Hero MotoCorp seems to be launching 300 cc versions of all of its current 200 cc bikes
Hero has been synonymous with budget commuters in India crashing sales charts month after month like a pawn in a chess game. But at the upper end of its price spectrum, Hero doesn’t enjoy much action like say, Royal Enfield enjoys. Currently, Hero has XPulse 200 off-roader, 200T tourer which will soon get a 4V head and Xtreme 200S.
It is not that Hero doesn’t know how to make faired bikes or ADVs. Hero had the Karizma ZMR on which Hritik Roshan nullifies a freaking tornado with a 20 bhp bike weighing 157 kg. I mean, it was corny. But hey, we’re Indians and we love corny stuff.
Hero also had the brilliant Impulse 150 ADV with 245mm ground clearance. With XPulse 200, Hero has taken its off-roading game literally a notch above with recently launched Rally Edition. So, they have a pedigree and with the upcoming 300cc platform, Hero is likely to shine bright. Also, Hero gets its pricing spot on, pretty much every time and a vast dealer network with maintenance costing peanuts doesn’t hurt either.
Upcoming Hero 300cc Motorcycles
When Hero launched its 200cc platform, XPulse 200 off-roader rose to fame instantly owing to its brilliance. 200T tourer and Xtreme 200S didn’t receive much love from Indians as they were not as appealing as the former. But with 300cc platform Hero should work on making all three products equally appealing.
Last time, we saw three Hero motorcycles on test which was just two before. New set of spy shots also has three test mules and confirms that Hero is set to launch XPulse 300 Off-roader, 300T dual-sport and Xtreme 300S sport bike. Hero’s developments come at a time when mid-size segment is seeing steady growth with Royal Enfield leading the sales charts.
Currently, XPulse 200T gets alloy wheels and mostly looks like a naked bike. But looking at the XPulse 300T, it seems to get a bikini fairing like we saw with Bajaj AS series and also a small front beak. It gets spoked wheels instead of alloys on 200T and gets block pattern tyres that are fatter than XPulse 300 off-roader. It also seems to get a stubby exhaust which is a lot smaller than XPulse 300 off-roader.
Coming to the star of this show, we have an XPulse 300 off-roader which is what I’d bet my money on. It gets a split seat layout and looks like a much more substantial product in terms of size. It also seems to get a space frame like Himalayan to mount jerry cans. The tyres are skinnier than 300T and are visually a much taller machine. But the front wheel doesn’t look to be 21” as seen on XPulse 200. It might just be the angle in the picture, though. Take a look at the spy video below, credited to Unboxing Oneself.
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Xtreme 300S Sports Bike
Coming to Xtreme 300S, it seems to embody the spirit of Karizma ZMR instead of 200S. We say this because Karizma ZMR was a thicc boi with a fat fairing. It was disproportionate from most angles too. 300S has a big fairing too, but it doesn’t look disproportionate as the bigger platform gets fatter wheels and other components. It is the only one to get alloy wheels too.
When it comes to similarities between all three test mules, they have a few. For starters, let’s cover ‘first for a Hero’ components which are a trellis frame, a 300cc engine with around 30 bhp and 25 Nm, a 6-speed gearbox, liquid cooling, and front USD forks, to name a few. Other notable updates include a larger and squarish display for instrumentation and we can expect slightly better switchgear too. All three of these bikes will lock horns with similar motorcycles from TVS, Bajaj, Royal Enfield, Jawa, Yezdi and more.
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
