Honda’s Bajaj Pulsar 150 Rival Is Incoming

Just days after the invitation, Honda has now sent out an official teaser for what we think will be its upcoming 160cc sporty commuter. Why so? 

For starters, the muscular tank and fuel tank extensions, both show that the bike’s looks will be on the sporty side of things. Then there’s the LED taillight, which makes us think that its headlight could be an LED unit too. That said, the indicators are still bulbs. While it’s not very clear from the teaser, we think it could even get a split seat setup to better the sporty commuter look. And final bits include a chromed-our heatshield as well as saree guard-integrated pillion footrests. 

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The new Honda bike will likely be based on the Unicorn, which gets a 162cc air-cooled one. It makes sense as the 100-110cc segment already has the new Shine 100 apart from the Honda Livo and CD 110 Dream. Also, the 125cc segment is served by both Shine 125 and the sportier SP 125. On the other hand, in the 160cc space, only the Unicorn rakes in the numbers. Sure, Honda has the XBlade, but it is a little too long in the tooth, and it has not really set the sales chart on fire either. 

We hope it gets a slight performance bump from the Unicorn’s measly 12.92PS and 14Nm. Honda has currently priced the Unicorn at Rs 1.09 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). So its new sportier sibling could demand up to Rs 1.12 lakh. Its rivals then would include the Bajaj Pulsar 150, Yamaha FZ-Fi and the TVS Apache RTR 160.