[nitro.1000bhp]

Originally Posted by aviator1101

Seems now Honda and RE are into role reversals.

RE is introducing all new products in the global market and Honda's new products are all about new colour schemes, changed graphics, few lights here and there and that's all about it. No discernable value addition.

I won't be surprised if the BABT(whatever the acronym stands for) follows the same path.

They should rather focus on improving the pathetic sales and after sales service.

I guess HMSI are just treading carefully in India due to a slew of flops for whatever reasons. They just can't seem to figure out what the Indian customer is looking for. I think they need to sack their upper management and sort out their product development/strategy asap or they can just rebrand their company and call it Honda Activa corp. or some such.

If they had launched their crf250/300Ls and the cbrs at a not-so-greedy price around half a decade ago it could have been a run away success. Instead, they chose to pour god knows how many hundreds of crores into the air-cooled cb300 and presumed it would wipe the floor inspite of having below par performance and some ambitious pricing. And all this while their CRF/CBR bikes were near perfect and were saleable with next to no r&d expense. Some one is incharge of that Honda galla-petti in India and is not very keen to let it go any time soon perhaps.

Honda has launched 10 new models at eicma this year for the global market but they still probably think the Indian customer is not worthy of those bikes.

They need to throw in their towels and say, right, we are only going to concentrate on bare basic commuter models as our dealerships are only equipped to cater to this particular market segment and not make a right royal fool of themselves by opening a 'premium' dealership with 5 or 6 models that only exist on paper. The sheer audacity they have to allocate a paltry 100 units of their big bikes per model in a country with a populous in excess of 1.4 billion shows how serious they are about our market and Its comical to say the least.

[RD150]

Originally Posted by IshWish

I was riding with one my friends who had a Honda CB350. Couple of people on the road asked if its a bullet and he happily mentioned that: Haan, Honda ki Bullet (Yes, this is Honda's Bullet!)

I think someone somewhere from Honda listened to this conversation and had an epiphany and literally made Honda's Bullet. Pathetic attempt and irrelevant product.

When Royal Enfield was enjoying the monopoly , we wished some one to come up with reliable bullets and classic 350s. Then came the Jawas, but we were not happy with the over all build quality and reliability. Then Honda launched the Highness and CB350 RS, both the bikes are doing quite good.

Now when Honda is coming up with a new variant, why are we complaining? Royal Enfield kept doing the same thing for decades minus the reliability and peace of mind. I don't get what exactly are we expecting from Honda?

[PreludeSH]

Maroon and Black ones look good. But Honda is wasting their effort on this. Bring the Rebel line with 350CC for cruisers. That would be distinctive, instead of trying to do a RE. If they change the gearing, it would make life a lot easier in city riding.

[Singer_Shower]

Originally Posted by tc89

What does BABT stand for ?

Well Zigwheels explained it best

Quite anticlimactically, Honda’s social media teaser, BABT, just stands for “Bold Alone Bolder Together”. What does it mean? Well, aside from the ramblings of some recent MBA graduate from Honda India’s marketing team coming off a weekend long bender, nothing!

[tc89]

Originally Posted by Singer_Shower

Well Zigwheels explained it best

I don't know if should roll on the floor laughing or bang my head against the wall

[Gummybear]

Bike looks beautiful but as long as Honda decides to keep bikes in this price range limited to big wings, they cannot put any competition to RE, even if they copy Bullet as is. In big city like Delhi, they have 2 big wings while RE have 12 or even more dealerships.

[aviator1101]

Originally Posted by DivyanshuDiv

Got this from a source. Seems this is the model which is getting launched - a RE classic competitor for 2L.

Seems I wasn't wrong at all. This looks like a CB Desert Storme 350.

[Proxima]

Blatant copy of the RE Classic. Happy to see a Japanese brand having to copy an Indian one. I'm sure they will not be successful.

Sadly, honda does not relalize that Classic and Bullet customers want a Royal Enfield not something that pretends to be a Royal Enfield.

Let's see how many they sell.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Took this colour scheme for us to realize it's a blatant copy?

Even the general public knows that - I have heard this bike being called Honda Bullet more than H'ness or any other names.

[nettooran]

This one looks good. The original Hness has no character except for the deep sound. The CB350 was better but was missing something. But this seems to have a real retro look. Combined with Honda Reliability, I guess this is going to sell a lot more

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by nettooran

This one looks good. The original Hness has no character except for the deep sound. The CB350 was better but was missing something. But this seems to have a real retro look. Combined with Honda Reliability, I guess this is going to sell a lot more

There is a difference between Hness and CB350? I thought they were synonymous.

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by ebonho

There is a difference between Hness and CB350? I thought they were synonymous.

I assume he meant the CB350RS.

Anyway, I think it's a reasonable move from Honda and the bikes will attract those who like the Enfield Classic 350 but want a different option. But as someone rightly pointed out, Honda is not doing justice to the bike by restricting them only to the BigWing centers. It's quite obvious at this point that if they want volume, they need to spread out.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by prakash_ajp

I assume he meant the CB350RS.

Thanks. I just Googled it.

Most people I have spoken to got put off by the very ordinary performance of the engine on such a premium looking and costing bike.

There is no sense comparing to Royal Enfield. For a variety of reasons, which I will not get into. All that can be safely said is that only Royal Enfield can do Royal Enfield.

And a Honda cannot and should not ever have aimed to do a 20 bhp 350 cc. And hoped to get away with it.

Cheers, Doc

[satchit_bhp]

Copy my homework but don't make it obvious. Honda: I'll just make it look worse.

[rajshenoy]

Looks like some smart brain at Honda wanted people to stop calling their Hness range as “Honda ki bullet” by launching this.

Being a Hness CB 350 owner, I feel at least my bike looks different from typical Royal Enfields on the road apart from the copied exhaust note.

I have so far done 4 services and Bigwing service is top notch and RE is no match for the Honda quality(although I am not happy with the long queue)