New Bike Launches in India

Edgar Heinrich, currently with Bajaj Auto’s Product Design department, will join the BMW Motorrad Design Studio as head of design from July 1, 2012, taking over from David Robb.

Heinrich began his career as a motorcycle designer with BMW in 1986 as Head of Vehicle Design (Motorcycles). He was also involved in the design development of the six-cylinder touring bikes and the new maxi-scooters.

In July 2009 he came to India as Vice President, Product Design, Bajaj Auto Ltd, and currently heads their styling and model studio, responsible for brand definition and brand strategies for two and four-wheeler design. He is the man behind the design of the Pulsar 200NS that adorns our March’12 magazine cover.

Bajaj Auto has began deliveries of KTM 200 Duke across India in a phased manner through dedicated 32 KTM store (formerly Pro-biking Showrooms).

Some of our readers, who had booked the bike early, have confirmed deliveries in cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune among others.

During the Hyderabad launch Prakhar Muktibodh, Area Sales Manager, KTM South confirmed the introduction of KTM riding gear and merchandise soon. Talking to reporters Muktibodh said, that the KTM brand has a wide range of accessories and parts that go well with bike lovers. As a part of expanding the business in India, the company is set to bring in these merchandise, including jackets, gloves and helmets. He further added that KTM will launch Power Wear accessories like jackets, gloves, stickers and helmets in a month’s time, before introducing Power Parts like aluminium sprockets, high-grade plastics and alloys and accessories and other fittings, which will be available at the KTM stores.

The KTM 200 Duke is priced at Rs 1.30 lakh on the road Pune, with a liquid-cooled engine that produces 25 PS of peak power and weighs just 136 kg, which give it outstanding power to weight ratio. While the naked bike design makes it fun to ride in the city.

Read the KTM 200 Duke review click here

Honda CBR150R coming next month

Fast on the heels of the launch of the Honda CBR 250R, which met with an immensely positive reception, Honda is now gearing up to launch its smaller sibling, the CBR150R in the country. Powered by a liquid-cooled fuel-injected DOHC engine producing 18.3PS of peak power and 12.6Nm of peak torque, the CBR packs a sizeable punch that belies its small package. Disc brakes are standard at both front and rear. Visually, the CBR 150R bears a stark resemblance to its bigger sibling, the CBR 250R tthanaks to its adoption of Honda’s dual layered full body cowling, albeit smaller in every aspect. Apart from the powertrain, the only major difference is the twin tubular frame on the CBR 150R, which endows the bike with excellent rigidity and stablity. Expect the CBR 150R to go on sale for around Rs 1.2 lakh when it goes on sale later next month.

After the initial announcement at the Auto Expo last month, Suzuki Motocycles India has now launched the Swish 125 automatic scooter in India with a price tag of INR 45,431(ex-showroom Delhi).

Like its name indicates, the Swish 125 features a 125cc four-stroke engine, borrowed from the Access 125 scooter, that produces 8.7PS of maximum power and a peak torque figure of 9 Nm.

Visually, the Swish looks like a younger and sportier scooter, compared to the slightly-dowdy looking Access 125. The graphics and paint scheme also attenuate this youthful image, and should prove popular with the college-going generation. Suzuki is initially doing a soft launch, in select cities, and the full launch is tentatively scheduled around the end of March. The Japanese subsidiary will also be launching the Hayate 115cc motorcycle in April this year.

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) commenced the second phase of production operations at their second two-wheeler production plant in the Tapukara Industrial Area in Rajasthan.

This will help the company to expand its production by another six lakh units per annum, giving it a cumulative production capacity of 28 lakh units per annum. The Japanese automobile major has invested more than Rs 1,000 crore in the second plant and doubled the annual production capacity. The second assembly line is flexible enough to manufacture both scooter and motorcycle models, which includes the Activa, CB Twister and CB Shine, at this plant in addition to the existing Manesar plant.

Honda’s third plant in the vicinity of Bengaluru was announced in 2011 and it is scheduled to become operational in the first half of 2013, with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million units. This capacity expansion plan will increase HMSI’s total annual production capacity to four million units.