The Honda Grom is an interesting motorcycle. It looks diminutive in size but is big in fun. Since the past few years, it has been reported time and again that Honda would launch the Grom in India but nothing concrete ever happened. Instead, we got the Honda Navi based on the Honda Activa. It was later discontinued. The reason why we have brought this up is because Honda has filed a design patent for the Grom in India.
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Going by Honda’s track record regarding the Grom’s India launch, it is highly unlikely that the popular monkey bike will make it here.
Is the Navi coming back?
It might have multiple implications though. The most logical one seems to be the revival of Honda Navi. The Navi used the same 110 cc engine found in the Honda Activa scooter. With a capacity of 109.19 cc, the Navi generated 8 PS of power at 8,000 rpm and 8.96 Nm of twist at 5,500 rpm. Primarily aimed towards the younger crowd, the Navi with its wide array of colours surely stood out. It was offered in a choice of five funky colours – Shasta White, Ranger Green, Black, Ladakh Brown, Patriot Red, and Sparky Orange. Up front, the bike was offered with an upside-down telescopic fork while a hydraulic mono-shock does duties on the inside. This quirky machine used a 12-inch wheel in the front and a 10-inch wheel at the back, both of which got drum brakes to stop this machine.
As soon as the BS6 era lurked in, the Navi was taken off the shelves. Hence, its innings in India came to a sad demise. There has been no official word regarding the revival of Navi and this is just a mere assumption that Honda might borrow some design elements from the Grom to bring the Navi back to life. International vehicle manufacturers are notorious of filing design patents in India and then doing nothing about it. This could fall in the same category.
The optimistic us would still like to believe that Honda Two-wheelers India is atleast thinking about bringing the Navi back. But this time around, we would love to see Navi borrow the 125cc powertrain from Honda Activa 125. It will give the quirky machine a bump in oomph.