Team-BHP - About the Indian motorbike market

I was reading that Honda is about to launch one of its road-missiles, such as CBR1000RR on the indian market. I am quite dubious regarding such a news... I mean big bike manufacturers like Honda or Yamaha must be happily looking at nowadays indian fast economic growth, a brand new market is about to rise for them.

In that case why not launching bikes that, i think, would be much more adapted to the traffic and road conditions of the country. I am thinking of some good trail bikes (Suzuki DR, Honda SLR and so), or mid range roadsters such as the Suzuki Bandit or Yamaha Fazer. A CBR1000RR is just exhausting to handle, especially in heavy traffic... Do they wish it to be a performance showcase in order to bring them prestige and open the door for some other types of bikes ?

By the way, I am rather amazed not to see any trail bike in the streets although they are so easy to handle, especially at low speed and their engines are most of the time very simple mono-cylinder...

Have you even ridden the new 1000 RR? Its a 600 on steroids. It handles like a dream. Besides, you see, trail and dirt bikes are not attractive and people would not want to spend money on something like that. They would much rather have an R15 or the Ninja 250.

Off roading is not popular here so the dirt bikes don't make sense either. The dirt and trail bike thing will probably never happen in this country.

I agree that they should get the Bandits and the Fazers though.

I see, there is a reason due to the 800cc limit, and people like good race-like looking bikes.

But with such a population, let's say such an amount of potential consumers, why do you think there would not be a market for trail and dirt bikes, I mean do ALL the indian customers like the same kind of bikes ? Some Trail Bikes are real utility bikes - pretty cheap with heavy duty features, as well as others are just like Superbikes - exclusives, fast and really awesome. And last but not least, almost all of them are, between 125 and 650cc, that is to say below 800cc.

Its just that the trail bikes and roadsters are not much of a lifestyle product.They are meant for a specific bunch of people who would use the bike for what its worth.The 1000 rr is the company's flagship and more reknown the worldover.Besides there are a lot of poser superbikers who would put their money on the blade than the roadsters/trailbikes.All said and done the Blade in the right hands is a brilliant tool and currently the best litre bike according to most leading bike magazines.

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Originally Posted by straight6 (Post 923594)

Off roading is not popular here so the dirt bikes don't make sense either. The dirt and trail bike thing will probably never happen in this country.

I agree that they should get the Bandits and the Fazers though.

Maybe he meant that our roads are that bad that we are off roading all the time. :D

ThePhotographer has a point. Why would you want to have a large gap between 150cc to 1000cc ? why not some utility bikes that could also be fun to drive around ?

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Originally Posted by phamilyman (Post 923604)

The real reason is that for bikes above 800cc, no homologation is required :D

Are you sure, I thought Homologation was required for all the vehicles imported [even privatively, except for the car above 40,000 $ us] and thats the reason R1 comes with a sari gard and number plat in front...the real reason is the duty on bikes above 800cc is comparatively less than on the sub 800cc bikes. Thanks to Indian companies who think they can build something in that range, but I do not when they will build something like this.

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Originally Posted by esteem_lover (Post 924018)

I definitely agree to this point...I understand that launching these flagship models are just a part of brand building exercise by the manufacturer and does not exactly add to their sales volume. Infact, Yamaha did realise this fact when they launched the R1 & the MT01. They wanted to showcase their supreme engineering with these bikes. They knew that these bikes will not even make a spot in their sales chart but what they'll do is prepare the ground for R15. This is why R1 & MT01 is imported from Australia and sold here while R15 is manufactured here. Sooner other companies understand this the better it is going to be for them.But this huge gap between 150cc to 1000cc is going to be bridged very soon IMHO...the motorcycle market is definitely going through a silent revolution like the one witnessed by the car industry in 1998-2001 era.

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Originally Posted by ThePhotographer (Post 923490)

or mid range roadsters such as the Suzuki Bandit or Yamaha Fazer. A CBR1000RR is just exhausting to handle, especially in heavy traffic... Do they wish it to be a performance showcase in order to bring them prestige and open the door for some other types of bikes ?

I feel that the big bikes is not only for show off. The super bike market is expanding and there is good demand. Here the bikes like Bandit can clash with other superbikes from the same stable as this market is very price sensitive.

I feel that rather than coming out with Fazer and Bandit like bikes, manufacturers should bring in 200-250cc bikes. The present road conditions can only handle that much. Even the punch of 400cc wont be fully utilized.

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Originally Posted by aaggoswami (Post 924285)

yes and I think we have enough single cylinder bikes. We need some really good, refined two cylinders 200-250CC 25bhp bikes. :deadhorse