Honda has a wide range of motorcycles in its India portfolio including commuters, modern classics, and lifestyle bikes. But what it truly lacks is a proper entry-level adventure bike, and yes we are not accounting for the road-biased CB200X adventure tourer.
Let’s simply put it, it lacks a direct rival to the likes of Royal Enfield Himalayan, KTM 390 Adventure, Xpulse 200 4V, and Yezdi Adventure. This is despite Honda’s expertise and rich history in enduro sports at the global level. That said, the Japanese auto giant has reportedly been contemplating on an entry-level ADV for a long time which may now seem closer to reality.
Honda testing 3 adventure bikes
Recently Honda conducted a research and feedback session for its customers at the BigRock Dirtpark in Bengaluru. In this closed session, Honda seeked suggestions from its customers regarding three bikes— CRF300L, CRF300L Rally, and Sahara 300— which were showcased at the event. Some lucky attendees even got to test these vehicles in the manicured dirt tracks and evaluate their off-roading capabilities.
Visually, the CRF 300 twins are very similar, both ADVs come a high-rise handlebar, an LCD instrument console positioned above the handlebar for rally-style riding, a tall windscreen, dual-LED headlight setup, a sump guard, and tank extensions, making it more suitable for long-distance and rugged terrains.
Other visual highlights include a bench seat, extended tank shrouds, an upswept exhaust, and a high front fender. Like typical adventure bikes, the duo flaunts a tall stance, and come equipped with proper dirt-riding hardware and a robust build quality. The focus stays more on functionality rather than aesthetics, as a result equipment is very basic consisting of a tall windscreen, twin-pod halogen headlight, and an LCD digital instrument console.
On the other hand, the Sahara 300 gets a sleeker profile with a single-piece headlamp cluster up front and smaller windscreen on top. The equipment onboard the Sahara 300 is similar to what the CRF 300 twins offer. The Sahara 300 is offered in three trims namely— Adventure, Rally and Standard.
Coming to mechanical specs, the CRF 300L duo are powered by a 286cc liquid-cooled single-cylinder motor paired with a six-speed gearbox. This motor churns out 26.9 bhp and 26.6 Nm of peak torque. On the other hand, the Sahara 300 is powered by a 293.5cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine which is paired with a 6-speed gearbox.
This motor delivers 24.4 bhp and 26.5 Nm of peak torque when running on petrol and 25 bhp and 26.9 Nm on ethanol. Hardware specs on all three bikes are similar. Suspension duties are carried out 43mm upside down front forks, and a linked mono-shock at the rear. The ADVs ride on 21-inch front and 18-inch rear aluminium spoked wheels shod with dual-purpose tyres.
Honda 300cc adventure bike India launch
The sub-500cc adventure motorcycle has boomed in the Indian market over the last few years and Honda feels it needs to tap into this space. As of now, it is currently figuring out which out of these three bikes will be the best fit for the Indian market. So an actual launch might still be a long wait.
But the bigger question to ask is in what form will the future adventure bike(s) be available to Indian buyers? Unless and until Honda is able to heavily localise these bikes for the Indian market, it will be very difficult to match the likes of models mentioned above in terms of pricing which will be a crucial factor.
