Things were going smoothly for biking in India. With the coming of Pulsar 220 it seemed that finally a rivalry between Bajaj and Hero Honda would result in new powerful bikes in India, bikes which riders like me crave for. BUt then Yamaha pulled the biggest surprise. They officially came with R1 in India. A 1000cc monster costing Rs 12 Lakh. But this was not their biggest surprise. Yamaha came with a new RC15 150cc bike in India which would revolutionise the industry. Yes! few months from now we would be able to see the effects of this revolution. What am I talking about? Well take a look at the list of things shown in Auto Show this year.

1. Yamaha RC15 150cc 20BHP, Rs 90,000/- to Rs 99,000/-


2. Yamaha FZ 150cc 20BHP, Rs 80,000/- to Rs 90,000/-

3. Kawasaki Ninja 250: 250CC 30BHP , Costing around 1,75,000 to 2,00,000 plus.

4. Bajaj KTM.

5. TVS Apache RTR FI: 160cc, 18 BHP, Rs 70,000/- to Rs 76,000/-


Question: So are people going to buy these?
It won't be something strange if some one asks that at the time when Tata has come with the Rs 1,00,000/- car, then who would buy such expensive bikes?

Answer:There are many. In this growing country of entrepreneurs, there exists a niche segment of people who earn good and are ready to shelve out money for these mean machines. There are many like me who would want to buy one of these mean machines.


Question: How is this gonna effect the Indian biking scenario?
Answer: Well things are sure going to get exciting. Till now there were basically two major segments. The superbikes and the rest. This rest were then sub-divided between different segments of bikes. With the coming of high-end bikes, more and more people are going to go for these Rs 1,00,000/- to 4,00,000/- segment bikes. Exclusive bike groups would possibly come up. People who want to race/ride with similar bikes or those who are in just for the snob value.

So, are we going to see some new biking groups come up. Yes! we are.

Question: Does this mean that older groups like bikenomads going to suffer?
Answer: Bikenomads is a group of riders who like to tour. So whether its a superbike or not it doesn't matter. Also, many of the nomads like Vibhu, Navendu , Dr Arnob ets would also be buying these bikes. So most of the current groups are not going to loose.