2023 will definitely be an eventful year for the Indian two-wheeler market as a lot of new bikes and scooters are expected to debut on our shores. Amongst these products, the one we are quite excited about will come from Bajaj-Triumph’s joint venture. Over the last few months, a lot has been written about this partnership accompanied by a bunch of spy shots doing rounds online.
While the buzz has already been sparked, there are a few important questions that need to be answered. When are these bikes officially launching? And what will be their engine capacity? What body styles are we looking at? And what price range will they fall into? Well, we are glad to report that we have gathered some information on these fronts from our reliable sources and here’s what they have divulged.
Expected line-up
Bajaj-Triumph partnership is expected to roll out bikes with four different body styles – a modern-classic roadster, a scrambler, a café racer, and a flat-tracker. We have already seen the former two in spy shots, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Now, talking about the displacement, Bajaj-Triumph is working on two different engine capacities including 250cc and 400cc, both in a single-cylinder configuration with liquid cooling. So, if the company introduces four body styles with each of these engines, it’s a total of eight motorcycles. However, the flat-tracker might come only with the 400cc engine because these bikes need a strong low-end punch and a 250cc motor might be underpowered for this genre.
Bajaj-Triumph is expected to go the Husqvarna way and launch only the 250cc models in India and introduce the 400cc offerings in the international markets. Needless to say, the demand for 250s is higher than 400s in our country. We have seen the 250cc segment grow over the years and some of the quarter-litre bikes have been doing decently well in terms of sales.
Design
Amongst the four different body styles we mentioned, a modern-classic roadster and a scrambler have already been spotted a couple of times. In all likelihood, the India-bound 250cc iterations of these bikes will be called the Scrambler 250 and Street 250 as Triumph follows a similar nomenclature for its bigger 900cc motorcycles.
As can be observed in the pictures, these offerings clearly look promising and desirable. While the main bodywork and hardware look identical, there are certain differences between them. The scrambler has a small fly screen, knuckle guards, conventional round mirrors, a ribbed-pattern seat, block-pattern tyres, and a dual-barrel exhaust setup. Whereas, the roadster looks more conventional and minimalistic as it misses out on a fly screen, knuckle guards, and ribbed seat. What it incorporates instead are bar-end mirrors, a single exhaust canister, and road-biased tyres.
Engine and hardware
Concrete details about the engine specifications of these bikes aren’t available yet. However, if we are to speculate, both the 250cc and 400cc engines will be quite potent and tractable. We believe these engines will deliver oodles of torque in the low and mid-range, typical of modern-retro offerings, while packing a decent amount of power. The torque curve might be flat which will make them extremely easy to ride. As per our guess, the 250cc motor will produce power and torque in the ballpark of 25-30 bhp/Nm while the 400cc unit might be good for 35-40bhp and similar torque output. The exhaust note should be different for all the variants and match their respective genres.
As for the cycle parts, from what we can decipher from the spy shots, the roadster will come equipped with 10-spoke alloy wheels with a diameter of 17-inch. However, the scrambler trim was evidently seen running a larger front wheel. The suspension setup will comprise premium upside-down forks and a monoshock with varying travel for springs based on their body style. Stopping power, meanwhile, will come from a single disc at both ends, presumably with switchable dual-channel ABS.
The suspension setup is unlikely to be adjustable for the India-bound models as that will bump up the pricing substantially. Similarly, we don’t expect these bikes to come with mind-blowing features like a traction control system, cornering ABS, and quick shifter. Since the pricing needs to be aggressive, Bajaj-Triumph might only incorporate elements which are a norm these days like full-LED lighting, a digital console with Bluetooth connectivity and navigation, and a slipper clutch.
Launch timeline
The Bajaj-Triumph motorcycles were expected to be unveiled at the 2022 EICMA show in Milan but that has been postponed. Now, their official debut will mostly take place in the first half of 2023. Also, we might see the India-bound 250cc line-up come out first, followed by the unveiling of the 400cc models at a later stage. Coming to the pricing, the 250cc offerings for India will be priced quite aggressively for the kind of package they’ll bring to the table. And that means the ex-showroom price should be between Rs 2-2.3 lakh. Now, we might bring you more details about these motorcycles as we get closer to the launch. Stay tuned to BikeWale.
