Everybody’s a little excited about the eagerly anticipated 2015 Hero HX250R. It graced the floors recently at the Erik Buell Racing booth at the AIMExpo in Orlando, Florida, from where Motorcycle.com gathered some pointers.
• With design and development work aided by American sports bike major Erik Buell Racing (Hero Motorcorp being a minority stakeholder in EBR), the HX250R is poised to be a global motorcycle, with Hero commencing exports soon after its launch in India. Also, Hero MotoCorp opened its first European office in the Netherlands in January this year, and there’s a possibility that the HX250R might even be rebranded as an EBR for Europe.
• The HX250 will be blessed with a 249cc fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, four-valve motor, which interestingly, has quite the square bore/stroke ratio more akin to a MotoGP bike’s engine. Power stands at 31 bhp, with 26 Nm of torque, as compared to the Honda CBR300RR’s 30.4 bhp-27 Nm and the Kawasaki Ninja 300’s smooth 39 bhp-27.1 Nm.
• Good power-to-weight ratio: The HX250R boasts of an impressive wet weight of 139 Kgs, considerably less than the Honda CBR300R’s wet weight of 162 Kgs and the Kawasaki Ninja 300’s wet weight of 172 Kgs.
• Keeping Indian tastes in mind, the HX will also offer a choice of two ride modes; Power and Economy.
• The quarter-litre will also benefit from linked brakes with a 300mm single disc up front and a 200mm single disc at the rear. While ABS will be optional, we would have loved the trademark Buell style rim mounted discs!
• The show bike was shod with Pirellis- a 110/80-17 front and a 140/70-17 rear held together by a tubular steel swingarm featuring trellis bracing.
• 37mm telescopic forks up front and a five-step preload-adjustable rear shock take care of suspending duties.
• Details: Nifty, under seat exhaust looks neat, along with the tiny shield atop
In India, the HX is expected to carry a price tag somewhere in the range of ₹150,000 to ₹200, 000, with the launch reportedly happening by the end of this year.