Affordable adventure motorcycles have gained immense popularity in the past couple of years. Presenting themselves as ideal tools to explore the outdoors, these are like the SUVs of the motorcycling world. We currently have the likes of Hero Xpulse 200 and Royal Enfield Himalayan in the lower spectrum of ADV tourers but if there’s any manufacturer who’s missing out on all the action, it has to be Bajaj.
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Bajaj did have the AS 200 along with the AS 150 back in 2015 but then a few years later, discontinued both the motorcycles because they didn’t want to hamper the demand of their more popular offerings – the NS 200 and the RS 200.
This render by Abin Designs makes us believe that it is about time that we had a proper ADV from the house of Bajaj. The render is designed around the NS 200, otherwise renowned as the most popular offering by the manufacturer in recent times. Starting with the front end, in a typical ADV fashion, the NS 200 gets an extended beak, a windshield and not to forget, the well-designed handguards. The rendered motorcycle makes do with USD forks up front and twin discs performing the braking duties. The latter might be an overkill for the platform it is built around but nevertheless, even the idea of having an ADV based on the NS 200 is exciting enough.
In the stock trim, the NS 200 gets an underbelly exhaust but ask anyone who has ever done the tiniest bit of off-roading that underbelly exhausts are a bad idea. Keeping the same in mind, the renderer has bestowed the NS 200 with an upswept exhaust which looks a little inspired by the Suzuki V-Strom 650 XT. To add to the overall adventure persona of the motorcycle, a set of hard panniers are added too. We really like the Bajaj branding on them too. Also, the spoked-rims definitely have our attention!
If Bajaj ever decides to bring out a proper ADV, the 200cc platform could turn out to be just the right platform. The 199cc engine has spawned many motorcycles like the KTM Duke 200, Pulsar NS 200 and the KTM RC 200. The compactly packed engine is a high-revving unit but engineers could tune the engine to deliver more torque lower down in order to make the AS 200 more tractable.