Hero is developing 1 sport bike and 2 adventure bikes, on-road and off-road biased
Earlier, we gave you a glimpse of the upcoming sport and adventure bikes from Hero MotoCorp. You can check out the same here. At that time, there was a confusion prevailing whether Hero had borrowed the recently launched Honda CB300F’s engine or not.
Now, to clear the air, we have got few more pictures of the bikes, this time, revealing the engine. It looks like a proper liquid-cooled unit and no way resembles the CB300F’s air-cooled mill.
Coming to the engine’s displacement, while many reports online claim that it’s a single cylinder and displaces 300 cc, we aren’t able to pinpoint that number at this point of time. The adventure bikes, for example, look huge and a 300 simple doesn’t justify the size.
With no big name like KTM or BMW to back the company in engine technology, it’s nearly inevitable for Hero to play the displacement game like Royal Enfield which always thinks big engine numbers at the development stage itself.
We feel the engine could displace 450 cc as Hero already has a motorsports machine with the same engine displacement. Hero’s output figures are always modest and so a 450 makes perfect sense to take on the competition that already makes more than 40 horses.
With Royal Enfield readying a 450 cc Himalayan, it, again, makes perfect sense for Hero to opt a 450 cc mill. But, contrary to our expectations, if Hero goes ahead with a 300 as said by the online reports, it needs to do a lot of work to catch up with the competition.
Also, from the recent spy shots, we have come to know that Hero is readying 3 bikes, a sport bike, a road-biased adventure bike, and an off-road biased adventure bike like Xtreme 200S, Xtreme 200T, and Xtreme 200 4V.
While the adventure bikes get USD forks upfront, the sport bike gets regular telescopic units. However, all the bikes get monoshock mounted on box-section swing arm at the rear. While the adventure bikes feature spoke wheels, the sport bike gets slanted alloy wheels.
Coming to the adventure bikes’ design, they get a typical adventure tourer look with a front beak. The front is raised ending in the tall windshield. The handlebar is tilted towards the rider for comfortable ergonomics. The RVMs are mounted on the handlebar.
The seat is a split unit without a step up design. The bikes have chunky panels all around and should look huge in flesh like the Ducati Multistrada. The rear is highly raised up with a long mud flap.
Coming to the design of the sport bike, the overall silhouette looks like the Suzuki Gixxer SF. The short wind screen and close clip-ons are reminiscent of the Suzuki. The RVMs are mounted on the fairing for a sporty look.
The 3 motorcycles might be unveiled sometime later this year with launch happening next year. When launched, they are sure to heat up the entry-level premium segment.