PS power and 66 Nm torque and the bike sports Ninja’s signature aggressive styling. So far, Garware Hyosung GT 650R was the only option available in the segment. The new Kwacker is a sports tourer and bike’s aerodynamics and strong engine support its nature very well. Looks like it’s time for competition to buckle up as this Japanese giant is a little too much for the Korean bull.

 

Words: Gasha Aeri

Brutale 990R receives paint job as Italy celebrates unification

 

To celebrate 150 years of Italian unification MV Agusta has announced a limited edition Brutale 990R. The bike features tricolored body panels in colors of the Italian flag and will be available in red, black and white themes. The numbers 150 and the serial number etched on the bikini fairing will make the bike instantly recognizable. A premium of Rs 22,458 will be charged over the standard price of Rs 10,20,255 in Europe for the cult status aesthetics. True to Italian flamboyance, MV Agusta has described the limited edition Brutale 990R as the marriage of Style and Technology.

 

Words: Aniruddha Mulgund

Bullets have got a way with celebrities. 

Looks like days of fancy sportscars, yachts and airplanes are long gone for directors have shifted their focus to bikes now. To add to that, there is no Tom Cruise riding a Ducati, but our very own Bollywood lassies riding the big bulls, Katrina Kaif being the latest one to do so for her upcoming movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. We had reported American about TV host Jay Leno riding the cult bike earlier and this time it’s Kaif riding a Royal Enfield Classic 500 in her upcoming movie. 

Even Gul Panag was seen riding a Thunderbird Twinspark in a recently released movie, and even owns one. Looks like, the bike manufacture is attracting celebrities across the globe. So strap the helmet, put the shades on and ride your Bullet… who knows, the paparazzi might mistake you as a celeb too.

 

 

Words: Gasha Aeri

The FZ series now offered in new colour scheme

India Yamaha Motor has introduced new colour schemes for FZ, FZ-S and Fazer. The bike will now adorn more vibrant colors along with new logos and graphics. The launch will be complemented by media campaign featuring Yamaha India brand ambassador- John Abraham.

Yamaha has introduced four new colors for FZ-S – Golden Streak, Competition White, Black Cyber Green and Yellow Streak. Fazer will also be seen in four new colors – Competition White, Black Cyber Green, Midnight Black and Lava Red while FZ will be available in two new colors – Midnight Black and Lava Red. All the models of the FZ family will now have a kick start option and will be available at a price of Rs 67,000 to Rs. 74,000 (ex-showroom Delhi).

Words: Sarmad Kadiri

Spotted – Bajaj KTM 200 in Bengaluru 

Not long after Bajaj made it clear that they would be bringing in a 200cc KTM motorcycle to Indian shores, there’s been a spate of sightings of the test mule, mostly around the Bajaj facility at Chakan near Pune. Now, Bike India reader Niranjan Skoda has sent us these images of the bike being tested in Bengaluru. In contrast to most spy pictures, Niranjan was actually lucky enough to get some very detailed pictures of the stationary bike.

 KTM created the 125cc for European markets because of the licensing laws there, which stipulate that all beginners’ bikes should be restricted to below 125 cc and/or 17 PS of peak power. Since this is not the case in India, it made no sense for KTM to manufacture such a ‘small’ bike in a country where cubic capacity is (sadly) one of the most important criteria in buying a new motorcycle. The maximum power output of the 200cc mill is expected to be somewhere in the 20-25 PS region. So, given the bike’s lean kerb weight of 130 kg, it should do a top speed of about 145 km/h. Feast your eyes on the pictures till then.

 

Words: Saeed Akhtar

Photos: Niranjan Skoda

Ninja 650R coming soon to India

 

The Ninja 250R has had its fair share of acknowledgement and appreciation and even Bajaj nods to it as they make a rhetoric statement about the soon to come Ninja 650R. Kawasaki Ninja- Bajaj’s website can be seen showing the flashes of the 650R, claiming it to be the next biggest thing in the Indian biking scenario. With its launch, the 650R will currently be the second offering in the middleweights in the country, first one being recently launched Hyosung GT 650R. This Kwacker bears a 649-cc, four-stroke, liquid-cooled, parallel-twin engine and has been sculpted with Ninja’s signature aggressive styling. The 650R will have a little over 70 PS power and about 56 Nm torque. The website does not give a clear time frame for the launch of the bike, but it is expected to hit the Indian market within the next two months and will be priced at around Rs 5 lakhs. 

Words: Gasha Aeri

Developing new platform for motorcycles, says Bajaj

Further endorsing our report about the new Pulsar range, Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj confirmed to the media that it is developing an all-new platform that will churn out the next generation Pulsars and Discovers. The new bikes will hit the market by the second half of this fiscal. A couple of months ago we had reported that Bajaj is looking at launching a new Pulsar 200 based on the KTM Duke platform and Pulsar 250 on an all-new platform.

“After the launch of the new Pulsars and Discovers, some of the existing models will be replaced and some models will be discontinued,” Bajaj said. Bajaj Auto has a market share of 27 per cent at present, which could go up to 40–50 per cent post-launch of the new bikes, he added. Bajaj is also working on re-launching the Boxer, targeted at the rural markets, where Hero Honda Splendor is the market leader. The bike will be launched in the second quarter of this fiscal, said S Sridhar, President, Motorcycle Business at Bajaj Auto.

“Boxer will become a subset of the commuter bike Discover, a sort of an entry level bike to the commuter segment. However, Boxer will not be a 100cc bike and its price will be around that of Hero Honda Splendor,” he said. Bajaj also shared his company’s plan to bring in bikes from the KTM stable. Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV Netherlands, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Bajaj Auto, currently holds a 38.09 per cent stake in the Austria-based company. According to Bajaj, KTM has sold 65,000 bikes in 2010. Bajaj Auto has already started manufacturing the bikes in India and has shipped around 1,000 to 2,000 bikes to the European market, where it has launched Duke 125.

“The company will launch its first bike towards the end of the year. However, whether it will be Duke 200 or Duke 125 is yet to be decided,” said Bajaj. “KTM is more important to us in order to enter markets like Brazil, Malaysia and Thailand where brands like Honda and Yamaha are already dominating and these markets are mature. KTM will be our entry ticket to these mature markets,” he said. The company also clarified that it is not looking at the scooter segment right now.

Words: Saeed Akhtar

Available at select dealerships in the country

German automaker BMW has launched their current line-up of high end motorcycles in India which will be sold along with their luxury cars at three of their dealerships in the country currently; Navnit Motors in Mumbai and Bangalore, and Deutsche Motoren in Delhi. The bikes are imported directly from plant in Berlin, Germany through the CBU (completely built unit) and are priced just a few lakhs shy off their four wheeled siblings.

BMW motorrad’s two wheeled line-up starts with the R 1200 R naked street bike with a pricetag of Rs 16,06,419 and goes all the way upto Rs 29,35,187 for the HP 2 Sport full faired sport bike. Between these two, eight other models are being offered which include the legendary dual purpose bike R 1200 GS, its high end version; the R 1200 GS Adv, their first litre class super bike S 1000 RR, the K 1300 R naked muscle bike, K 1300 S sports tourer and the R 1200 RT, K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL tourers. The waiting period for the bikes ranges between a week to two or three months, subject to availability as they will be imported on order.

Visit www.bmw-motorrad.com for more details.
(All quoted prices are OTR Mumbai)

Words: Piyush Sonsale

The actor however knows very little of what to do with it

Giovanni Castiglioni, former Ducati co-owner and current CEO of the MV Agusta group added another name to the list of admirers of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan. Highly impressed by the actor’s personal style after meeting him in a bar, Castiglioni’s little research on Saif made him believe that the apt gift for a guy of that personality would be an MV Agusta Brutale. An excellent gesture indeed, but the twist in the tale comes now as bike-handicap Khan doesn’t know what to do with the gift. Mistaking the Brutale to be the bike Hollywood actor Christian Bale rode in the movie- the Dark Knight (which was actually an MV Agusta F4), Saif wants to keep it in his house, as he assumes there is no way he can ride it fast on Mumbai roads. Admitting himself not to be much of a bike person, Saif would admit that looks can sometimes be very deceptive.

Words: Gasha Aeri

 

Tim ‘Frogman’ Cotterill’s Rocket II Trike is plain insane

Many would agree, when I say there is a thin line between genius and insanity and most men try to keep the balance right. When the rest of the automotive world is trying to go green with hybrids and alternative fuel, Tim ‘Frogman’ Cotterill, a metal sculptor by trade, has made the Rocket II Trike.

Everything about the Rocket II is ridiculously over the top, with a supercharged 7.0 liter HEMI V8 and a BDS 8-71 supercharger, belting out 1000 hp (yes, three zeros) and almost as big as a football field in length, it can touch triple digit speed figures in a few seconds managing a top speed of 260 kmph. Weighing in at over 1,200 kg and a fuel economy about 1.2 km/l it may seem Tim is waging a war against the greens on road. This heavy three wheeler is steered using a wheel machined from a billet and a front swing arm made from ¼ – inch steel plate featuring adjustable rosejoints to allow wheel castor and camber.

The Rocket II trike is built as an ode to sheer excessiveness of power.

 

Words: Raymond Raj