Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

i like CBR650F very much, it offers so much in one single bike. if i had the moey required to buy it, i would have done it the day it is launched. makes so much sense specially in indian market. only thing that can hold it back will be pricing, if its too high. price it right and its a winner.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

the bike is excellent. its : st the exorbitant pricing that's killing all the hype and positivity around it. I was really looking forward to this expecting it to be near the 6.5 -7 L OTR mark but 8L ex is just too much..

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Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Interesting conversation happening here. And having a Ninja 650 for over two years I can feel the need for this bike. But let's discuss the price first. Following the discussions here, i have noticed an underlying theme - no one is happy with the bike in their budget. People want a better bike, a Moto Guzzi V8 of the past, at the cost of the current Pulsar. But the good thing is people have started talking about better stuff than just the mileage.

Now coming to CBR650F, I think it is going to be nearly a damn perfect bike for India. Or at least for the kind of riding we guys love. Swift and fast in cities, stable and comfortable on the highway. The trouble with street triples,z800 and the nakeds is they don't really make for good tourers. And touring is something that any one who likes bikes in this country does. or at least dreams to do. And that is fair enough too. Unlike the west, we really lack the whole track day culture, because there is no surrounding infrastructure around track days. No one to set your suspension. No place to go and buy track suits easily. Don't get me wrong, if you want you can go and do everything you want. I am just talking about comfort here. This makes the whole point of criticising bikes for not being set up for track days by western journos pretty stupid here. Also the home grown journos are pretty much say good things about everything north of 500cc here. Remember no one noticed the power deficit on the initial triumphs here. So I think CBR will be a good bike to go to the hills or Rann of Kutch or do a quick blast on your favourite roads. Mind you it is not going to be the best in any of these. A street triple might be better in the twisty bits. The Kwacker in trying to impress the crowd bit. And Ninja in outright comfort and practicality and VFM bit. But i think it will offer a lot of all of these in one package. Even if it comes at around 8, and I fear it will be around 8, it is a good deal. Because well of the options. A ninja doesnt have an inline 4 and ABS. A street triple doesn't have a fairing and ground clearance, not to mention is a terrible value for money, though probably the best bike south of 10 lakhs in this country. The z800 is an elephant with really smooth power delivery and an excellent gearbox. It also has adjustable suspension. And en easy enough to make it sound like devil gargling with chocolate. But it is just too heavy and will be a pain in the fast switchbacks that make for hill roads here. Not to mention the windblast will just make you forget pain in your ass. So, it will be restricted to the roads in the cities then. And we don't want to. So between all of this and their price range, Honda will be ok to price it around 8 on road. Anything less will be them being more aggressive than the bike's power delivery. Which, if they plan to capture this segment, they should be.

In short, it is a great bike at 7, good bike for 8 and pretty average one if you don't want a do it all bike and are looking for a one trick pony. That there are better of.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

I wholeheartedly agree with you bro but still if you read through he reviews even the international community feels its a tad bit overpriced with respect to the competition.. Honda is very well known for its refinement but I think charging 8L ex is still a bit of a farfetched plan only for the fanboy..
Benelli have managed to deliver in the price range of 6.5L.. its still no budget bike IMO still pretty hefty price tag but then they have kinda justified that price point with an affordable IL4 and its reflecting in the sales.. Its just that Honda could have done better with the pricing that's all.. It would have given serious competition to the n650 and tnt600i of it was priced around 7L otr..
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Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Good analysis. Agreed with most of the part. But you missed the Benelli 600i. I think it will be a bit hard to justify anything over 7 to 7.5l OTR for Honda keeping in mind what Benelli offers at 6l. Also I think 'affordable' price point for most of the enthusiast in India is 5l which can be stretched up-to 6l.Thats the reason we see more Benellis,Ninja 650 than Z800 even though later is better bike. So if Honda prices it around 6l ( which I know is very unlikely) then it will sale in far more numbers than if they price it 7.5-8l. I think its more like 3,4 times more sales if priced 20 percent less.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Benelli keeps on coming in the argument and I keep ignoring it, simply because to people like us, who take 10 years to go from 250-600cc, after sales service is very important. Honda, Kawasaki(due to Pro-biking) and Triumph(rapidly expanding and really good experience) are better bets. We all know what happened with Ducati initially. Benelli as a brand carries quite a lot of history, but it is History in its home market. I hope they do well here to survive and keep going with terrific value products, but I will take at least 5 years to be convinced about them. Till then it isn't really a choice. Also it suffers from the same problem, Z800 suffers, too much weight. Basics are good though. All this is of course my opinion.


Also please understand pricing. What is made in India is far cheaper than what will be imported. A ktm Duke 390 costs 2 lakhs here. But costs almost 5 lakhs in UK. 8 lakhs is a bit too much. But only a bit. I don't think it can be around 6-6.5. I will happily eat my word, with some mustard, if it is. But doesn't seem like.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Agreed. Maintainance is a huge part of an ownership. But if you compare the costs both are expensive in terms of spares and their availability.. in both cases as far as north India is concerned you have to wait a minimum 15 20 days to get the spares.. and they do cost a fortune..
Secondly Ktm are cheap here and expensive outside agreed. but benelli isn't made here.. they also have minimal localization yet they managed to keep their prices near 5.2L ex and the fit and finish isn't substandard in any way.. All I am saying is Honda would have fared better if it was priced aggressively near the 7L mark...

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Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Benelli is now, I think, Chinese owned. They can even take some hit to establish themselves. They are looking at Asia to get the glory they had in the west many years ago. They have to be cheap because that is why anyone will buy them. Honda doesn't need to do that. Those who want to buy will buy it, they don't need to take it. That is called brand value - Or as you might call it snobbery.

And, yes, any brand would do a lot better, if it got a product that you want at the price you want. But, there are so many of us and so many of our wants. That call, and how to keep it profitable is pretty tough.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

I have a doubt. Are Honda more serious than us? I mean, the we're discussing its price, but not Honda's sales target regarding this bike.

We're hearing that Honda has readied (just) 30 CBR650F's before launch.
I mean, come on, when the litre class bikes can sell in 3 digit sales numbers with their prices, and Honda has barely readied 30 bikes before launch, then isn't it clear that Honda will sell whatever it has planned?



Guys, their strategy is Market Skimming & not Market Penetration. They'll keep it premium by keeping it at a premium. And for this bike's existing price, they hardly have a choice too, I think.
It has happened before and will happen in future too.

No point discussing it. If 30 bikes at launch, and some more later on, is what they want to sell, they will sell it.
Even superbikes sell around this much. And its a Honda.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

What I want or the general public wants isn't the point of discussion.. I am not asking for a 650cc for 5L. could get a hyuosung gtr in that price.. its an overall package.. I am expecting a mid segment bike around the 7L price point. like every other person who got excited when we got to know about this beast. But you have to agree that as soon as the price was declared all that excitement died down.. i was expecting better that's all.. I am not going to defend benelli but they have proven their point that even if its Chinese they are well built and can last. manufactured an IL4 outside India and imported still they managed to keep the price below 6L.. That's impressive.. They arent even as big as Honda.. I was thinking if benelli can do it then why can't a bigshot like honda do the same and keep the prices around 7L.. I am sorry if somebody's sentiments have got offended but I was a lil disappointed coz I was every excited about this bike as an upgrade..

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Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Agree with this. It doesn't make any sense.

Btw huge follower of xbhp. Its nice to find people with similar interests and this will be my first post here.
Hope this will be a great start.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Welcome buddy..
Ride safe

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Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

Would you believe me if i said that Benelli sells the same 600i for 3.87 lakhs in South Africa with 1 year or 10,000 kms warranty?
Its cheaper to make and sell replica bikes or kit bikes than build an all new one from scratch. That's why Benelli manages to sell it cheap.
They neither designed the engine nor its frame from scratch. Its basically using an 11 year old Yamaha engine and an Aprilia Shiver 750 frame. That way, you have the majority of your work cut by the other manufacturers and that drastically brings your overall costs down. Its also how that Chinese CBR250R replica manages to undercut Honda's own 250R here despite being manufactured in China.
At the end of the day, If you want to build an all new bike, you have to put money into R&D to be able to pay engineers and other people who will have to spend 2 years to Design a prototype, get approval, start simulation, derive actual model, run several tests in doors, run outdoor tests, collect data and get the nod for manufacturing it. And then when the product is ready to go on sale, you have to keep a profit high enough to recover that R&D money. How else would they keep R&D operational for future products?

The monthly sales figures for the 500-800cc bikes as per SIAM is in the double digits. 40-60 units for the Ninja 650, don't remember the Z800 numbers but it wasn't above that. Motorbeam had a report on the sales figures up until a few months ago. 30 units @ 1 bike / day is reasonable and this bike will be assembled based on demand, much like the 200 units / month target of their 150R so a premium pricing is not going to be any surprise.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

[MENTION=39752]Nithesh[/MENTION]: Exactly my point. If only 30 bikes need to be sold initially and some more later on, then what's the point pricing it low?

And now, one more news clarifies that this entire CBR650F is nothing more than one more bigshot launch on the middle-top of the food chain, not affecting most of us anyways:-

Honda CBR650 F To Be Sold Via 10 Dealership In India | ??? 10 ??????? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???? ?????? 650 ?? - ********** Hindi

Yes, presently only 10 dealerships, and later 20, will sell the CBR650F.

I'm starting to think that, 8 Lacs is anyways the right price... Its a premium product. Think about it, this bike has everything a litre class streetbike has, except 350cc less and some less power. Compare this to a CB1000R, and things start making sense...
And it is full faired & has ABS too.

Re: Honda CBR 650F launch on 4th August. Bookings Open!

.

Sure, it's priced at 5.4lac in the US, but the Honda CBR 650F is probably worth a 8 lac price tag in India.

Why? Simply because you can't really expect anything better from anyone at Honda India.

It's an excellent bike and one of the more practical bikes to own here.

But owning one would be a nightmare. Unavailable spares, Bad service, Malinformed technicians; yikes!

Total third world bike after-sales scene. With 5th grade dropouts for mechanics.


i understand what you mean, but it's not a premium product.

it is simply being marketed in India as one.

it's only a premium bike in indian markets coz of the third world motorcycling scene in india, but there's nothing intrinsically premium about the CBR 650F.

every buyer will realize that once they've bought this 'premium' bike and have to get it serviced. ha! it's a joke.

most 'premium' bike mechanics are clowns.

Indian manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves with not having launched 650 and 1000cc bikes under their brands.

There are laws in place to protect India manufacturers. protect them from what?

100cc-115cc-125cc-135cc-150cc-165cc-180cc-200cc-220cc-224cc sheeesh!

all they've been doing has been sitting on their thumbs for the last 15 years.

Launching a CBR 650F like it's an MV Agusta Dragster.

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