Good boy goes bad and we like it!

Suzuki stuns. Brings big guns to the market (they should've done it earlier though). That Red Hayabusa. 1340cc bike! Do I say more? You saw them in Dhoom and now you'll see them on the roads for sure. Find more about Hayabusa here.

That's not all. This one's also here. This is badder!!! :) The Intruder M1800R. Yup that's a whopping 1800cc!



I can't afford these. But they excite nonetheless. Would cost anywhere around 12-13 lacs.

Suzuki GS150R, Terrible

I won't get into the specs really. They are pretty similar to what we already have in the market. I will not even touch upon the marketing related issues here. However, I guess the one aspect where Suzuki really had a chance to make an impact was styling. My verdict: they've failed. GS150R might sound like it's in the league of R15, FZ16 and such, but that's the only similarity. Suzuki has continued to be rather conservative (to the extent of being archaic) in their styling. Heat, Zeus & GS150R. God save Suzuki. With the downturn showing its colors, Suzuki has quite a task on its hand.

Even the red isn't gorgeous. Side on, the bike looks similar to Unicorn with a bit of Hunk thrown in the front and Apache thrown at the rear. Thank you!

Honda doesn't have anything better! Honda Unicorn yet again!

Or is it that I can't see the beauty?

Unimpressive from a company which boasts of amazing machines like CBRs, etc. Stunner looks better, I would say.















Even the red one doesn't shake me! Something's really really wrong.

Bullet Classic

No, no, no! No dream or photoshop job! That's the Classic Bullet unveiled at the Intermot 2008 in Germany. Here's another pic. My fascination with red is getting fuelled all the more... Have a look:





There's been no announcement about its launch in India but I sense that it's gonna be launched here as well and perhaps very very soon.

How many bikes would you like to own?

Yamaha FZ16 & my predictive analyses

And if one wasn't enough, Yamaha has another warrior in a different armor. Back in early January this year, just before the annual Motor Show in Delhi where two bikes - R15 and FZ16 - were displayed, I had analyzed the motorcycle market in India and suggested what TVS needed to do to really break the shackles and capture certain important segments. Of course, my basic assumption was that Yamaha would not wake up in time to grab the position it had left vacant for years together.

Irrespective, Yamaha ends up doing almost precisely as I had written on my other blog called fork-blog.blogspot.com (it's all about business and marketing strategy using the concepts of divergence and focus). And I am so glad about that. If I were to express the emotion, a motorcyclist is witnessing a second revival (the first was launch of Bajaj Pulsar) of performance motorcycling in the country.

That's FZ16 for you. The lord of the streets! Ravishing red!

R15 Red

In one of my earlier posts on 5th July '08, I had expressed a desire to see a red R15. And how soon does it come true :). Reason enough to plan for buying one soon.

The pic's from the Yamaha India website. Does look smashing, doesn't it?

Kinetic Flyte - how is it flying?

The scooter above is Kinetic Flyte and the one below is Honda Dio. Instead of Honda Dio, I could've taken any other scooter too. But Dio serves the purpose better.

Have you observed Flyte on road? It's 125cc and yet looks so diminutive - from the front as well from the back. Contrast it with any other successful 100cc scooter and you would think that Flyte competes with the Scooties of the world. On the other hand, also observe Kinetic's launches especially among scooters - Kinetic Nova, Kinetic 4S, Kinetic Blaze... Most notably the latest, Kinetic Blaze. It's unarguably the biggest scooter launched in India till date. When it comes to two-wheelers in India the cubic capacity i.e. cc is often positively correlated with the actual size of the vehicle. Greater the cc, bigger the scooter. In light of that, Kinetic Flyte seems to be an aberration - considering the competition, considering its own launches and considering the popular perception.

Am not sure how well Flyte is doing, the trend in two-wheelers, both motorcycles and scooters, hints at preference for bigger-looking vehicles. I wonder after the launch of Blaze why Kinetic launched a diminutive scooter like this one. 125cc is just right segment but the size doesn't match the cubic capacity.