Honda is the second largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India. The company has a long list of scooters and motorcycles in its portfolio. The company has silently delisted the X-Blade from its official India website. It is feared that Honda might have pulled the plug-on the sporty commuter bike for good.
That leaves Honda with two 160cc bikes— Unicorn and SP160. All three bikes were based on the same underpinnings and got the same powertrain but outputs differed slightly. The reason behind X-Blade’s discontinuation should not come as a surprise since the bike did not have a strong sales performance at any point in the Indian market.
Honda X-Blade specs & features
Honda offered the X-Blade in four colour options– Matte Marvel Blue Metallic, Matte Steel Black Metallic, Strontium Silver Metallic and Sports Red. It wore a futuristic styling that featured a robotic face, sharp body panels, and an X-shaped taillight. In terms of features, the X-Blade came equipped with a fully-digital instrument console, LED headlamp and taillamp, an engine start/stop switch, and a hazard switch.
Suspension duties are carried out by twin telescopic forks up front and a rear monoshock. For braking, it used a 276mm petal disc up front with single-channel ABS and a 130mm rear drum brake. A rear disc brake was also available as an option. The X-Blade rolled on 17-inch 5-spoke alloy wheels shod with 80/100-17 section tyre ahead and a 130/70-17 section one for the rear.
Powering the X-Blade was a 163cc air-cooled, single-cylinder engine that pushes out 13.5 bhp at 8000 rpm and a peak torque of 14.7 Nm at 5500 rpm. Transmission duties were carried out by a 5-speed gearbox. Besides its 160cc siblings, the X-Blade competed against the likes of Yamaha FZ S, Suzuki Gixxer, TVS Apache RTR 160 and Bajaj Pulsar N160.
