Your weekly dose of bike updates: Yamaha MT-15, Triumph Tiger 800 XCa, Royal Enfield Trials 350, Hero XPulse 200

Launches, spy shots, teasers and exclusive stories; the past week had everything that could bring a smile to a two-wheeler enthusiast's face. While Yamaha, Harley-Davidson and Triumph introduced their new products, there were a few other stories which were interesting enough to make a note of. In that case, let’s take a look at our weekly round-up of the most important stories.

Yamaha MT-15 launch

After many spy images, teasers and vidoes, Yamaha has finally launched its premium 150cc streetbike – the MT-15. It is the naked version of the highly-popular Yamaha YZF R15 V3 and both the bikes share a common engine and most of the cycle parts. The Yamaha MT-15 competes against the KTM 125 Duke in India and it has been priced at Rs 1.36 lakhs, which is Rs 3,000 cheaper than its fully-faired sibling.  

Triumph Tiger 800 XCa launch

Triumph has launched the Tiger 800 XCa in India which is the top-of-the-line variant of the company’s Tiger 800 family. Priced at Rs 15.16 lakhs, the Triumph Tiger 800 XCa is Rs 1.3 lakhs more expensive than the XCx. The premium on the XCa trim brings along a few additional features such as full LED lighting, heated grips and seat, aluminum radiator guard and a centre stand. In India, the motorcycle goes up against other adventure bikes such as the BMW F850 GS and the Honda Africa Twin. 

Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special and Forty-Eight Special launch

Harley-Davidson introduced the Street Glide Special and the Forty-Eight Special in India and priced them at Rs 30.53 lakhs and Rs 10.98 lakhs, respectively. While the former belongs to the Touring family of Harley-Davidson, the latter lies in its Sportster line-up. Both the bikes are the custom-looking, blacked-out versions of their standard models. 

Royal Enfield 350 Scrambler teased

Royal Enfield has released a teaser video of its upcoming Trials 350 Scrambler which is based on the Classic 350. The motorcycle will be launched this month on 26-27 March as per the dates showed off in the video, and accompanying it will be the Trials 500 as well. In order to serve its intended purpose of a Scrambler, the motorcycle gets tweaked mechanicals over the standard bike such as dual-purpose tyres, upswept exhaust, raised rear mudguard and luggage rack. 

Hero XPulse 200 spotted testing

While it is due to be launched in the next few weeks, the Hero XPulse 200 was recently spotted testing in a video. It was ridden by the Indian Dakar rider CS Santosh in Bangalore and there were two versions of the motorcycle – a production-ready model and a souped-up variant with tweaked cycle parts. A touring variant of the bike, the XPulse 200T, might also accompany the adventure bike but there’s no confirmation about it yet.

Jawa deliveries to begin from 25 March

Since Jawa launched its motorcycles in November, the fans have been waiting for the deliveries of these bikes to commence. The company started online bookings soon after the launch and even closed them later announcing that it’s full until September. Now, the company has finally announced that the deliveries of the Jawa motorcycles will start 25 March onwards. Reportedly, the production of the motorcycles has already commenced at Mahindra’s Pithampur plant but it is still not known if the deliveries will simultaneously commence across India or it will be done in batches region-wise. 

Aprilia 160cc maxi-scooter coming soon

In an exclusive report last week, we revealed that Piaggio has developed a 160cc Aprilia maxi-scooter for India. Keeping the Indian customers in mind, the scooter has been majorly developed in Italy and it will focus on giving a similar maxi-scooter experience as the Suzuki Burgman Street 125. Powered by the same engine as the Aprilia SR150, the scooter will be launched in India by early-2020.

(all prices are ex-showroom)