Our friends and regular readers would know that we have been reporting a fair bit about the new Hero Karizma ZMR 2013 of late. The new Karizma ZMR 2013 looks nothing like the ZMR that is currently on sale in India and there are good chances that the ZMR V2.0 would be powered by an all new engine, which has been developed by inputs from Eric Buell Racing (EBR)!
However, the styling of the new ZMR has given birth to quite an outcry, with everyone from ZMA-purists to P220 owners accusing Hero of pilfering design cues from bikes like the 220, R15 and even the Ducati 999!
We, however, believe that there is more to ZMR’s styling than unwanted comparisons with possibly every other faired motorcycle on sale in the country. With this in mind, we decided to figure out if the new ZMR really looks like any of the aforementioned bikes and what we figured out is something which is pretty surprising, but not at all illogical.
As can be seen in the image above, the new Hero Karizma ZMR 2013 sports a projector headlamp setup. With this, the updated ZMR becomes the second bike in its segment to boast of such a setup (the first being the much loved Bajaj Pulsar 220). While there are good chances that the new headlamp setup would probably endow the bike with the best headlights in the segment, it seems like people can’t stop blaming Hero MotoCorp for “blatantly copying” from every bike maker from Ducati to Bajaj!
While it is true that the ZMR has a twin vertically stacked headlamp setup, which is akin to that of the P220, saying that Hero “copied” from its rival can be safely termed as “jumping the gun“. On spending almost an hour, comparing images of the ZMR with some of those of existing bikes, we found that Hero might have taken design inspiration from within it own family!
Yes, the new ZMR’s front fascia looks similar to that of the EBR 1190RS. Now, Hero holds a considerable stake in Eric Buell Racing and it doesn’t come across as unethical to take design inspiration from within its own family. If Hero can take technological assistance from EBR for its engines, why can’t it look at its partner’s bikes for some design inspiration?
Similar to EBR 1190’s fairing, the ZMR 2013’s fairing houses twin vertically stacked headlight beams and a rather large flyscreen. However, the ZMR’s fairing also houses somewhat large trafficators, which we earlier mistook for a pair of auxiliary lamps! The bike’s completely new front fairing makes the bike look bigger, bulkier and brawnier than before. Overall, we aren’t really sad about Hero borrowing design cues from EBR. Are you?
Even the new ZMR’s taillamp and the rakish rear end is pretty similar to that of the EBR 1190RS. Again, this means that any sort of resemblance with the R15 V2.0 is purely coincidental and Hero hasn’t “pilfered‘ design cues from the Japanese low displacement sportsbike.
However, the rear end, like the front, might not be to everyone’ s taste and our personal opinion is that the earlier bike looked a tad classier and more balanced.
Overall, we feel that the new ZMR’s styling does have some proportionality issues, specially at the front end but it might be a design that would soon grow on everyone. And now that we know where all these design cues have come from, we definitely know better than to cry foul and accuse Hero MotoCorp of “copying”. In fact, it is nice to see that the bikemaker has looked at an EBR bike, and not at some Japanese sportsbike, for design inspiration.
So, do you guys agree with us? Sure, the new ZMR 2013 might not suit your tastes but has Hero MotoCorp really copied from P220, R15 or some Ducati of yesteryears? Do share your views by commenting below.
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I do agree with your wordings Motoroids India, sine the spy pics, I too had this doubt that they might be taking cues from EBR and it's definitely true, but the thing is they tried mixing it up too much which spoiled the overall looks and also missing some parts but personally I do feel the bike isn't that ugly, just that it's below the average, . . Hero could had done something better. . .
They could do better! come on Hero we need best Indian bikes.
Buying hero’s zmr bike is waste of money….. and the ugliest bike I never seen…
Still going with dual shocks?
woooa a super bike to a super fail -_-