The Honda City Adventure has been spotted undergoing trials in Italy. This spy shot confirms previous rumours of Honda planning to put the quirky X-ADV concept into production.
Honda had surprised everyone at the 2015 EICMA show in Milan with their X-ADV City Adventure concept scooter. The City Adventure scooter aims to offer the go-anywhere capabilities of an off-road motorcycle along with the versatility of an automatic scooter. While the concept came armed with knobby off-road tires, shielded handlebars and a movable windscreen among other rugged elements, the prototype seen in this picture featured a more production-feasible design. However, the test mule did get sophisticated USD forks, disc brakes and an aluminium swingarm.
While Indian customers look at scooters just as alternative mode of transport for short distances, they are considered as serious alternatives to mainstream motorcycles in other international markets. As such, it is a common practise to lavishly equip these scooters with state of the art technology, some of which might not be available even on premium commuter bikes sold in India. Even when it comes to their pricing, these premium scooters are neck on neck with middleweight motorcycles, which is something that might not win over the Indian customers. So it is pretty clear that the chances of the City Adventure making to the Indian market are very bleak.
This test mule did seem like an early prototype and we can expect the production version of the scooter to feature a few more changes. Though Honda hasn’t confirmed this yet, the City Adventure scooter is expected to hit the production lines in late 2016, as a 2017 model.
Source: OmniMoto
