I am talking about real life practicality. And if we can afford it. I am also talking about from the POV of MG wherein he is talking about indigenous development of a worthwhile machine that will take us places. And believe me even 50 horses is good enough to take us place in a hurry if the company can develop such a machine with a relatively good power to weight ratio. I will be one of the first to run to the showroom. Even I am aware that this is not happening overnight. But it has to happen if the manufacturers have to survive. Economics will dictate such situations, whether your heart likes it or not. And believe me, when the market is actually matured and ready, there WILL be machines.

I think the bike i have is just bought is ideal for touring in India...... Suzuki GSX400 Inazuma. Its an upright standard, a treat to ride, especially for a person like me who is getting back to biking after years. It has 400cc, 50ps, every other part of the bike is built to easily accomodate the 1200cc engine, so its very stable.....i dont know what top whack it will do.... i dont care really. what i do know is that you can ride for hours 2 up without sweat and also without having an iron butt . If only honda could make the cb400 super four v tec here. It is the ideal bike for riding long distance in India IMHO!!!

Oh and the price is also just about right albeit for a 10 year old model..... sigh.... wish it was available new for the same price

@rohituchill:::never seen a gsx 400 before ,,could you upload a few pics of ur bike

I havnt snapped pics as yet, but I promise to do so this evening and put them on tomorrow. Here are some snaps off the net. Mine is identical, except for the cans which some previous codger replaced with Yoshi 4 x 4's. They sound sweet, but the center stands been sacrificed.....

Suzuki GSX400 Inazuma

Last think i want to do is stick my butt and get kicked around.

Someone pointed out to the companies to take notice of this but i doubt that is going to happen..

Some of the issues pointed out were GAS Mileage, Replaceable Parts, Oil, Accessories to add more luggage, also needs to be an All rounder.. and for something for a good price..

Here is what i have short listed.. fell in love back in 07. Motorcycle mag gave it Bike of the Year award last month and now i am just short on importing this baby..

Kawasaki versys.


Idea Multi utility Bike..

if not then there are the expensive BMW's that last long and long and long tours..

Hey guys i am posting after a very long time.
well as far as a touring bike is concerned i would prefer something with on and off road capability,as far as power is concerned i guess around 80+ bhps with more lower end torque and a long final gear would be more than sufficient.

and last but not the least if you are looking for something like this you should be prepared to shell out between 3-4 lakhs

I have been following the discussion thread. Though it started with a wishlist of 25 bhp it ended at 80 bhp. I am saying all this is fine but are we considering the affordability? The dreams are unlimited, the hunger for power(bhp) is limitless, for that matter a Hayabusa would be a dream tourer but I think the point of discussion was a decent tourer which at the same time is affordable for the common mass.

Now this is a debatable issue. What exactly is the defination of "affordable" and if I narrow the defination further down to "affordable for the mass" . If I need to go by the statistics in the Indian economic context, the "mass" buys bikes in the range of Rs.35000 to Rs.50000. A smaller section of the mass goes for the Rs.50000 to Rs.65000 range and only a handful beyond that.

The point I wish to make is that this "mass' I am talking about does not only use their machines for commuting but they also tour. Question is how much more this mass will be ready to pay for that 'perfect touring machine'? If you analyse further you will see that most of touring community comes from the Rs.50000 - Rs 65000 bracket i.e the 150 cc class. Hence there should be suitable machines in this segment rather than one single dream touring machine for which you never know where the price will be pegged.

Let's see this. even if you are on a Hayabusa you will get pushed over by a Scorpio simply because the Scorpio has a larger body mass. It is nothing to do with bhp of both the vehicles. That's not the yardstick. Let's not compare that way.

Also I felt that while discussing speed and power of this "ideal touring machine" all members were somewhat assuming that the touring is done mostly on Golden Quadrilaterals. But that is not so. Mostly tourers experience single lane roads,battered surface and bad traffic. Hence 120KM all day speed is not a 'must have'.

Before I tell you my take I must admit that my touring experience is limited to a 100cc yamaha Crux and a Karizma on the extream end. Hence my judgement is based on my experience of Indian highways while I travelled on these machines.

I will tell you my take, I have listed down the basic requirements of a bike used for touring in India. I have somewhat analysed the experiences xbhpans who post their touring experiences in the touring section and based my opinion on basic requirements basis that.

• The bike should hit about 115kmph+ (crusing speed 90kmph).
• Bike must have a good linier torque spread,
• long travel suspension,
• disc breaks at both end,
• fat tyres aka P220,
• HID lamp,
• some amount of wind protection(fairing),
• provision for fixing luggage racks.
• powerful double horns.
• a comfortable saddle.
• large fuel tank. Must hold at least 15 litres.
• high exhaust positioning
• Such a bike should be available for 70K.

Anything better than this has already been discussed by the members. before. The more the merrier.

But we must bring motorcycle touring to masses.

Cheers. Long live tourers

Best Tourer Bike 2011

Putting the above discussion in current scenario, which amongst present in-production (and soon-to-hit) bikes according to you comes close to your idea of an ideal touring bike ???

Asking this question as I am looking out for my next bike and expecting it to provide best-in-class suspensions/shock absorbers & sitting position (given average Indian road condition and my fear of back pain), naked (yes a naked tourer coz I hate plastic), high low end torque, good stability at top speeds, minimal maintenance, good overall reliability and should not cost more than 2 lac. According to me RE Thunderbird fits the requirement (except for top speed & maintenance) .

Seems like we need 80 Bhp ZMR.
About the Fairing thingy, I think full fairing on ZMR does its job very well.
P.S. I THINK it is better than Half Fairing of ZMA.

I vote for the hayabusa

bike manufacturers in India do not categorize their bike's. the same goes for other bikes like the hayabusas, GSX 1000 etc etc when they market the same in india. in our country the user decides what he wants to do with the bike. so the road bikes become the touring bike, touring bike becomes track bike etc etc. abroad most hardcore bikers have seperate bikes for track,tour,offroad,etc. they also have the money to splash, which a majority of us in india do not have.

in this scenario if any bike manufacturer is going to brand his bike a dedicated touring bike, it may fail in sales. even royal enfield do not promote their bike as a dedicated tourer bike but an all rounder bike.

so the story will continue in India the way it is in the mass market. but in the premium category there will be a segmentation and owners can pick a bike tailored for their specific needs. our country has a long way to go as far as the roads are concerned. but more importantly our roads will be never be safe enough even for a relaxed riding at a 120 kph on long distances. roads are free crossing for people,cats,dogs etc things appear like magic in front of you on the best of superhighways and god save you if you are riding relaxed at a 120 kph. adding to that are our fellow tin can riders ( read car ) who is pleased to show a poor biker who is the boss.

so that is it and i expect no magic touring bike appearing in india at a price point of 1 to 2 lakhs

^ + 1.. seems you stole my words brother .. even i am touring on p135.. covered some 500 km in 10 hrs.. never felt it is stressed.. was cruising @ 70 - 75kmph.. only drawback i felt is more power (~17 - 21 bhp) and some more weight (~140 kg).. this will be enough on indian conditions.. though i had never been to high altitudes (leh etc).. for that FI will be capable of..

You are typing it wrong. Get practicle vehicle, your hayabusa isn't going to repair itself up there.

I have read most of the discussion here and a most of them made more sense than mere hypothetical fascination of owning a dream cruiser ...

I had P150 for better part of my riding for last 10 yrs. Stayed in Delhi and had munched quite a few miles to all 4 major NH leaving Delhi... (Jaipur, Agra, Chandigarh n Dehradun...)

Now as for the touring goes, I personally felt quite satisfied with the performance, mileage, reliability and descent top speed of P150. I didnt ask for more than that. And all who are aware of the highways leaving the capital.. the Delhi-Dun highway is one of the worst nightmares one can have on road with single lane highways and villages n cities right on the highway every few kms.. sme route where I have done the chunk of my rides (srinagar, garhwal, nainitaal etc)

I want to put forward a few things that I learnt bout touring in typical Indian conditions and what practicality we can adhere to :

1. Indian roads, most of them are just not good enough for big bore bikes to sail for touring at high speeds. Barring the golden quad .. that most of us think of ..
infact, just to quote, when HD officially decided to have an official touring event, they choose, Rajasthan for its better roads and lesser congestion...
So more bhps are essential but not the necessary condn fr touring in India.

2. You tend to find all kind of animals (4 legged n 2 legged alike) crossing Indian roads, alarmed and undeterred of the fact that its a life threatening adventure. Guess what, cruising at 120 kmph meets up with a family of idiots crossing the road with who cares idea ... n BANG .. one of them goes for a toss along with you .. .. sad. Its not 'ARIZONA' that you are going to find most of the times in India ...

3. Affordability/milage is supreme ... "kitna deti hai" is the question that pops out abruptly to us. Now, what wd b the mileage fig of HD's or Busas I dont know ... but its a huge dent to most of ours touring aspirations ...

4. ASS (read after sale services ) is also a pain to be taken care of...

After years of satisfactory living with P150, I have got a CBR250R a few months back. And for me, it more or less does the trick in every department.
1. 27bhp was good enf for me to keep ahead with still more to churn out at the top...

2. notching top speed of 150kmph and stable cruising at 110-120kmph without sweating was a key while I did my last trip to n back Goa frm Pune... did the dist in 7 hrs with few stops.. And I felt it wasnt my bikes endurance test, by rather mine to keep sittin at the saddle for loong distances... for the bike, it was absolutely poised and calm at every throttle... so there was no vibrations and performance issue that I felt...

3. for keeping scorpios n safaris in the RVM, all I can say is, I had most of them in mine ... so i avoided any washed out kinda experience ...

4. Price for my CBR in Pune is 1.6 lakhs onroad... n m totally happy with
the price and what I get out in lieu of it.

one thing that I felt different was the drag that came while driving at open NH7 .. since its a faired bike, it kept on pushing it to a side for sme time... so I guess, naked ones wd b better in this context.

I may not have a super tourer or perfect tourer .. but with the money that I could afford and keep my touring appetite at check.. I find CBR250R worthy of all the applaud..

Shashvat
drive safe n wear helmets...

Thanx for your review mate.was looking for a good review of C250R in context with touring.At what RPM it reaches a speed of 80 kmph??
Seems it serves well the dual purpose of commuting as well as touring.
Cheers