Honda confirms CB300R for India; bookings open. Edit: Launched @ 2.41L

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Honda confirms Neo Sports Café inspired CB300R for India. Announces bookings open at select dealerships.

• Honda’s Neo Sports Café inspired - CB300R confirmed for India
• Bookings open at select Honda dealerships across India @ Rs.5000 only
• To be aggressively priced below Rs. 2.5 lacs (ex-showroom)
• 286cc engine.
• First in class IMU unit.
• LED lighting

Gurugram, January 15, 2019: Bringing ultimate excitement for motorcycling enthusiasts in India, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. today confirmed the Japan crafted Neo Sports Café inspired– Honda CB300R for India. The CB300R will be available for sale through the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) route for the Indian market.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Driven by the need to discover and challenge new frontiers, the CB300R is for true enthusiasts willing to try new ideas and experiences. Not only will it add more adrenaline to daily riding, Neo Sports Café styled CB300R is sure to turn around heads on the streets. The CB300R will be Made-in-India and priced below Rs. 2.5 lacs (ex-showroom) for customers to experience Honda’s superior technology and thrill of riding. We welcome all our customers for the bookings starting today.”

In keeping with the long tradition of Japanese craftsmanship, the new design language-Neo Sports Café becomes an embodiment of a harmonious blend of the retro elements with ultra-modern styling. The CB300R offers impressive and engaging sensations of both Performance and Aesthetics. The CB300R, in its aggressive dark and minimalistic style will soon adorn the Indian cities. It is also the lightest motorcycle in its category and mated with a 286cc engine, it gives the riders a nimble feeling with a lot of power at their disposal.

Engine

The CB300R’s compact 286cc DOHC 4valve liquid cooled single cylinder engine powering the CBR300R is a diminutive jewel that has won many fans across the Globe for its free revving and responsive nature.

Chassis & Styling

The CB300R’s frame is constructed with tubular and pressed steel; the swing arm is manufactured from steel plate, irregularly shaped in cross section, giving it a bespoke minimalistic look. The single rear shock with 7 step adjustable, tapered handlebars with a 40 degree turning angle ensure the rider gets great feedback and a small turning radius making it an absolute performer in tricky traffic.

New designed exhaust pipes based on NEO SPORTS CAFÉ DNA style. Reproduced from Honda's top-class big bike. The interior has a 2-room structure, providing powerful and aggressive engine sound. As well as increasing the efficiency of the acceleration response.

Controlling the performance with 41mm Light-weight inverted front forks helps to increase excellent balance in all road conditions. In addition, there are 296 mm disc brakes on the front of the radial mount, 4-pot calipers with ABS G-Sensor at the same level as on the racetrack. The high specification system gets an innovative IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) to give precise front to rear distribution of ABS operation depending on the vehicle posture controlling the Roll, Pitch, Yaw of the Motorcycle - simply put a braking system which keeps the rider in complete control, even during sudden brake application.

The console is erudite in design giving the rider all the information required in a minimalistic design, positioned perfectly to take a quick glance down at all the information – working eloquently during night or day. Full LED lighting – including indicators – ensure no path is dark for the rider to navigate through. Round shape thin LED headlight with a built-in signature horseshoe-shaped light guide. It reflects a global, advanced naked bike image with a brute appearance from the front.

The CB300R will be available in two colors i.e Matte Axis Gray Metallic and Candy Chromosphere Red. The bookings can be done at select Honda 2Wheeler dealerships across India for Rs. 5000 only. For more details, the customers can also log on to www.Honda2WheelersIndia.com.

Brochure - CB300R.pdf

[ani_meher]

After so many years of demand, Honda finally launches the 300cc bikes, that too in naked avatar. Suzuki's semi-naked Inazuma, despite having dual cylinder, failed due to being too costly (corrected later on) and naked bikes don't catch fancy of buyers in this segment. It will be curious to see how this CB300r fares in the market.

[dextor]

So this looks like Honda finally realized that India market is growing and how they can allow BMW to en-cash that. We can expect more 300 cc flow from other brands as well.
Honda is taking baby steps with single cylinder launch and reluctant with cheaper twin cylinders.
Not sure how this bike is faring in International market but pricing wise I think much better to competition except KTM.
Comes with ABS & USD. What about power figures?

[aravind.anand]

Wow, quite a bold and surprising move from the otherwise over-cautious Activa manufacturer. The engine is based on the CBR250R's engine and IIRC, has a longer stroke to achieve that bump in the displacement. It makes 31.5 PS power and 27 Nm of torque. Over the power figures, its actually the calm nature of the engine that makes it a rather likable motor - as per overseas reviews.

Here is Powerdrift's video about the CB300R from EICMA 2017 -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RgDfBsMbiU

[Behemoth]

Love the looks of this bike. Looks almost like a baby Ducati monster to me. I was initially planning on getting a Jawa Forty two but the booking and waiting fiasco from Mahindra is too much for me. Looks like I may be jumping onto the CB300R bandwagon instead. Need to see the bike in person though before making the booking!

[Nithesh_M]

More than the bike itself I am more curious to see how many of the social media warriors who mocked Honda for not launching the 300s in India will now line up to buy one of these. They made it seem like the 300 market has a bigger demand than in reality but if you see the sales figures M-o-M there are so many manufacturers in the segment that everybody is eating off each others sales digits.

Looking at how miserable the locally manufactured and visually cooler Apache RR310 has fared so far in the sales department, I wouldn't hold my breath to see triple digit sales for this bike especially since its a naked and not the fully faired bike most buyers in the country are attracted to.

Less than 2.5 lakh ex showroom according to Y.S.Guleria so less than 2.8 lakhs OTR. Makes me wonder why they bothered with CKD when the 300 engine has so many parts shared with the 250R engine they make locally. Probably the first motorcycle to have IMU linked brakes in the class?

[sunilch]

Wow. I am impressed by the news. It seems Honda always needs a double validation and hence never makes a 'first move'. After all they failed when they moved first in some countable number of high-end bikes (remember Akshay Kumar on the bobber? ) It seems to have done this after seeing TVS and BMW in the said segment and Kawasaki continuing the N300 with a lower price now.

While this will not 'fly' off the showrooms (3L on road is a lot of money) but will for sure sell. After all, even the CBR250 still sells - it is a great bike and I had one, it is simply overpriced by about 30-40K on-road. I believe this will manage acceptable numbers for the company. I wish that indeed happens as that will pave way for more bikes from Honda

Agree that we love fully faired bikes (myself included) but this one indeed looks good. If the bike retains the Honda quality and has no vibrations at high RPMs, riders will enjoy and swear by it.

[Grease_Monkey]

It seems Honda finally listened to our prayers. While this is targeted as a powerful city bike perfect for people like me who commute entire week on their motorcycle and want to have fun on the weekend rides too. Although 3lacs on road is really pushing it since we have so many brilliant bikes less than that and Ninja /R3/650 twins's two cylinder goodness is not very further away. Despite all that tech and Honda's legendary reliability, is it really worth the money? CBR250 despite its brilliance cannot compete at sub 2lacs ex showroom price.

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

The Honda CB300R would be the ideal upgrade for me.

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

I would be ecstatic with a 30hp and 27nm CBR300R and I would jump with both happiness and ecstasy with the naked CB300R.

Yaayyyy!!!

This is absolutely-fantastically-awesome!!!!

The CB300R makes about 31.4 hp and 27.8nm. But what Honda have amazingly managed to do is keep the wet weight at an astonishing 143kg!!! To put that into perspective the CBR250R weighs 160 odd kgs. I'm sure that the CB300R is going to be one firecracker of a motorcycle. The perfect dance partner during the daily commute and the weekend corner carving. To add Honda's legendary refinement, reliability and the stunning good looks (especially the red one)to the mix, we may have the perfect upgrade to the refined Japanese 150's now. I guess it's time to let go of my Gixxer now.

P.S: I hope Honda does not exceed the 2.44 lakh ex-showroom price of the Duke 390. Is a price that is on par with the Apache 310 too much to ask!?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

Weight at an astonishing 143kg!!! To put that into perspective the CBR250R weighs 160 odd kgs.

And the Duke 250 weighs 146 kgs dry! Honda beats it hollow because the 143 kg figure is including all fluids and a full 10L of fuel!

KTMs are usually the one of the lightest in their class - so that's something noteworthy indeed!

[Red Liner]

This might make for a very interesting second beater bike and general riff raff around the city kind of thing, considering she weighs so less! Insane. So even though the power is lower than the ktm, i expect power to weight ratio to be equal?

That and include the honda finesse, what with this being CKD and all... God please bless us all with a bigger garage ��

[ku69rd]

Everything ticks the list except for the on road price, wish it will be under 250 ride away and Honda will have a long list waiting to be delivered. Packs quite a few features and wth Honda reliability it should be a better buy than the Duke 250. In lieu of 390 not sure how explosive the performance will be.

[aargee]

As an inordinate owner of CBR 250R, couldn't help observing HMSI making the same stupidity of lesser tank range for touring with their claims in brochure!!



With 10 liter of tank capacity & estimated 30 Kmpl FE, I'm sure the tank range is going to be around 270 Km, provided we get the manufacturer's claim of 30 Kmpl, otherwise 250 Km is what I expect!!

And dear Honda, if 300cc makes a SBK, then what does 1000cc makes? Supersonic SBK?



But yes, Honda is brave enough from the good old days, otherwise why would they be brave enough to display 200?


Edit - Oh!! Just got reminded as why such a brave ad. Probably because they're being selective in each city there by projecting it as premium to charge premium in service. If that were the case, really a bad move!!

[payeng]

I am somehow more excited with the upcoming Yamaha MT-15 than the CB300R.

The R15 is the best 150 cc according to me: The engine is a gem and the handling was a revelation. Just that the Full Fairing and Super Sport ergonomics never appealed to me. Now with the "Naked R15 = MT-15" makes a very interesting proposition for me.

Never was a fan of the CBR250R, so the Naked 300cc version doesn't appeal to me.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by payeng

I am somehow more excited with the upcoming Yamaha MT-15 than the CB300R.

Two different appeals, price points and target market?

MT15 should be a great machine for the city, whereas the CB300R looks to be a more balanced machine for those looking at weekday city and weekend highway use.