RED ALERT! INDIA-BOUND KTM 390, HONDA CBR 500R SHOWCASED AT EICMA 2012 RIDDEN KAWASAKI ZX-6R RIDE EXPERIENCE FAT BOB & THUNDERBIRD HIT THE HIGHWAY

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1 ` 80 VOLUME 8 ISSUE 005 DECEMBER RED ALERT! INDIA-BOUND KTM 390, HONDA CBR 500R SHOWCASED AT EICMA 2012 RIDDEN KAWASAKI ZX-6R RIDE EXPERIENCE FAT BOB & THUNDERBIRD HIT THE HIGHWAY PUBLISHING FEATURES SIMONCELLI REMEMBERED KAWASAKIS EXPLORE THAILAND SHOOTOUT: TVS PHOENIX 125 vs CB SHINE vs DISCOVER 125 ST

2 CONTENTS DECEMBER Bike India Awards Preview SMS what in your opinion is the Bike of the Year. You stand a chance to win fabulous prizes IGNITION 22 Everything that grabbed eye-balls in Milan at the EICMA COVER STORY 2012, including the India-bound KTM 390 Duke and Honda CBR 500R Honda reveal CB150R Streetfire at Jakarta Motor Show Gary Fisher launches SuperFly mountain bike in India Auto Expo to move to Greater Noida from 2014 Hero MotoCorp to launch an independently developed bike soon 58T THIS ONE IS SUBTLY DIFFERENT Roland rides the new Kawasaki ZX-6R and is mighty pleased with this revival of the middleweight sports bike class Ducati form subsidiary in Brazil to cater to the South American market Mahindra to lanch the Panthero REGULARS 8 YOU! 16 MAILBOX 20 TECHNO MAIL 34 DO IT YOURSELF 36 YOUR STUNTS & RIDES 42 MOTOROLAND 44 NEW PRODUCTS 86 LONG TERM BACK END 88 HONDA RACING SCHOOL 98 MADOX 100 MOTOGP MALAYSIA, AUSTRALIA, VALENCIA 110 INDIAN MOTOR SPORT 116 BI BUY-BOOK 14

3 FEATURES 46 CURRENT LIMITATIONS Why is it that e-bikes do not have many takers? Design guru Glynn Kerr explains 50 DAILY DARLINGS With its debut in the market, the TVS Phoenix has challenged its rivals in the 125-cc segment 66S SAWASDEE KRUP! A bunch of Kawasakis ride across the picturesque countryside of Thailand and have a story to tell 72 COVER STORY MADRAS MEETS MILWAUKEE Harley-Davidson and Royal Enfield, two icons of the touring world set out together to get to know each other better 80 A DREAM WEEK FOR BIKERS Bike India witnesses the Asia Ducati Week in the company of stalwarts like Rossi, Hayden, Capirossi and Bayliss, along with a ride on Ducati s complete line-up at the Sepang Circuit MARCO SIMONCELLI 84 ONE YEAR ON We remember the racing star we lost a year ago. A friend, a champion and a star MotoGP fans will remember for ever VOLUME 8 ISSUE 005 DECEMBER PUBLISHING FEATURES SIMONCELLI REMEMBERED KAWASAKIS EXPLORE THAILAND ` 80 RED ALERT! INDIA-BOUND KTM 390, HONDA CBR 500R SHOWCASED AT EICMA 2012 SHOOTOUT: TVS PHOENIX 125 vs CB SHINE vs DISCOVER 125 ST Design: Ramnath Chodankar Photography: Sanjay Raikar RIDDEN KAWASAKI ZX-6R RIDE EXPERIENCE FAT BOB & THUNDERBIRD HIT THE HIGHWAY December 2012 // Bike India 15

4 KNOW SOMETHING THAT THE OTHERS DON T? BIke India welcomes the views of its readers. Pen down any witty, logical or informative idea that hits your brain, and mail it to: BIKE India, Next Gen Automotive, 401B, Gandhi Empire, 5th Floor, 2 Serene Estate, Kondhwa Road, Pune , India. Fax or bikeindia@nextgenpublishing.net MAILBOX STAR LETTER VIEW BEFORE YOU VROOM AKSHAYA MURDESHWAR, BY STAR LETTER wins a 1-litre pack of Motul 300V they play in safety. A NOTE FOR OUR VALUED READERS Dear Readers, Thank you for the large number of letters! However, we request you to send them in a proper format. Firstly, please ensure that your letters are part of the itself, and not an attachment. Only pictures, wherever necessary, may be sent as attachments. Secondly, please mention the subject in the subject line. For example, if your letter is for the Letters column, please mention LETTERS in the subject line. If it is a technical query to be answered by us, please mention TECHNO MAIL and so on. Otherwise your mail could land up in the spam bin. This will ensure that your letters and queries are published regularly. EDITOR 18

5 TECHNOMAIL Got a question or a problem? We ve got the answer Write to: Bike India, 401-B Gandhi Empire, 2 Serene Estate, Kondhwa Road, Pune Or us at: bikeindia@nextgenpublishing.net >> ROUGH RIDE QUALITY AND POOR FUEL EFFICIENCY I own a Honda Dio (bought in August 2010), which has clocked over 10,000 kilometres to date. Over the past few months, I have been getting the feeling that my Dio s ride is very rough all but the smallest bumps on the road go right through the wheel and all the way to my head! I always maintain the recommended tyre pressure and get my scooter serviced as per schedule from an authorised service centre only. I do not ride fast on bad roads either. disappointing. I try to maintain a constant speed of km/h with very few occasional bursts while overtaking. I still get would regularly get 44 kpl or above when I was riding the Dio in Bengaluru. Please suggest a remedy to the above. I love the Dio s looks and quality and wouldn t want to exchange these for anything, but if the problem persists, I might consider switching to something else. Manandi Suman, Pune Dear Manandi, From your description is seems that something is wrong with your Dio s shock-absorbers. Please get them checked and, if necessary, replaced. Also get your scooter serviced thoroughly by a competent mechanic. >> HOW TO ENHANCE FUEL EFFICIENCY? Classic 500. Although I didn t expect much mileage to begin with, I was looking forward to at least km/l. But the bike has been returning only 25 km/l. With regard to my previous bikes, I could change the settings on the carburettor to obtain a better mileage. However, since this new Classic 500 has a fuel injection system, how can it be adjusted for better mileage? Please advise. Satpal Bhujbal, by Dear Satpal, As you rightly said, you cannot adjust or change the settings in a fuel-injected bike. You may need to change your riding style to get better fuel avoiding revving the bike much. >> MECHANICAL PROBLEMS I recently bought a Mahindra Rodeo scooter and I have done about 800 km so far. The scooter has plenty of features that I use every day during my commutes, but now I m facing a few mechanical issues. I have noticed that when I accelerate, the time lag from the instance I twist the throttle to the wheel actually moving has increased considerably. Similarly, as I accelerate past 30 km/h there is a constant grunt and vibration coming from the engine, the vibrations of which can be felt on the foot-board. Please advise me as to what might be wrong with my new scooter. Subiraj Singh Karki, by Hello, Subiraj, From what you say, it appears that there is a problem with your scooter s carburettor. Please get it cleansed and serviced properly from an authorised mechanic. >> RUSTING BIKE I am a regular reader of Bike India. I own a three-year-old Hero Karizma. I am eager to To start with, my bike s exhaust pipe has begun rusting from near the cylinder and near the main canister. How may I tackle this problem? Can something be done to it? Secondly, what is the exact location of the catalytic converter on the bike? Will removing it increase my Karizma s performance? Finally, for the last few months my bike has been producing weird noises while idling. Is it due to the bike s chain? Should I get it replaced, since my bike is already three years old? Please advise me. Sameer Saigal, Mangalore Hello, Sameer, There is not much one can do to eliminate rusting, except keeping the bike clean and away from moisture as much as possible. The cat con resides inside your bike s silencer. Removing it will give you performance gains, but we would not recommend it because of the detrimental effect it will have on the environment. The noise you mention is due to your bike s timing chain. Please replace the cam-chain tensioner. 20

6 IGNITION AT THE MILAN MOTORCYCLE SHOW THIS YEAR ONE OF THE MAIN ATTRACTIONS WAS THIS BRAND-NEW DUKE, WHICH IS GOING TO BE LAUNCHED IN INDIA SOON 22

7 AUSTRIAN DUKE S ASSAULT New 390 Duke is the latest entrant in KTM s model line-up IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE we first heard about a Duke that was being developed to fill the gap between the 200 Duke and the 690 Duke. And now, after a long wait, the new Duke is finally here. At the EICMA show held recently in Milan, KTM unveiled a new motorcycle, called the 390 Duke. This new Duke will be placed below the 690 and just above the 200 Duke. The 390 Duke was one of the major attractions at the Milan show and we are glad to inform our readers that this new Duke will make its way to India very soon. This new bike has all the right elements that clearly accentuate its Supermoto design and, yes, it carries the quintessential Duke family DNA. Styling features like the beefy WP USD front suspension and a tiny bikini fairing, a sleek fuel tank with shrouds that extend beyond the length of the tank and a short rear-end that seems to float in the air simply give the 390 Duke an aggressive and mean looking stance. The steel trellis frame painted in KTM orange, Y-spoke design alloy wheels, trendy and youthful graphics and underbelly exhaust add to the overall appearance of this bike. The new 390 Duke is powered by a cc single cylinder motor that develops 45 PS of power and 36 Nm of torque. Which means, performance will surely be a strong point of this new Duke, though we shall have to wait till the road test. Apart from this, KTM will also offer the 390 Duke with ABS. Bajaj will produce this bike at the company s Chakan facility, near Pune, for domestic as well as export markets. Local production means that the 390 Duke will be priced attractively. We expect the price to be in the range of Rs lakh. We expect to see this bikes in the showroom by early We can also say that a bigger Puslar will also follow this Duke. Bajaj will use the same cc engine from the Duke to power the bigger Pulsar. However, we expect the new Pulsar to be radically different from the Pulsar 200 NS. December 2012 // Bike India 23