Motorcycle News Of The Week: Jawa Motorcycles, Suzuki Hayabusa, New Hero Karizma And Much More

Last week was peppered with a smattering of launches, reveals and a whole lot of bikes and tech coming our way. Here’s a brief look at the week that was. Let’s start with the launches.

Launches

Indian FTR 1200S

This week’s hottest launch came from Indian Motorcycles. The American cruiser manufacturer launched the FTR 1200, a flat tracker that packs quite a lot of features, including a full-colour TFT instrument console, full-LED lighting and fully-adjustable suspension setup. It also gets a new 1200cc motor with three rider modes, traction control, wheelie control and cornering ABS. To know more details and the price of this bike, click here.

Honda CB1000R+

Honda’s new litre-class naked made its global debut last year and now it has been launched in India along with other big bikes from the 2019 range. The new bike gets a new retro cafe racer styling. The rest of the components are all modern, including the circular LED headlamp, digital instrument console, ride-by-wire, four rider modes, traction control and ABS. Know details and price here.

Yamaha Saluto 125 And Saluto RX UBS

Yamaha’s Saluto series now gets ‘Unified Braking System’, which is just a fancy word for combined braking system. With this feature, Yamaha’s 100cc and 125cc Saluto models now meet the upcoming safety norms for bikes, which is set to take effect from 1 April, 2019 onwards. Click here for more details. Yamaha is also working on a Bluetooth-equipped instrument console for its premium bikes and that is expected to debut in the upcoming FZ16. Know more about that here.

2019 Kawasaki KLX 140G

Kawasaki has launched the updated version of its full-size dirt bike for beginners. For more details and pricing, click here.

Spottings

2019 KTM RC 390

While KTM launched the new 390 Duke launched last year, the RC 390 seems to be taking longer. Now, a test mule of the new fully faired sportbike has been spotted testing. From first glance, it looks larger than the old one. Know more details here. That’s not it. KTM is also working on a new 500cc powerplant that will be made by Bajaj at their Chakan facility. Know more details about the new motor here.

Yamaha YTZ 125

Yamaha’s small-capacity dual-purpose motorcycle, the YTZ 125, was spotted testing in India recently. Currently, the bike is sold in limited markets like the Philippines and Africa. Will they launch it in India? Know the answer here.

New BMW Boxer Engine

BMW is known the world over for its Boxer engined bikes and it’s an association they are not going to let go any time soon. Proof of this is their new prototype boxer motor which debuted on a custom motorcycle built by a Japanese bike builder. Know more about this new motor here.

Happenings

New Hero Karizma In The Works?

Hero MotoCorp is reportedly working on a new faired 200cc bike which is expected to share its chassis with the Xtreme 200R but use the upcoming XPulse 200’s fuel-injected motor with a higher tune. This could well be the replacement for Hero’s ageing Karizma. More details here. 

Jawa Motorcycles To Get Dual-channel ABS

Classic Legends has confirmed thats the Jawa and Jawa Forty Two will get dual-channel ABS after April 2019, when the safety norms come into effect. Currently, both bikes get a single channel ABS. The dual-channel ABS could be the same unit seen on the Perak. More details here.

• Meanwhile, Jawa has opened its first showroom in Baner, Pune. More details about Jawa’s showrooms and service network here. 
• Did you know the 1960’s Jawa had a gear lever that doubled up as a kickstarter. Or a self lubricating swingarm pivot? More Jawa trivia here.
• Also want to know how the new Jawas sound? Click here to hear them yourselves.

Ducati Enters Pre-owned Motorcycle Biz

You can now buy pre-owned Ducati bikes with a one-year warranty from Ducati. These bikes will be under five years old with a mileage of under 50,000km. Bikes sold through Ducati Assurance will undergo a 35-point check by trained mechanics before being sold. Know more details here. 

Suzuki Hayabusa Global Production To Cease Soon

Suzuki will stop production of the Hayabusa by the end of this year to make way for the replacement model, which is expected to debut next year. While global production will stop by 2019, the bike will continue to be assembled and sold in India until 2020. More details here.