Top 5: Most awaited performance bikes in India

The Indian bike market is ready to witness a flurry of launches in the 250-350cc segment. Here's the list of all these new performance bikes, which you can expect over the next couple of years

KTM 200

India-based Bajaj Auto owns about 40% stakes in the Austrian bike maker KTM.

The Austrain bike maker is known the world over for its off-road machines and supermotards.

The association between the two companies entered a new phase recently when Bajaj helped KTM develop and manufacture the 125 Duke, a 125cc machine developed grounds-up. The bike is manufactured at Bajaj's Chakan plant and is currently exported to various European countries.

The next product to result from Bajaj and KTM's association would be a 200cc machine. KTM 200 Duke, as the bike may be called, will be powered by a 200cc single cylinder, liquid cooled engine.

The bike will sport inverted, upside down forks, which will be a first for any Indian mainstream bike.

Test mules of the bike have been spotted several times and the bikes will be launched at the 2012 Auto Expo. Expect power output of more than 23-24PS and a price tag of around Rs 2 lakh.

Also Read: Get Ahead Biking and Motoring

Reports from various international publications, along with a leaked presentation from KTM, suggest that the company is working on an all new 350cc bike.

According to the leaked presentation from KTM, the new 350cc bike will be available in three formats -- a fully faired sportsbike, a 350 Duke (on the lines of the 200 Duke) and an off-road Enduro.

The presentation slide has the rendered image of a faired sportsbike, and we have every reason to believe that the image is that of the new KTM 350. The bike, in all likelihood will be launched sometime in 2013 as it is listed as year 2014 model.

There is no official word on the power output but it won't be too optimistic to expect an output in excess of 35bhp when the bike goes into production.

The bike will follow the KTM 200 in India by roughly a year. There is no clarity on whether the new 350 would be a single cylinder or a twin, but there is enough evidence to believe that the bike is under development right now and that it will hit the Indian shores for sure.

Millions of biking enthusiasts in this country worship the Pulsar brand as their deity. And all of them have been waiting impatiently for the next generation version of these extremely popular bikes, expected to be a great improvement over the current gen machines.

The new Pulsars are expected to boast bigger, more technologically advanced engines, a totally reworked chassis-suspension setup, fatter rubber, (finally) a mono-shock and totally reworked styling.
The engines on the new Pulsar bikes will draw heavily from the experience gained by Bajaj while developing the liquid cooled engines for Austrian KTM. The 200cc KTM being prepared for an India launch will be one of the biggest contributors in taking forward the Pulsar in terms of performance.

No one knows much about what Bajaj is cooking with the new Pulsars, but the rumor mill is abuzz with reports of the Indian company taking a quantum leap in terms of technology with the next gen Pulsars. We won't be surprised if we get to see a 250cc twin on the next-gen Pulsars.

We expect the new gen Pulsars to make their debut around October 2011, which is also the tenth anniversary of the extremely popular Pulsar brand.

When Mahindra entered the motorcycle market with the Stallio, the company announced that it would soon launch a new performance bike for India.

Christened Mojo, the bike was to be the first ever 300cc sportsbike from an Indian bike maker.

The new bike, as revealed by Mahindra during the Stallio's launch, is to be powered by a 292cc, single cylinder, liquid cooled, 4-valves DOHC construction engine. The new bike will boast a very healthy 26PS of peak power at 8500 rpm and 24Nm of peak torque at 7000 rpm. The bike will also feature Ducati's 'Energia' electronic fuel injection system.

The new performance bike by Mahindra is being developed in association with Engines Engineering, an Italian design and engineering firm recently taken over by Mahindra.

Mojo, at its launch is expected to carry a warranty of 4 years / 40,000 km and eight free services. The new bike will be launched sometime in 2012, the Auto Expo being the most apt platform and time. The expected price for the bike is Rs 1.75 lakh ex-showroom.

Hyosung re-entered the Indian market which much fanfare an created some excitement among the power deprived Indian biking fans with their GT650R, priced at an unprecedented Rs 5 lakh tag.

Their party was spoiled however by Kawasaki's Ninja 650R which even after having a better brand value was priced lower, and set the sales of the Hyosung dipping.

The company, in a bid to rejuvenate the sales, is planning local assembly and introducing a couple of new products as well.

The Hyosung GT250, which was available in the India market earlier as well, as the Comet will be re-introduced in the market.

Diya Garware Ibanez, the managing director of Garware Motors, Hyosung's partner in India said: "We will follow the launch with the naked version of the GT 650R later in the year, followed by the 250cc models next year. With regard to pricing of the 250cc, we have to be right up there with the best selling models like the (Honda) CBR 250. Other models of Hyosung could also follow, as there is a big portfolio of models to choose from."

The Hyosung GT250 is powered by a 249cc V-twin engine with 27 bhp of power and 22.69 Nm of torque.