Here’s What Aprilia’s Latest Offering Is All About

The Indian scooter market is undoubtedly well-stacked, but hardly any maxi-styled scooters are a part of it--the only one available here is the Suzuki Burgman Street. It features a chunky framework but packs a 125cc engine, which is a bit small for this particular scooter type. However, Aprilia has now launched the SXR 160 maxi-scooter and here’s what we think about it.

Starting from its fascia, it quite honestly has the pizzazz of a maxi-scooter. The split LED headlight with DRLs topped by a large smoked windscreen grabs a lot of attention. 

Looks can be deceptive and that’s the case with the Aprilia SXR 160. It does look jacked up as a maxi-scooter should, but that’s not the case at the rear end. From the back, the SXR 160 looks a bit tiny and doesn’t feel proportionate compared to the front.

Now moving on to the saddle, there’s enough space for the rider to move around even with the pillion, but the seat cushion is a bit of a concern. The handlebar too is placed a tad bit low and doesn’t feel very comfortable. 

The footboard too isn’t very spacious and doesn’t offer a lot of legroom.

Talking about the feature list, we can not miss out on the SXR 160’s LCD screen. It is large and displays ample data like average speed, mileage, ambient temperature, battery voltage, RPM, maximum recorded speed and real-time fuel economy. Another impressive bit on the Aprilia SXR 160 is the mode button to switch the data being displayed on the screen. There’s no engine kill switch or brake lock.

Maxi-scooters are well known for the amount of space on offer. The Aprilia SXR 160 gets a glovebox below the handlebar with two separate compartments. The left compartment has a USB charger but lacks any sizable storing capacity.

The under-seat storage isn’t that huge either. The tank capacity has been bumped by a litre, for a total of 7 litres. Aprilia has placed the battery box alongside the fuel tank and thus the under-seat storage is similar to that of Aprilia SX 160.

The SXR 160 houses a 160cc, single-cylinder, air-cooled motor that makes 11PS of power and 11Nm of torque. The engine feels lively until you hit 60kmph and from there on, there’s a minor dip in the performance.

The vibrations have been kept to a bare minimum even when you are about to reach triple-digit speeds.

For a scooter, the Aprilia SXR 160 has a pretty firm suspension setup. This means you will have to be cautious while riding on broken roads or even running over a small patch of potholes.

The stiffly setup springs transfer a lot of impact on your back. But on the brighter side, the same suspension gives way more feedback when you are out for a spirited ride.

It sits on 12-inch alloys shod with MRf Zapper N rubber. The grip from the tyres is good enough.

Moving to the brakes, Aprilia has given the SXR 160 a 220mm front disc and rear drum brake setup. While the front brake provides good bite, the rear drum does its job decently. The safety net includes single-channel ABS and it’s well-calibrated to not be overly intrusive.

Aprilia hasn’t announced prices yet, but we expect it to be priced around Rs 1.25 lakh. Do we think that the Aprilia SXR 160 lives up to the hype? Head here to find our answer.