Top 5 affordable bikes for enthusiasts

Street fighter: KTM 200 Duke

There’s no doubt about the fact that the KTM 200 Duke is here to revolutionise the way India rides. In fact, the little orange pocket rocket has transgressed all political boundaries and taken the world by storm – and let’s not forget that this is a bike that may bear the Austrian company’s moniker but is a machine that has been developed and manufactured in India by Bajaj. The equipment levels match the aura of its drool-invoking turn-out and that in turn keeps a close tab on the 200 Duke’s heart-melting performance. Pint-sized it may be, but when it comes to plastering that mile-wide smile across your face proclaiming that you’ve just had a life-changing experience, the Duke is near unmatched at the moment by anything else you can pick up from a showroom in India. And while all that praise is what the bike truly deserves, the biggest aspect to the 200 Duke’s drop-dead gorgeousness has to be its price. At a little over a lakh in Indian currency it is also one of the most value-for-money products out there. The 200 Duke is proof that you don’t really need a big bike to experience motorcycling nirvana – if you’ve got that kind of money, great; but even if you don’t there’s always the KTM! But even if it may seem like this little motorcycle has suddenly brought about a big storm in the country, there actually are others out there that are doing a great job of uplifting biking culture here in their own way. These are machines that give the maximum performance bang for your buck and when we say performance, we’re not talking about acceleration figures; at least not in all cases! Performance means different things to different people and the bikes you will see on the following pages are everyday street machines that get your pulse racing – be it when you’re tucked in and accelerating hard, leaned over and scraping your knees, standing on the footpegs and going trail riding or even just sitting back and relaxing in cruise mode. These are bikes that are making biking affordable and truly bringing all that power to your pockets!

Trailblazer: Hero MotoCorp Impulse

The need for a bike that will happily go anywhere you take it couldn’t have been more evident in light of the preposterous situation of Indian roads in most cities. That’s exactly what Hero MotoCorp chose to exploit as their debut product sans Honda involvement and boy has it paid dividends! Long-travel suspension, proper trail bike proportions and a massively comfortable seat all converge to satisfy that off-road itch in you. Presentation is key though and with jazzy stickering and a very smart use of some bright colour schemes, the Impulse is one of the most desirable bikes to hit the Indian market in recent times. It even comes with a high-mounted near-underseat exhaust that taunts you to take the bike off tarmac at every opportunity that you get. Even when you’re stuck in the concrete jungle this is the perfect bike to counter-steer into corners with your foot stuck out. While the Impulse will take the rough with the smooth, thinking that it’s going to ride you to the top of the Everest is over-estimating its potential. Weekend trail riding is something that the Impulse excels at though and it’ll even take the odd jump, skip and hop with ease. The only area where it may seem that teensy bit inadequate is in its powerplant because cradled in its chassis is the same 150cc mill that powers the Unicorn, (CBZ) Xtreme and a bunch of other bikes. Or you could just strap in a ZMA engine in there and reap the benefits of added power, but read all about that further on in this issue. Stock as it comes from Hero MotoCorp’s showrooms, the Impulse will set you back by about Rs 80,000 including registration and taxes. That price just makes the Impulse such a sweet bike to have in your garage. It may not be the fastest bike on Indian roads, but while everyone else is stuck in that traffic jam, you can just keep the throttle pinned on the shoulder as you leave all those big engines eating your dust and quite literally at that!

Cruise control: Royal Enfield Desert Storm

Big bore singles simply have a charm of their own that transcends time. No matter how far into the future we may head, the aura of a big capacity single-cylinder air-cooled motorcycle is something that will never ever fade away. Despite being old school, that is exactly why Royal Enfield’s motorcycles have the kind of fan following that they do and the Chennai-based manufacturer recently took things a step further with the Desert Storm. The 500cc mill may have its flaws and constant massages to your backside is something you will have to get used to with the Desert Storm, but there’s no doubting that this bike takes you back in time to an age of pure, raw motorcycling – and I say that as a good thing. There are few other machines in that price range that deliver the kind of torque that this Bullet makes, but still nothing can prepare you for the first time you wring the throttle open in any gear and your arms get jerked out of their sockets. While corner carving isn’t really the Desert Storm’s forte, many will tell you that it is quite adept at it nonetheless. The true appeal of this bike though is on the open road with luggage strapped to the rear seat (if you have one) and a tank bag full in the front. Then there’s also that unsolved mystery of the fair sex’s unexplained attraction to this breed of machine that the men either totally admire or grotesquely detest – there is no middle ground. Love it or loathe it, if motorcycling’s raw form is what bakes your cookie then nothing out there will beat the Royal Enfield Desert Storm and despite being the butt of many motorcycling jokes, at just a lakh and half Indian rupees you’ll be the one laughing your way all the way from Kashmir to Kanyakumari when you set out touring. Take our advice though and spend a little extra to get the pillion seat – you’ll want it when the pretty chick at the bus stop wants a ride home!

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Sport tourer: Honda CBR250R

One of the most anticipated launches in 2011, which was otherwise a very stagnant year in Indian motorcycling, was that of the Honda CBR250R. The fully-faired 250cc single had been getting rave reviews the world over and was in fact being touted as the most potent challenger to the Kawasaki Ninja 250R as far as beginners' bikes were concerned in markets such as the USA and Europe. But thanks to HMIL’s plans of assembling the bike in India, the CBR got a shot in the arm in terms of its price tag and made all its performance that much more accessible to the common man. With its body designed to not only mimic the VFR1200, the Honda impresses with its sleek styling. But this liquid-cooled beauty isn’t just about a beautiful body – its attractiveness extends heavily into superb ergonomics and great feel. While the riding posture isn’t too sporty, neither is it too laid back and combined with that brilliantly supportive seat, it makes for one of those bikes with not only the right mechanicals but also the right capacity to go touring on at decently fast speeds. The open highway may be home ground for the CBR250R, but turn into crowded city streets and the bike is just as comfortable in the urban jungle as well. Cutting through traffic is delightful and stop light GPs become a thing to look forward to. Then there’s also the option of ABS at a tad higher price which gives that extra bit of confidence under braking. With so much going for the CBR250R, when you glance at the sticker and see a figure just over Rs 1.5 lakh it almost comes as a surprise. No doubt, Honda has a great product on offer but there is something that the bike lacks – aggression. It’s beautiful, not mean; it’s fast, not scary and while that suits most sensible riders, others are left wanting more. But that’s more like the kind of people who bungee jump off skyscrapers rather than using the elevator, isn’t it?

Big daddy: Kawasaki Ninja 250R

Through the mid 90s and for a better part of the last decade, there was a whole generation of biking enthusiasts who grew up wanting something bigger and faster to ride around without burning too big a hole in the pocket. These were people who missed out on the two-stroke era’s prime and longed for machines that were more acceptable to the environment yet just as fast and fun. They didn’t mind writing six-figure cheques if they were getting a multi-cylinder set-up and enough power to scare them on the streets. Bajaj gave them that motorcycle in the form of the Kawasaki Ninja 250R and the rest of the country has been going green in envy ever since. To be very honest, the Ninja 250R isn’t really the most gorgeous machine on the roads today. Neither is it too modern in its appearance thanks to its lack of digital metres,  LED lights and the like. But when it comes to sheer performance, nothing beats this feline machine and at a little over Rs 3 lakh it sure is giving a whole lot of bang for your hard earned bucks! Its great power-to-weight ratio, a host of after market parts thanks to our Asian cousins in Thailand and that killer twin-cylinder growl that is muffled enough just to please the authorities and yet make the hair stand on the back of your neck, the Ninja 250R is the bike to have if you have that kind of money to blow in your bank account. Make no mistake, this is a bike for the serious biker who loves his weekend rides out to the closest set of twisties, but is still comfortable enough to ride to work everyday or make that huge multi-city tour you’ve been planning all along. Many may argue that the Honda CBR250R is almost half the price and has similar cubic capacity, but let’s not forget it also has half the cylinders and anyone who has ridden a multi-cylinder bike before will know to give way when that Ninja 250R starts growing at rapid pace in their rear view mirrors. This one’s not to be messed with and that just makes the baby Ninja even more worth wanting.