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-   -   Rumour: Hero Karizma discontinued (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/219091-rumour-hero-karizma-discontinued.html)

Hero seems to have discontinued the Karizma and ZMR. The motorcycle no longer appears on the website, and lists the 200 range as the company flagship.


From Rushlane -

RIP to one of the most iconic motorcycles in the Indian market! One which was totally ruined beyond repair, by its own maker, in the name of a facelift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LQuT92tfHA

The Karizma a.k.a ZMA was a class apart, I recall drooling over her from the time this Ad. was out!

Karizma Always Game

And like all ZMA owners I too used to consider myself to be Royalty! When it came to Sports Touring. You could be the one riding a SBK but still we'd be the ones clocking 1000+ km's a day on the worst possible roads without breaking a sweat! :D

The bike was a class apart when it came to clocking miles that 80KMPH@5000RPM i.e the ZMA's sweet spot kinda became its moniker and I recall enthusiasts printing T-Shirts of the same.

Heck! There was an event conducted a couple of years ago choosing 5 biker's with the highest clocked mileage and guess what? All 5 winners were ZMA owners clocking anywhere from 100~200k km's on the Odometer!

At this point you'd probably guess that I've owned one, and Yes you're right, the ZMA was my first motorcycle at the ripe age of 18!



I'd ridden her from 2011 till 2013 regularly and intermittently from 2013 to 2015 as I was away at Bangalore and commuting interstate on a different motorcycle.

In total I'd clocked close to 60k km's on her before parting with her in 2015;



A decision I still regret!

She was the one that got me hooked to endurance rides! To this day, I vehemently despise the idea of IBA rides but deep down the itch is still there simply because of my experience with the ZMA! The highest I've clocked in a day was 1300+ km's on her which was incidentally my first ever endurance run.

There are a lot of firsts with the ZMA that I'd cherish forever and like many I'd prefer to remember her in her first avatar.



And it is quite unfortunate that she had to tapper off after being in the market for 17 years, a shade before turning legal! Quite an irony considering the number of boys she turned to men. :uncontrol

Cheers,
A.P.

The legend is gone and no one should be blamed more for this that the Hero management. They should have never launched Karizma ZMR and then the Buell designed Karizma's. They just look a clean design and botched it up beyond recognition.

If Bajaj can still sell P220 in decent numbers, why not Hero. If they would have kept the basic form intact with few modifications and updated the engine, this would still have been selling in decent numbers (atleast more than the Xtreme family combined).

But alas, Hero is happy making Splendor, Dawn, and Passion. First CBZ and now Karizma, two of the most simple and beautiful bikes have retired.

Goodbye to a legend.

What a sad end to such a spectacular product. The Karizma was way ahead of its time when it was launched and quickly became the prized possession of those who owned it and envy of those who didn't. I had a CBZ in college (which itself was a big deal) but the moment the first Karizma waltzed in, the CBZ graciously bowed down to its elder brother!

The sight of a yellow/black Karizma with its LCD display was quite the sight!

Terribly pity that Hero couldn't make the most of the Karizma brand and legacy. One of their many mis-steps since the divorce with Honda.

These guys are like Maruti in 2 wheeler segment.

They don’t really care if they lose the butter as they construe it as one of the luxuries but have their bread to keep them going. And if they blame ZMA not making good numbers, they have to blame themselves rather than the bike / customers because they screwed it completely with ZMR & ZMA upgrades they got. Ugly looking fellows.

Bajaj was smart in keeping P220 alive and they’re continuing the streak with BS6.

I have P220FI and back in 2007, it took the heat directly head on with ZMA which was a legend already!

Miss those great times as the competition in this era doesn’t exist anymore I feel like we had :)

Long live ZMA legacy!

Sad that such a potent bike may have gotten killed on account of looks. IMO, the slimmer look wasn't bad at all. Just a design change on the cheap and awful looking headlight cluster would probably have made a whole world of difference.

But then... if it's true that the xtreme and xpulse engines are derivatives of earlier Hero Honda 150 engines, its possible they'll resurrect the Karizma brand name (provided they fully own it) with a higher capacity engine that's derived off the 225.

A 300cc fuel injected single cyl engine with similar characteristics as the 223, and equipped with a 6th gear would be something very tasty.

All they need to do is keep the looks neutral and safe, and I think they've got the right vibes going these days. I think they did an amazing job with the xtreme200R, except for the long exhaust. If they'd made that stubby, the whole design would have come together unbelievably well. And they did a good job keeping things very neutral and safe with the xtreme200S.

After 178k kms I had to scrap mine off. I'll never forget the celebratory rides after the triumphs of life and the consolatory ones.

The 3 am Murthal Panipat getaways to the then girlfriend's house including the rides in the pouring rain, she puttered along nicely. All she required was a monthly oil change and regular chain maintenance.

I have her brake caliper as a lasting memory.

Godspeed ZMA. Godspeed.

The only change that I would've made to the Karizma would have been to replace the twin shock absorbers at the rear with a sturdy and centrally mounted mono shock. The bike appeared to be almost perfect in every other way. It's another matter though that I chose to purchase a Yamaha RX 135, followed by a Royal Enfield Classic 350, for myself. :)

Finally, it was painful to watch it still being on sale, and not selling. Karizma was like that first dog you had as a child, except that Hero kept trying to dig it back out of the ground, gave it a wash, and forced you to play fetch with it in your 30s.

It was on a borrowed 1st gen Karizma that I got over 100kmph for the first time in my life. Afterwards attempted to convince my dad that I'd study harder in 11th if he bought me one, and failed, both to convince him and the grade.

I use pre-owned 2012 Karizma ZMR for my daily commute; odo reading is close to 63k kms. I intend to keep using it as long as possible.
Ownership review is lying in assembly line for many months, have to collect service details before it can be published.

A fine example of how decisions can change ones fortunes. Hero has made a lot of blunders in the past, this was only one of the many.

Two of the biggest for an enthusiast would be:

CBZ Classic>CBZ Star>CBZ Xtreme> and so on
Karizma Classic> Karizma R>Karizma ZMR> and so on

:Frustrati

An acquaintance of mine used to ride 100s of km every day on his Karizma 10 years ago. He met with an accident and his bike got trashed. Guess what he bought again? Another Karizma. He said he'd not be able to ride any other bike as comfortably or economically.

Apparently, Hero has exited the 150cc segment altogether, as per their website in addition to dumping the karizma out of its portfolio.

What are these guys smoking, honestly! Limited products backed with sub par service and parts availability. I don't see them selling anything other than the 98cc splendor in the future, along with the pleasure scooter.

What a fall!

Very interesting, I wonder if the company is heading back to the roots (selling only Hero cycles)? :D

On a serious note, it’s high time Hero launched a flagship bike. Many many years back, they had shown a concept called - Hastur. Weird name but looked killer. Seems it got lost before it could launch in the market.

They sort of broke the partnership with EBR (Eric Bull Racing), which helped them with those bikes (Hastur and HX250R). Even the last gen Karizma twins were EBR products.