Mahindra and Mahindra entered the two wheeler space in India by buying out the majority share of Kinetic from the Kinetic Motor Company Ltd and this gave them access to scooters that Kinetic was making in collaboration with SYM (San Yang Motors) of Taiwan. The Flyte was the scooter that was being sold in collaboration with SYM and it featured a 125cc motor. Mahindra post the purchase has also tinkered with the looks of the Flyte by adding a mud guard at the front and called that scooter the Rodeo. It then brought out the Kintetic Nova and plonked the same 125cc engine into it and called it the Duro. Thanks to the tremendous success of the Activa and a long waiting list for that product and with Bajaj having vacated the scooter space, the Mahindra scooters found reasonable acceptance. Mahindra then went on to announce two motorcycles which they were making with engines sourced from their priced possession Engines Engineering of Italy.
The first motorcycle was the Stallio featuring a 110cc engine and the second was the Mojo featuring a 300cc mill. The Stallio bombed in the market thanks to rumours that it was being promoted by a man (Amir Khan) who did not even know how to ride a bike. The result was that there were no takers and the product was withdrawn on the grounds that there were some issues with the gearbox. Now there is a rumour that the Stallio will be relaunched in November. There is no news of the Mojo. Mahindra might find the motorcycle market a much harder nut to crack with so many players offering many reliable products. The Mojo will be going up against the very capable Kawasaki Ninja 250R and the tremendously priced Honda CBR250R. That is probably the reason whey Mahindra are not saying what they plan to with the Mojo. The success of the Stallio is crucial to Mahindra’s success in the motorcycle space.