If anyone hasn’t paid attention, Honda Motorcycles India is getting pretty serious about its premium motorcycles in India. The company is already investing in establishing more and more of its BigWing dealerships which will retain only premium motorcycles. We recently received the CB500X and if we keep its pricing aside, it is an amazing motorcycle and makes us wish that Honda should bring in a more affordable ADV for the Indian market. Seems like our wishes are finally going to bear fruit as Honda has trademarked the ‘NX200’ name, leading us to believe that the brand is working on a new ADV motorcycle.
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If reports are to believed, this new ADV could be based on the Hornet 2.0 with some changes in the overall design to reflect its rugged intent.
What can we expect?
It could take design inspiration from the Honda CB190X ADV motorcycle sold in the Chinese market. The CB190X is based on the CB190R and is a road-biased motorcycle, but with some ADV elements. These include an ADV-style beak, slightly longer travel suspension, a taller windscreen, engine bash guard and handguards. While the underpinnings could be borrowed from the Hornet 2.0. Just to get a perspective, the Honda Hornet 2.0 sold in India boasts an output of 17.27bhp from its 184cc engine. This could turn out to be a potent mill as far as ADVs are concerned.
Take the Hero Xpulse 200 for instance. The 200cc ADV-tourer from Hero MotoCorp has showed that a true-blue affordable ADV can work wonders for the company. The Xpulse 200 serves as the perfect beginner’s tool as far as ADV riding is concerned. The Xpulse 200 currently has no direct rival and the Honda NX200 could turn out to be a considerable alternative. However, we believe that instead of being a hardcore offroader, the NX200 could be a road-biased ADV. It remains to be seen whether we will get long travel suspension or not.
Either way, the potential Honda NX200 is likely to borrow the 17-inch wheels and brake set-up from the Hornet 2.0. In fact, Atsushi Ogata, President, CEO & MD, HMSI had revealed that the new Hornet 2.0 platform can be used for different categories including the adventure segment.