A normal human tendency is that “we show more inclination towards things which we don’t have” and this will be the same till the end of the world. This article is not a psychological one but there are fair chances to spark up a huge debate, but we wish to state what is there in the mind of a customer. So this article mainly deals with why we Indians are obsessed with fully-faired bikes. We know many people won’t agree with the above statement but we have concluded based on the many queries that we constantly get.
So what is basically the difference between a naked and a fully faired bike?
The answer lies in the question itself, ‘fairings’. But that’s not all; we wish to tell that apart from the fairing, a fully faired bike differs in engine performance, gearbox and ergonomics as well. Coming to the fairing, they are basically not just for aesthetics. The Fairing primarily improve aerodynamics of the bike; eventually enhancing the stability at speed. Secondarily the fairing is used to divert the air towards the engine for cooling purpose; air cools engine directly for an air-cooled one and cools radiator for the liquid cooled ones. Improved aerodynamics of the bike demands for an aggressive seating position and that is the reason fully-faired bikes have a crouched position when compared to naked ones. Apart from those, engines of fully-faired bikes have more power and less torque along with long gear ratios. Again this design varies from company to company but this is a common trend we have observed.
Why are Indians obsessed with fully-faired bikes?
Basically the pre-defined mindset of an Indian is “faired bikes are sports bikes. They have big engines. People will notice a fully-faired motorcycle”. A pure misconception and one can blame the movie industry to some extent; you can’t rule out the impact of movies on the human thinking process. Apart from that, one can say that MotoGP races and its merchandise have a considerable contribution to this. I own a Honda CBR250R; though the bike is not carrying a high capacity engine; people ask me the price, power, top speed, etc at a frequent rate. The reason is pretty simple; they ask me because of the above mentioned mind-set.
Sometime back we conducted a survey on preference of KTM RC 390 and Duke 390; 60% of our readers voted in favour of the fully-faired RC 390.
Everyone has to admit that fully-faired bikes have got an edge over the naked ones in terms of looks but naked bikes have got their own sense of style and they look equally beautiful. It is not that fully-faired bikes have always emerged as the winner but there have been exceptions; namely Karizma R over ZMR. Karizma R’s production was supposed to have stopped after the launch of the ZMR but the fully-faired couldn’t replace the stunning Karizma R. Hero Honda (now Hero MotoCorp) started production of the Karizma R based on confirmed orders and the volume was decent. The Hero Karizma R and ZMR recently got a facelift.
Everyone has to remember that the fastest bike (locally manufactured) in the country till date is the naked KTM Duke 390 and it is followed by the vintage Yamaha RD350. Though the market is now showing more inclination towards fully-faired bikes; the sub-continent still contains a good chunk of population who prefer naked street-fighters and cruisers over faired ones.
“Love for a bike is always love for a bike” – a Biker.
