Hero MotoCorp has surprised us all by showcasing a range of products in the past few months. In fact, once Hero showcased the HX250R, no one expected anything more but then came the Hastur, a 620cc motorcycle. Now we have learned from our sources that the company is working on an even higher capacity bike, which is likely to be called the Super Hastur. This will become the flagship Hero offering and will be a litre class superbike which will help the company do brand building in India while also entering into more mature markets.
Hero understands that the 1000cc segment has many established players and thus the company is soliciting help from Erik Buell Racing, its partner in developing motorcycles. EBR itself makes two very potent litre class bikes called the 1190RS and 1190RX. However due to cost reasons, Hero will not badge engineer these bikes. The EBR 1190RS is priced at a whooping Rs. 23.98 lakhs ($40,000) in the USA and sells in very limited numbers. Hero wants to get volumes out of its litre-class offering and since street-fighters are getting popular everywhere, the Super Hastur will be a naked, just like the regular Hastur.
We got in touch with a few people who are in the know about the developments at India’s largest 2-wheeler manufacture. They told us that the company won’t be targeting performance with the Super Hastur. Instead, the complete focus will be on reliability and cost of running. The recent recall of the Yamaha YZF-R1 has made Hero believe that there is yet no bike in the litre segment which has bullet proof reliability but this gap can be fulfilled by the Splendor maker. A leaked document has briefed us on the specifications of the bike.
The Hero Super Hastur will be powered by a 1115cc, 5-cylinder engine which will make it unique as most bikes in this class have 4-cylinders and companies are moving to 3-pots while Hero is going a step up. One analyst who wished to remain anonymous reveals to us that the 1115cc engine is nothing but five 223cc engines from the Karizma, as this motor is flawless and in the past 11 years on the road, not a single mill has reported issues. Power output is expected to be in the region of 120 BHP but mileage will be crucial for the success of this machine, the analyst added. The company is targeting a figure of 20 km/l from ARAI.
As all litre class bikes have a lot of power, there is none which is frugal. The Hero Super Hastur will get the i3S (idle stop-start system) from the Splendor iSmart while the integrated brake system (IBS) will be sourced from the Pleasure. A special version called the Super Hastur FE will be revealed where FE stands for fuel efficiency, having a 10% better mileage thanks to the use of low rolling resistance tyres and narrower rubber (160 section tyres at the rear instead of 180 section). The Super Hastur will be offered in a lot of variants including Super Hastur Pro, Super Hastur Pro Classic, Super Hastur xPro, Super Hastur NXG, Super Hastur iFrugal, etc. (few of the variants will have improved performance thanks to the use of eco-friendly body graphics for improved aerodynamics). The bike will be priced under Rs. 5 lakhs when it goes on sale on 1st April next year.