Looks like the tourers of xBhp have not yet taken notice of this very insightful interesting article which will yet again be noticed and used by the auto manufacturers of this country (hopefully I add) to further their biking industry with more useful stuff than just graphics and stickering.

I remember our discussion MG and I will bring out the points now, the ones that I had mentioned when I talked to you...

1/ A 300CC single mill cannot effectively and efficiently produce 35 Ps.
2/ If point number 1 cannot happen, it cannot have a true speed of 150Ks.
3/ A bike with a true 150Ks top whack, will not be able to cruise at 120 all day long without stressing the engine. It would feel stressed, vibes coming in after 3 long tours, 15000 kms. This WILL happen.
4/ I personally will be happy if such a bike comes. But such a bike will still have one big drawback. On highway riding, there are umpteen occasions when a rider on a slightly different "looking" bike is often challenged to by wanna be Rossis or other cagers or often even by our dear old Volvos B7R. A 35 ps will NOT have, I repeat, it will NOT have enough power or acceleration left at 100 to make even a Scorpio eat dust, Old Fox, you can recount them your incident and thus you will be left gasping for breath. I am not saying that I need 150 Arab horses under my belt. Read my article on Hard Torque and you will know my clear stand on this issue. I personally feel that if you have 60-65 Bhp available under the hood, you got it going man. But 35 will just leave us in the lurch.
5/ You talked about a console giving, I quote "time, temperature, altitude, distance to empty and average fuel consumption", you forgot to mention GPS, strategically placed cameras, cable TV, onboard talking computer, highest speed, avg speed recordings of the last 10 outings.
Just joking, but with these, the price of the bike will invariably go up. You really need stuff like that, carry a basic GPS. I would rather they spent the money under the hood and not much over it. A basic console, giving me what we have on a 220 with coolant temperature and time added will be fine. I am not interested in altitude or my horoscope!

My call would be this. 300CC would be too little. A single mill will NOT do what we are asking for. If there is ANY indigenous development, I would like something that gives me 60Bhp, let it take any number of CCs that it requires to give me those horses. For touring I do NOT want Clip-ons. I want adjustable rearsets. I am all for Top Cases and company fitted side Panniers as well. Bikini fairing. Less than 170 kilos. A decent ground clearance, I do not recall MG talking about this. A good traveling front fork that does NOT dive like the Indian bikes. Pricing ranging between 1.8L to 2.8L depending upon the variant that the customer wants.

Interesting article MG. I am glad that you brought this up. I have tried to be as objective as I could keep myself without going overboard. I hope this constructive criticism takes us somewhere...

dunno where to put it across.......

know its ot but the way xbhp has come back wud make even armstrong sit and take notice....have been a member of this site for the past 2 yrs and i feel truly proud to be a part of something that has born again but never died......all my best wishes to the people who take efforts to keep hopes,dreams,motorbikes and xbhp alive....about the topic sold my car a month ago and looking for a new bike to do a fair amount of touring......which one would u suggest between a p220,zma and a 500 lb....had a zma previously and i love its unhurried nature...

I think a KTM duke690 should fit our requirements,,
its a single cyl,,60+ bhp,,reliable,,,and its a ktm

the thing is willl bajaj launch it along with superduke or not,,,i think they should and it might sell better than superduke itself,,if priced right though

hey MG, glad you brought this post up. I reckon a few things like..

1. The engine should be around 250-300 cc, 250 will suffice as our companies will always give us de-tuned engines. Well, if they think different, then my say, 25 horses should be fine enough for our roads. No ones going to burn em at 150ks all day long!

2. Tubeless and fatter tires as well as HID lights ARE wanted badly.

3. A bikini fairing or even naked shall do. Monoshock is also a must have, as are split seats. With the amount of money that ones paying, this should be provided as well. Cmon, we all have been demanding the same things for the past few years but all we have got are bikes with lesser capacities, nothing upto these points.

4. Fuel injection will be handy and at the same time the co should tie up with luggage manufacturers to provide quality storage accessories for the machine.

I guess its high time some company took note of this and gave us a bike of this kind. we really need it.

What do u think about comet, does it fit ?

I have ridden 27 Horses for long enough to know that 25 is just not enough. You get pushed over, shoved aside by Scorpios, Accents and the rest. They chase you down and you just dont have enough power left at 120ks. 60-65 Horses will really help. Please read my detailed post above.

Nobody is talking about grinding 150 all day. You cannot do that in this country. But the ability to actually cruise at 120 all day which cannot be done easily for umpteen tours with the current crop of vehicles that you see on the roads.

Let the R&D decide how fat tyres are required for your bike.

@Harmeet: The 690 does fit our requirements. But it does not fit our wallets with the current customs duty structure.

As of now its doing ! but again the parts are bit costly as they are to be imported. An Indian Bike such could do, but again the Scorpios(or other high end taxis) push!

nice composition...

MG, after reading this post i was in my dreams and riding such a bike on NH-1 with himalayas in my eye..... []

definitely this will be a good composition... but a GPS is must as Ken da said... and i would not mind paying 2L for it but not beyond...
tourers are so happy with ZMA, and i think it's not a hard task for indian auto makers to bring somthing similar with 2.5X price tag...
and when the question of indian roads and traffic comes, i personally dont find 100 kmph a bad crusing speed for a whole day...

otherwise it's an Indian bike upto the standard.
a querry, is insurance still a prob for comet !!!
many days before i came to know from Vrooom that no one is providing him insurance after his crash...

That's right... have seen plenty of getting pushed aside getting into Delhi at night. The last 100 km of the leh ride was IMO the most exhausting...! This is the wish list off the top of my head...

• 400-700 cc, 80-100 bhp with loads of torque at lower revs (something like the MT-01 or the bullet)
• HID's are essential
• the reliability of a zma
• half fairing
• fuel injected, but with a lower compression ratio (need not worry about availability of high octane fuel)

I agree with most of this. 80Bhp is fine by me. HID I can get retro fitted. I wouldn't mind a compression ratio of 11 but I will let the R&D decide that.

(Aside) I have not seen too many 80bhp Bullets that you have mentioned!

.. I was referring to the low rev, torquey characteristics ...

Actually... if there were a 80 bhp Bullet available even for 3L with a bit more reliability, I think RE would not be able to handle the demand. We would be flocking to the showrooms to buy it. It would be THE IDEAL Touring machine that we have been waiting for.

But we all know... if wishes were...

Ken da: i was mistaken. Sorry about that. I would then settle for around 50 odd horses. M restricting my numbers just coz i know we will never get those figures from the current crop of manufacturers sooner. maybe a few years down the line.

I would definitely want a bike thats torquey n zippy enough to move across places quickly.