Honda India, Can We Get The CRF190L ADV Soon?

Sundiro Honda, Honda’s China arm, has launched a new adventure motorcycle on its 184cc engine platform: the CRF190L. This is the same engine platform that spawned bikes like the CBF190R and the CBF190X, which are the inspirations for Honda India’s Hornet 2.0 and CB200X.

The CRF190L sure looks like a pint-sized Africa Twin, especially with the traditional red, white and blue Honda graphics. It has a rather imposing stance. The enduro-like body work and the slightly scooped out single-piece seat heighten its sense of adventure-readiness.

• Living With The XPulse 200 Part 4 - Goodbye… For Now
• 2021 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special Road Test Review
• ZigOpinion: Dear Honda, Y U Do This?

At 830mm, it doesn’t have quite a tall seat height. It is 25mm lower than the KTM 390 Adventure and is just 7mm taller than the Hero XPulse 200. What’s quite impressive is the way Sundiro Honda has packaged this bike as it features a ground clearance of a whopping 240mm! None of the stock entry-level adventure motorcycles in India can boast of this figure. And at 145kg wet, it is freaking light too.

Powering it is the same 184cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine, albeit in a different state of tune. For the ADV, the motor pumps out 15.70PS at 8500rpm and 15.75Nm at 6000rpm. The China-only CBF190R makes 15.09PS and 14.5Nm. Now, both engine tunes are less powerful than the Hornet’s. If this bike does arrive in India in some form or the other, expect the engine to make the same 17.3PS and 16.1Nm as the Hornet.

While Sundiro Honda has enabled the CRF190L with long-travel suspension (180mm of travel), it has only equipped the bike with a 19-/17-inch spoke wheel setup. While this setup is decent for soft-roading, we would have liked to see a 21-inch front wheel which would amp up its off-roading capabilities. Dual-purpose tyres and disc brakes at both ends are standard.

Get latest updates on
the automobile community

Login Now

Will Honda India bring the CRF190L to India? Considering that it uses the same engine as the Hornet and the CB200X, bringing a third bike on this platform would not be a bad idea. What we really would like to know is whether Honda would go the whole hog and treat it like a proper adventure bike, something that is properly capable of giving the Hero XPulse 200 some competition. Then, it would make for a worthy competitor, rather than the CB200X.