Hero Glamour 125

Owners club. Nestled deep inside farm and forest land about an hour and a half away from Buenos Aires, it is a sensational place. As the name suggests, it's a sort of owner only thing with 'owned' bits are mostly classic cars. But the highlight of the place is a small but challenging track it houses. We, however, haven't come here for the classic cars. We are here for something, which is - pardon the oxymoron, less glamorous.

Meet the new for 2017 Hero Glamour 125.

Everything compared to the current Glamour. The styling is completely different. New panels, smarter decals, and a stance which makes it look bigger than the current bike. It's better looking too. More grown up and attractive if you will; like Shilpa Shetty in her recent yoga videos compared to her Baazigar days. It gets LED tail lamps, unique looking wheels and part-digital-part-analog instrumentation, all of which are new additions.

The chassis is new too. While the current bike uses a dual cradle frame to hold the sloper engine, the new Glamour 125 gets a single downtube, but one that continues to cradle the engine than use it as a stressed member. The swingarm is shorter on the new bike and though the suspension components are similar to the current bike, these are setup differently on the new Glamour to take advantage of its more neutral weight distribution front to back. The specs for the tyres and brakes meanwhile, remain unchanged.

The engine is all new as well. It might displace nearly the same capacity as the current Glamour, but the new engine is now vertically oriented. It also makes significantly more power (11.4bhp against 8.9bhp) and a little more torque (11Nm compared to 10.3Nm). Furthermore, it is offered with both carburation and fuel injection like the current bike. The difference between the carb and FI versions on paper is solely limited to performance. Even though these have the exact same outputs, Hero claims the FI is both quicker and more fuel efficient.

Dig deeper and the degree of separation grows. For starters, only the carb version gets i3S tech while the average fuel economy display is exclusive to the FI version. Also, while the FI version gets a rev limiter which cuts in at 9,500rpm, the carb has none. So, your cue to upshift is when the power begins to plateau on the latter. Riding the bikes back-to-back also reveals a crisper throttle response (courtesy a quicker throttle) on the carburated Glamour and better mid-range poke. The FI Glamour on the other hand is more refined and less vibey.

Now, we might not be at the Owners Club for the classic cars, but we are certainly here for that circuit. Not the ideal place to test out a commuter we agree, not with its large cushy seat, its tall handlebar, and rider footpegs which are neutrally positioned instead of being rearset. Cornering clearance then might be an issue.

And it is, but not as much as we were expecting. In fact, the new Glamour 125 performed way above our expectations on the track. The new weight bias makes it great at turn in and to get it upright at corner exists. It has light steering, and the MRF tyres our test bikes were running - though narrow - offered plenty of grip in the dry. The only limiting factor then were the grounding footpeg feelers. These seem to scrape the tarmac a lot sooner than the bike's handling capabilities.

But, that's not the point of the Glamour, now is it. So, here's what we deduced from our time on the track. Given its chuckable nature, the new Glamour should be effortless to tackle city traffic with. The muted vibrations, the comfy seat, and the upright seating which never got uncomfortable or tiring even after an hour of riding on the track, should make it wonderful to spend long commuting hours in. The brakes meanwhile have good bite and decent progression. Add to it the light clutch and throttle action, and new-age commuters should feel right at home on this one.

The new Hero Glamour 125 will be in showrooms in March. And we expect it to be priced similar to the current bike, give and take a few thousands; it will replace the existing bike after all. As first impressions go, the new Glamour 125 comes across as a sweet and easy to ride bike that should fit its purpose of easy, comfy and efficient commuting to the tee. Our final verdict however will have to wait till we ride it in India, on our roads.

Photography by Vikrant Singh