Back in the 1980s when the Hero group, makers of the then ubiquitous Hero cycles and the Pacer and Panther mopeds tied up with Honda to make motorcycles, they announced the collaboration as the dawn of a “Brave New Horizon”.  The collaboration was path breaking in many ways.  The world’s no.1 in motorcycles had collaborated with the world no.1 in cycles.  For the first time ever in India a 100cc four stroke engine featured in a motorcycle and put to rest all suspicions about its efficacy that came into being because of a notoriously unreliable 350cc four stroke engine in a motorcycle called the Enfield Bullet.  It also ushered in the previously unheard of mileage figure – 80 kmpl.  It kick started a new version of the Indian obsession with fuel consumption.  Nothing less than 80 kmpl was acceptable anymore.  The Hero Honda CD100 had arrived and how.  It had styling that could be credited to someone who failed all the examinations in a design school.  It sounded like a Deepavali ladi, had no visible frame and the engine looked like it could fall off any moment.  But it was anything but all that.  Despite its ungainly appearance, it was bullet proof (pun not intended) and more importantly kept its promise about mileage.

When talking about Maruti people claim that it is the car that put India on wheels.  I disagree.  It was the Hero Honda CD100, a product of a collaboration made in heaven, that really put India on wheels and offered to the common man an affordable alternative to the erratic public transport system that existed then and continues to exist even today.  The fill it, shut it, forget it ad campaign became the new mantra that was chanted by every aspiring motorcycle rider and he went straight to a Hero Honda dealer and got himself one.  The appearance of fragility of this light motorcycle actually belied a ruggedness and hardiness.  Hero left all the technology and design work to Honda and concentrated on marketing and since their forte was always the rural areas (their expertise in rural marketing was a result of their selling of cycles and the Panther and Pacer mopeds which were sold mainly in the rural hinterland) they took care to see that they had as much rural penetration as they did in urban markets.

Then the launch of the Splendor and later the Passion created history, albeit slowly and gradually.  The Splendor and the Passion were the two motorcycles that ensured that sales of the Hero Honda company went through the roof and left competition far, far behind.  There was only one instance for a couple of months when Bajaj overtook Hero Honda in motorcycle sales.  That galvanized Hero Honda into pushing their products forward and the competition backward in the market place.  The city slickers and boy racers mocked Hero Honda.  They said Hero Honda was sticker company and that their sense of aesthetic was absolutely favouring the garish and unsightly.  That did not seem to deter Hero Honda buyers, both urban and rural, from buying Hero Honda motorcycles.  Today the company which is renamed Hero MotoCorp but sells the same brand of motorcycles sells the double the number of motorcycles per month than does its competitor Bajaj.  Some years ago Hero Honda did the unthinkable and the unforeseeable, which is it overhauled Honda as the largest motorcycle manufacturing company in the world. So why did this JV come to an end?  We will come to that, but a small detour first.  This detour will help us understand the Honda story and mindset better.

At the same time when Honda entered into a joint venture with the Hero group, it also entered into another joint venture with Kinetic Engineering to make scooters which were two strokes and featured a gear less CVT transmission.  It introduced to India the first proper scooter that had the twist and go feature.  While the macho men (especially up North) thought this scooter was for sissies, the Kinetic Honda (as the scooter was called) achieved another first.  It put more and more of India’s young women on wheels.  A centrally mounted engine made for ease of balance, the CVT meant ease of driving and like all Honda’s it also had ease of maintenance.  These qualities slowly started drawing even men especially when they were reaching middle age towards the Kinetic Honda.  Honda’s JV with Kinetic was slightly different from the one with Hero.  Honda’s equity in the JV was higher than in Hero Honda.  Towards the end of the last century, Honda held nearly 64% of the Kinetic Motor Company.  It had more people on the Board of Governors.  It looked as if Honda was all set to take over Kinetic.  Just then Honda did the unthinkable.  It sold its share to Kinetic and exited the joint venture.

Two years later in the new millennium it set up its own subsidiary in India, the Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India.  It had an agreement with Hero Honda.  As per this agreement Honda would not make motorcycles for at least three years.  But it would make scooters.  In doing so Honda yet again did a first.  It introduced the Activa, a four stroke 100cc scooter with CVT and all metal body, the rear of which could be lifted for easy access to the engine.  More importantly it did not look feminine.  India’s burgeoning economy increased the size of the middle class considerably and this meant that more and more people were buying their own private vehicles, leading to increased traffic and as a consequence chaotic roads.  This in combination with no driver etiquette and lack of adherence to road rules (because most drivers and riders procured licences without passing any driving test or any test for that matter) meant that traffic snarls and crawls were becoming increasingly the order of the day.  At this time a four stroke scooter with a CVT and decent mileage made more and more sense.  And so at a time when everyone thought that the scooter segment had died and when the traditional scooters were no longer being bought, Honda single handedly revived the scooter market.

Bajaj tried to hit back with the Sapphire and later the Wave and failed miserably.  A little earlier TVS tried launching a 150cc geared four stroke scooter called the Spectra, an excellent product that just did not take off.  The Activa began the process of putting Indians, especially men, back on scooters.  Even women who contributed in great measure to the success of the TVS Scooty range started moving to the Activa.  The result; long waiting lists.  Honda also launched a plastic bodied and sporty scooter featuring the same mechanicals as the Activa and called it the Dio.  It did not do as well as the Activa but sold in decent numbers.  Honda then decided to attack the cow belt with the Eterno, a 150cc geared, all metal bodied scooter featuring a four stroke engine.  The scooter did well in the markets it was meant for but Honda pulled the plug on this scooter in a few years.  It saw no point in making scooters for a small number of people when there were long queues building up for the Activa.  Honda also introduced a 110cc scooter which looked and felt more upmarket than the Activa and called the Aviator.  It continues to do well in the market.  A couple of years ago, the Activa was upgraded to the same 110cc engine and demand continues to be unabated with waiting periods stretching up to 9 months.

Once the three year period where Honda promised it would not make motorcycles was over, it launched its first motorcycle, the 150cc Unicorn.  The motorcycle had all the Honda traits. A silky smooth engine, bags of torque, decent power, a monoshock suspension and rugged looks all contributed to its bullet proof reliability.  This introduction of a 150cc motorcycle was for two reasons.  One to not compete with Hero Honda’s products and two to take on Bajaj that was going great guns with the Pulsar 150.  Later on Honda introduced the 125cc Shine.  Strangely a year and a half ago, Honda added the CB prefix to all its motorcycles.  The Unicorn was CB Unicorn, the Shine became CB Shine and it also introduced an upmarket 110cc CB Twister and then a variant of the Unicorn called the CB Unicorn Dazzler.  People were mystified by this until the beginning of 2011, when the pieces of the jig saw puzzle started falling into place.  Honda was exiting the Hero Honda JV.  It wanted to keep the CB and CD as its trade marks and it was in preparation for this that the CBising was happening.

This means that Honda, after March 2014, will prevent its erstwhile JV partner Hero from using CBZ and CD Dawn and CD Deluxe branding on their motorcycles.  At the Auto Expo Hero MotoCorp showed all its offerings sans the Honda name and the CBZ Xtreme was shown as just Xtreme and the CD Dawn was shown as HF Dawn.  And talking of the Auto Expo, let us see what Honda did at the Auto Expo 2012.  After all this series of articles is about what can be inferred from the activities of companies at the Expo.  Honda’s display of cars was almost pathetic.  No new cars, no new launches, no concepts, nothing.  This was due to the fact that Honda suffered badly once because of the tsunami in Japan and the second time because of the floods in Thailand that destroyed its plants and reduced their vehicles to junk.  But when it came to two wheelers Honda at the Expo was aggressive and unstoppable.

Hitler would have been proud of Honda’s efforts at the Expo.  Honda simply blitzkrieged competition with a dazzling array of products from the humble scooter to its flagship and updated for 1012 CBR1000RR Fireblade.  Last year Honda issued a serious warning to Bajaj and Hero.  It launched the CBR250R at a price that was half that of the Ninja250R’s and it also provided it with ABS.  The CBR250R had runaway bookings which were triple that of the number of Ninjas that Bajaj moved in one year.  Out of the blue at the Expo, Honda showed the CBR150R and announced its intention to launch this motorcycle by March.  This is a warning to both Bajaj and its arch rival the world over Yamaha.  If the pricing of the CBR250R is anything to go by, the 150cc version will be well under the R15 that Yamaha makes.  But this is not all.  Honda has shown that it is now ready to go for the jugular of the Indian two wheeler market.  It showed its first major update for the Dio scooter which now looks even more gorgeous and sporty.  It has also unveiled its first mass market commuter the Dream Yuga and displayed it alongside the first motorcycle that Honda every built, the Dream.

A lot of people have pooh poohed the name Dream Yuga.  Behind what seems to a ridiculous name lies the ambition and intent of the company.  Yuga can have many translations in English.  But Honda seems to be using it to convey the idea of an era.  The original Dream motorcycle started the Honda domination in the world.  Honda is probably looking at the Dream Yuga starting the Era of Honda in India – read that as Honda becoming number one in India.  It has no other option.  After ending its JV with Hero and with Hero deciding to build its own brand without waiting for the end of March, 2014 it is obvious that the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, for the first time in many decades will not be Honda nor will it be one with the Honda name appended to it.  So Honda’s becoming number one in India is not just about India.  Hero had overtaken its old partner in sales to become number one in the world.  Honda has to become number one in India in order to reclaim its status of world number one in motorcycle sales.  Honda knows that it has capacity constraints and therefore is in the process of setting up new manufacturing plants in different locations in India so that not only will there be more capacity but also distribution from factories and logistics will become simpler and more efficient.  What Honda wants, Honda gets, so ladies and gentlemen whether you like it or not, get ready for the Honda Era or the Honda Yuga.  How nice for Honda that it coincides with the new century and the new millennium.

Suzuki was the first Japanese Automobile Company to enter India.  Their entry into India was due to the cherished dream of a man who wanted to make affordable motor cars and because his mother had the tenacity to ensure that the dream would become reality even after his death.  Yes, I am talking about the infamous Sanjay Gandhi and his mother the Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi.  Sanjay Gandhi started work on an indigenous car, prototypes were made and one fatal morning he died in an air crash while performing aerobatics.  He was the one who called his company Maruti.  Post this Mrs. Gandhi as the Prime Minister scouted around for international partners who would provide the small car for Indian masses.  Renault and Suzuki were the main contenders and Suzuki won.  So Maruti Udyog Limited was born and it made the 800cc Suzuki Fronte in India as the Maruti 800 for two years before the Alto from Japan replaced the Fronte as the Maruti 800.  You know the rest of that history, so let us not invoke it anymore.

Even in the two wheeler space Suzuki became the first Japanese company to come into India with India Motorcycles Limited a company that was later to become Ind-Suzuki Motorcycles, then TVS-Suzuki Motorcycles and now TVS Motor Company.  The first Suzuki two wheeler that came into India was the Suzuki AX100.  It sold reasonably well and made a name for itself.  TVS decided to become an engineering company in its own right and therefore used the AX100 as a base for other motorcycles that it later created.  Strangely TVS while doing most of the development work on the engine of the AX100 and developing newer models like the Samurai, Shogun and the Shaolin, dropped its own name and all the three models that have been mentioned above did not bear the TVS name anywhere.  They were sold as Suzukis.  Later a 150cc model called the Fiero with Suzuki technology was launched and it was sold as a Suzuki.

Anybody who has been following the history of Suzuki will know that Suzuki is a notoriously difficult partner to have.  Its latest is that it has fought with Volkswagen and dragged the latter to the International Court of Arbitration.  Even with Maruti it engaged in a prolonged combat with huge advertisements running into two broadsheets informing the people of India that Suzuki made no money through Maruti and threatened to take Maruti to the International Court of Arbitration.  Maruti could fight back only because it was a Govt company.  In the two wheeler arena, the relationship between Suzuki and TVS soured and since TVS was the majority partner in the joint venture it exercised its option of buying out Suzuki’s stake in TVS-Suzuki.  The head of TVS, Venu Srinivasan, successfully negotiated with Suzuki and prevented them from setting up a company on their own or with another Indian company for a certain period of time.  His reasoning was that by selling TVS-Suzuki products as Suzukis, TVS had built the Suzuki brand and that he needed time to build the TVS brand separately so that Suzuki would not gain an upper hand unfairly in the market. Fair enough.

Suzuki did come back into the Indian market but when it did so, it was almost reluctantly and very lethargically.  Though the Indian company is called Suzuki Motorcycles India Pvt Limited, it has Indian partners in it and very little is known of the Indian partners’ business track record. Suzuki in the new millennium decided to be a four stroke company, something that was forced on all motorcycle manufacturers.  Suzuki decided to not get into the 100cc space because of the overwhelming domination of Hero Honda in that space. Suzuki quietly tried to do what Rajiv Bajaj loudly announced he was doing.  That was to try to obliterate the 100cc motorcycle in the minds of the Indian consumer and make the 125cc the new 100cc.  The logic of this game plan is simple to understand.  Hero Honda is not known for its 125cc products despite having the Super Splendor and the Glamour range in that space.  Suzuki tried to create a 125cc motorcycle that would be like a 100cc.

It launched the Heat (which was squarely aimed at the rural population) and the Zeus (which had some styling cues and was aimed at the urban commuter).  Both motorcycles shared the same 125cc mill which put out power that 100cc motorcycles were putting out but also importantly they had lot of torque.  However, they received a lot of bad press from the automotive journalists and failed to take off.  Suzuki then took advantage of the liberalization of import norms and brought its famous Hayabusa (which is the Japanese name given to a falcon) and the massive cruiser the Intruder. The reputation of the Hayabusa is legendary and Suzuki was trying to showcase its technological prowess by putting this motorcycle up for sale. In continuation of this approach Suzuki later on brought in the GSX1000R sports motorcycle also.  The Hayabusa was displayed briefly in some dealer showrooms and people went there to look and gasp in awe but ultimately came back without buying one because of its stratospheric price. The showing off of these motorcycles did little for the sales of the Heat and Zeus, both of which disappeared from the mind space of the Indian commuter.  It looked like Suzuki was following in the foot steps of Yamaha and was committing hara kiri.

At that time Suzuki showed what Yamaha did not, the smartness to aim for the hugely overbooked Activa space.  The Honda Activa commanded waiting lists and Suzuki saw an opportunity to get into the scooter space and garner some market share.  So it launched the 125cc, metal bodied, unisex scooter called the Access.  Perhaps it was to tell the scooter buyer that while they did not get the Activa they had Access to a better scooter.  The Access indeed was a better scooter.  It had telescopic suspension up front, a super smooth and torquey motor, styling that offended none and it produced the desired effect.  Many who could not wait for the Activa decided to plumb in for the Access.

It also produced another undesirable effect.  Suzuki entered the market rather cautiously and therefore did not build up manufacturing capacity.  When frustrated buyers moved in droves from Activa to Access, the Access also went the Activa way and a waiting period of 3 months is still in place if one wants an Access.  In the meanwhile Suzuki had launched a 150cc motorcycle called the GS150R but the sales of this bike too have been tepid thanks to Suzuki wanting to concentrate on its cash cow the Access.  Suzuki also expanded its big bike portfolio to bring in the Bandit and the Intruder 800 more recently to take on the lower capacity Harley Davidsons and the Hyosung ST7 and in a round about way even the Ninja650R from Kawasaki.

However what matters most is the fact that Suzuki is showing signs that it is not being sluggish anymore.  It withdrew the Heat and the Zeus from the 125cc space and replaced them with a slightly more stylish bike called the Slingshot.  Not only is the name strange but its ads were stranger.  But let us let that be.  Suzuki’s intentions at the Auto Expo are the ones that are worthy of mention.  First of all the Suzuki area buzzed with energy and optimism.  All its international models worthy of mention were there. The V Strom could come to India.  But more importantly they showed two new mass market products, a scooter and a motorcycle.

The scooter is another and more stylish iteration of the Access, is aimed at the younger population, has a lot more style and is called the Swish.  The motorcycle is the more important one.  It is Suzuki’s first 110cc, that means that it is entering, the 100cc commuter space and is called the Hayate.  Strange choice of name.  When Kawasaki withdrew from MotoGP and when it was forced back on to the MotoGP grid by invoking legal clauses, Kawasaki raced as Hayate (apparently Japanese for Hurricane in Kawasaki speak and Gentle wind in Suzuki speak, so you decide which is correct).  Suzuki is showing signs of coming back to life and shrugging of its lethargy.  Now to build that all important capacity and we could be seeing more relevant for the mass market Suzukis on the roads.

The Auto Expo which happens once in two years is usually something that everybody looks forward to with great anticipation.  Fans of different brands of cars and two wheelers salivate in anticipation of what their favourite manufacturers have in store for the future.  This edition of the Expo had Yamaha fans waiting in nervous anticipation for what Yamaha could be showing.  There has been talk of scooters from Yamaha doing the rounds with Yamaha personnel making suitably vague statements about an impending launch of an India specific scooter and also an electric scooter.  The rumour mills were also working overtime and saying that Yamaha would surprise everyone with not just scooters but also a new motorcycle which would most probably be of 250cc capacity.  It was even being called the Fazer 250 with some enthusiastic webzines even “previewing” pictures of the said motorcycle.

Yamaha did surprise everyone.  All the saliva that was dribbling from the enthusiasts mouths in anticipation just evaporated and they were left stunned and speechless.  The most charitable way to describe Yamaha’s approach to the Expo would be to call it lackadaisical.  Yeah, yeah they showed the new R1, the new FZ1, the new MT-01, the new V Max and the R15 Version 2 and the usual array of its existing FZ-16, FZ-S, Fazer and one concept scooter aimed at women riders which was called the Ray.  Yamaha explained that this was still a concept and not the production version and that the production version would be different from the one on display.  There is no doubt that the big capacity Yamahas are exciting, Jorge Lorenzo’s M1 from 2011 was simply awesome but come on how many of us general people from the aam aadmi category are ever going to find the money to buy these big capacity and big price beasts?

The Ray and the proclamation that went with it (that it was aimed at women riders) may or may not have excited women riders. I am yet to see women going ooh and aah over scooters meant for them like they do when they see a hint of John Abraham’s butt and now that we have mentioned the individual’s name we may as well go whole hog and say that he seemed to be the only star attraction at the Yamaha display, and for petrol heads that is not saying much.  For the young male motorcycle anorak this was a big blow to the assiduously and painstakingly built six pack abs.  All that working out in the gym only to take blows and not getting a chance to use the powerful biceps and triceps to control a new beastly motorcycle has pushed many young boys deep into depths of depression.  We hear psychiatrists are doing very good business since the Expo all over the country and the profile of the new patient is “depressed performance biker”.

Yamaha in India is now a matter of concern.  Every now and then we read in business newspapers that Yamaha is on the verge of increasing capacity and are considering new locations for new plants and that a certain amount of money will be invested in the Indian venture and these statements were made vaguely again during the Expo.  But sceptics like me have been asking ourselves as to what Yamaha would do with new factories, increased production and greater investments when they have not announced any new products except for the Ray, which again is a concept and primarily aimed at women.  I somehow cannot see women in the millions rushing to Yamaha dealerships to buy the scooter aimed at them and this necessitating increased everything.  Let us look at some cold and hard figures.  Hero MotoCorp has been selling something like five lakh motorcycles per month, while Bajaj has been selling anywhere between 2.5 to 3 lakh units per month with Honda edging towards the 2 lakh per month mark (including their scooters) and TVS also being there and there about (including scooters).  Yamaha on the other hand has been averaging between thirty and thirty five thousand motorcycles per month as their sales.  Even Suzuki is threatening to overtake Yamaha and the only company that looks like it will stay below Yamaha is Mahindra2Wheelers.  Yamaha is a globally recognized performance brand, the second largest Japanese two wheeler maker behind Honda but in India it seems to be able to do nothing at the hustings.

Yamaha’s Indian foray has been chequered.  They first came in as technology suppliers to Escorts the makers of the venerable Rajdoot. Escorts in the 1980s were an ambitious company.  They not only wanted to make the famed RD350 from the Yamaha stables but also wanted to get a licence to make the Citroen 2CV for India.  The licence Raj ensured that the latter did not happen but the former did happen.  The RD 350 came with Rajdoot branding on the tank, something that could not be digested by the Indian public.  For the Indians, especially in northern parts, the Rajdoot was the mule that did all the hard work.  Having come to India through Eastern European channels, the bike which was originally a DKW featured an antiquated 175cc engine, had a nightmare of a gearbox but its suspension especially the Earls type in the front was rugged.  So in the rural north it sold in decent numbers.  The bike was never a city slicker though.  Escorts tried to change that and also wanted to give the stepny loving Indians a spare wheel by creating a motorcycle on small wheels.  The Model was called the GTS 175 and it was first featured in the hit film Bobby and therefore earned the sobriquet Bobby Rajdoot.  The success of this model was limited.

So when a performance oriented, race track derived, twin cylinder 350cc motorcycle from Yamaha was sold as a Rajdoot, it made little sense to people.  Traditional Rajdoot lovers could not digest the RD 350 and Yamaha fans could not bear this fire spitting Yamaha being called a Rajdoot.  What united everybody against it was its steep asking price and petrol consumption that was reportedly around 18 to 20 kpl mainly because mechanics did not know how to tune it and anyone who bought the bike was not going to ride this thoroughbred like a mule.  In those days, the 1980s that is, there was quite a bit of motorsport and all of it was in the form of rallies.  Both cars and bikes rallied together.  The cars of choice were Premier Padminis with souped up engines and suspensions, military Jongas and later the ubiquitous tool for rallying the Maruti Gypsy. Of course, if you were Rajeev Khanna then you would be driving an imported car.

The two wheeler riders choice was usually limited to the Yezdi.  The nightmares associated with changing punctured tyres and legendary engine unreliability ensured that very rarely was the Enfield Bullet even considered for rallying.  The Rajdoot (not the RD 350) could go on and on perhaps but progress would be very slow due to lack of adequate power, speed and false neutrals in the gearbox that would emerge out of nowhere.  So the RD 350 was manna from heaven for the rallyist.  Souped versions used by Jagat and Anita Nanjappa and Thirumal Roy went like stink and motorcycle rallying found a new love.  But this romance had a slightly brief history.  Lack of regular sales and the consequent lack of spares meant that the RD famed and loved as it was as a tool of rallying had to make way and it did.  But it made way for another Yamaha, the RX100.

Escorts learnt from their mistakes with the RD 350 and so when they launched a 100cc they put the Yamaha name on the tank, the engine, the speedometer console and everywhere else.  This new motorcycle was advertised as “Authentic Yamaha”, and for a 100cc engine, it had good performance.  More importantly it was affordable.  There was an instance transference of emotions to the RX100.  Everyone who loved the RD 350 but could not buy one, went and bought an RX100.  It became the bike of choice for rally riders.  The word performance got associated with Yamaha and the RX100 just as fuel efficiency got associated with the Hero Honda CD100.  These glory days lasted a long while till a politically correct government decided to introduce limits on how much a vehicle could pollute.  The wonderfully sonorous two strokes such as the RX100 did not meet the pollution norms.  Yamaha decided to increase the cubic capacity to 135cc and decreased performance in the interests of cleaner emissions.  They also changed the name of the motorcycle to RXG where the G stood for green.

One could hear the collective groan of the RX loving bikers when the RXG hit the roads.  Sales took an instant hit.  Nobody wanted this non performing RX.  So Yamaha reacted by changing the name to RX135 and tried to bring some zing back into performance by introducing a stylish RX-Z but to no avail.  Escorts by not looking at the future was left standing still.  Bajaj which made a disastrous debut into motorcycling saw the future better and by going the four stroke way it became the second biggest motorcycle manufacturer in India.  Escorts were clueless and sold their motorcycle manufacturing division to Yamaha who made this their full subsidiary.  They then introduced the YBX 125 four stroke motorcycle which was a good handler and had reasonable performance but aesthetics were lacking and all those who associated Yamaha with the RX100 could not digest the YBX 125. Thus troubled times set in for Yamaha in India.  Something from which the famed manufacturer did not recover even now.

However, Yamaha has managed to pull itself back from what seemed like certain closure of its India operations.  Instead of offering commuter motorcycles such as the Libero (first with a reptilian head look alike head lamp and then later with anonymous styling with a 106cc engine and the last of them was called the G5 signifying that there were five iterations of the Libero), the Crux an even more utilitarian style less motorcycle meant for the rural folk with same 106 engine and the Fazer 125cc with a grasshopper face like headlamp which was then replaced by the Gladiator, which was alright to look at and good to drive but nothing spectacular, Yamaha decided the time was ripe to reclaim its legacy as the performance and sporty motorcycle builder.

This led to a change of strategy.  The son of the legendary R1, the R15 was created.  It had a delta frame, forged metal pistons and amazing handling with a reasonable dose of power.  But the technology made it expensive.  Yamaha was clear that the 150cc liquid cooled, R15 would be used to showcase its performance potential and that the look alike of the FZ1000 called the FZ16 would do the business for it.  The FZ16 featured the same styling cues as the bigger FZ1000.  It had a sculpted tank, a fat rear tyre, an adequately performing air cooled version of the R15’s engine and overall looked futuristic.  Yamaha launched a slightly more sporty looking version and called it the FZ-S. This found acceptance and this emboldened Yamaha to re-launch the Fazer with half a fairing a la Hero Honda Karizma and the Bajaj Pulsar 22o.  It too found acceptance but not in sufficiently big numbers.  Yamaha’s performance has been improving but only in very small numbers.  All its products have now been in the market place for a while and the Version 2 of the R15 is not much of paradigm shift from the Version 1.

Yet again Yamaha seems to be standing still.  Honda has upped the ante as has Bajaj.  Honda has announced its intention of launching the CBR150R in a short while and if the pricing of the CBR250R is anything to go by, it would be priced pretty close to the R15. Honda has better brand recall in India and is a huge threat.  On the other flank the KTM Duke 200 from Bajaj has been priced dangerously close to the R15 and it outperforms the R15 in all departments.  As if that is not enough Bajaj has unveiled the brand new Pulsar 200NS with a promise of better performance than the R15 and at a price substantially lower than the R15 and dangerously close to the Fazer.  Yamaha seems to be back at the cross roads and its Expo display did not show that it is prepared to repel this impending onslaught.  However, it could be hedging its bets and sand bagging by keeping its cards close to its heart.  Maybe it has plans that it does not want to divulge yet.  I would like to believe that, but there are some good reasons to believe that it has nothing in reserve.

The first of the main worries is that Yamaha is feeling the effects of the economic recession, the tsunami in Japan more than Honda because its operations globally are not on the same scale so as to make up from one region when another is hit.  The second pertains to the complex and secretive structure of management of India Yamaha Motors.  It is actually a consortium of various Japanese corporations one of which is the enormous Mitsui Corporation.  Japanese corporations are bureaucracies in their own right and the involvement of too many of them slows the decision making process.  I suspect that is what is happening to Yamaha in India.  It is perhaps standing still yet again. It is well known that Honda is experiencing capacity crunch for its scooters.  An international giant like Yamaha should have pounced on the opportunity to break into the scooter market, but it did not thus far.  Suzuki acted better with the Access scooter and TVS with the Wego to make in roads into the Activa space. And with TVS and Suzuki showing newer intentions and products at the Expo, Yamaha is in great danger of falling out of sight of the Indian biker.  So what is the prognosis for Yamaha in India.  Well it went from critical into remission but all signs suggest that the malady has begun to come back again.  Yamaha could turn critical again. I would hate that as would many like me.  So we cross our fingers and hope for the best.

You think the headline is strange?  Let me assure it is not.  If one were to see the activity at Bajaj Auto in 2012 starting with the Auto Expo till the launch of the Pulsar 200NS, there are some interesting things that come to the fore.  Bajaj did not participate at the Auto Expo with its two wheelers.  It only showed the RE60, a strange contraption on four wheels.  There may be more to this thing than just the strange looks but that is a subject for another article, which you can expect very soon.  Rajiv Bajaj who likes to project himself as a maverick declared at the launch of the RE60 that Bajaj was anti-car company and therefore was not interested in building cars.  Yet he wanted to “concentrate” on showing the four wheeled RE60 to the world (technically the RE60 is a four wheeler on a three wheeler platform which itself is a derivation of a two wheeler platform.  But then like I said that is a subject for another post, so for now just hold your horses).  Bajaj had two spectacles to show in the month of January but held them back till after the show.  One was the KTM Duke 200, which unfortunately became only half a spectacle thanks to innumerable “spy pics” of the KTM Duke 200 circulating on the various auto webzines for months and months.  The real interest was the price, which was a killer at less than Rs. 1,20,000/-.  The second spectacle was the launch of the Pulsar 200NS, a bike carefully hidden from prying cameras and revealed in full to an ecstatic bike enthusiastic population with information that it will be prices at less than Rs.1,00,00.

So when Bajaj had this much to say and show to the world why did it skip the Expo with its two wheelers.  The most common reason that is being inferred by bike enthusiasts is that Bajaj did not want to dilute the importance of both the launches at a venue where there are many other things happening.  Logical?.  Maybe, maybe not.  If you see the buzz that Honda generated at the Expo by announcing the launch of the CBR150R and the updated Dio apart from several other things, it is clear that the typical auto enthusiast is a glutton whose appetite for information (including pics) of all things auto is insatiable.  And for the focussed enthusiast, the search for something to excite his/her imagination is ongoing thing that will not be distracted by lesser things (in his/her mind).  So the explanation that Bajaj feared the dilution of its important product launches in a big Expo to my mind are not necessarily logical.  However, as an explanation I will not rule it out.  But then could there be any other reason to why Bajaj may have decided not participate in the Expo?  I think yes and I think that has something to do with Bajaj’s old partner and teacher in making motorcycles (as per Rajiv Bajaj’s own admission), Kawasaki.  And in all editions of the Expo where Bajaj participated there was a dedicated Kawasaki corner telling people to “Let the good times roll”.

Before proceeding further with this line of thinking, it maybe useful to take a look at the relationship that Bajaj and Kawasaki shared.  For that we have travel back into the 1980s.  When the first phase of liberalization of the Indian economy happened it included in it the two wheeler sector and foreign technological collaboration and equity participation were both allowed with the rider that the foreign partner’s equity could not exceed at any point 49% of the total investment.  When the doors were thus opened another condition was placed and that had something to do with various fiscal concessions if the motorcycles/scooters were below the 100cc capacity.  Bajaj was practically NUMBER ONE in a field of ONE.  Various Bajaj scooters (with the Chetak at the top of the heap) commanded premiums since waiting lists stretched to decades.  Automotive Products of India or API only made Lambretta scooters of the 1940s and 1950s and even though these scooters also commanded a waiting period of up to 12 years, that phase ended in the early 1970s due to the indifference of the manufacturer to the market which was a controlled market.  Then Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s brand of socialism wanted the participation of the Indian State in the manufacturing sector and so when the original makers of the Lambretta, Innocenti Scooters, went kaput in Italy, Mrs. Gandhi wasted no time in purchasing the manufacturing assets and the intellectual property of the company.  Thus in 1974-75 Scooters India was created as a public sector undertaking.

Staying in line with the rhetoric of her general politics Mrs. Gandhi made sure that the brand of scooter to emerge from the newly created Scooters India Ltd would be given an Indian name and thus the then latest model Lambretta 150 was called Vijay Deluxe.  The members of the Indian Hockey team which won the World Championship under the captaincy of Ajit Pal Singh were all gifted with this scooter for their considerable achievement.  Mrs. Gandhi continuing her thinking even allowed various State Governments such as the Govt of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of Karnataka to make the same scooter under different brand names.  The former called the scooter Vijay Pushpak and the latter Falcon.  Since this scooter was built by State undertakings there was no effort to even sell the scooters leave alone things such as marketing.  Though technically all these scooters were available not too many wanted them.  Motorcycles of that period were mainly three.  The Enfield Bullet, the Yezdi (which started as a Jawa) and the Rajdoot were the available brands.  All of them suffered from various types of problems, such as reliability, no ease of service, expensive spares, oil leaks but most importantly they lacked the one feature that was of greatest importance to the then Indian two wheeler user, a stepny tyre (Rajdoot tried  fit a stepny tyre to the engine cradle at the rear of the front wheel but that compromised the steering of the bike so it was hastily given up).  It was most important because punctures were an everyday occurrence thanks to poor roads but it also had something to do with the utilitarian bent of mind.  Scooters offered storage place with bags being attached to the rear side of the front apron and in the case of the Vespa derived Bajaj scooters a lockable box on the left side panel, something that no other scooter had.  Maybe difficult to believe, but that lockable box may have been one of the most important reasons for success of the Bajaj scooters.

Other scooter brands and motorcycles  just languished while Bajaj minted money with its Bajaj 150 first and later with the Chetak, Super, Priya (in collaboration with Maharashtra Scooters which had an equity participation by the Govt of Maharashtra) and later the Cub as well.  So when the liberalization happened new players tried to enter the market and go for Bajaj’s jugular.  And what better way to do it than collaborating with Bajaj’s old partner Piaggio, the maker of Vespa scooters.  So there was Lohia Machines Limited and the public sector undertaking Andhra Pradesh scooters who found collaborations with Piaggio.

Typically Andhra Pradesh Scooters messed up with the technically very sound Vespa PL170 scooter, while Lohia Machines Limited (later to become LML Limited) tasted success initially with the 100cc Vespa XE and later the Vespa 150.  This success was very limited and again the lockable side box played a big role in the limiting of success.  The Vespa scooters emerging from LML had placed the spare wheel under the left side panel, thereby eliminating the possibility of a lockable storage box.  Despite LML’s concerted efforts to tell people that their arrangement improved the balance of the scooter not too many were convinced.  Hence LML ultimately shifted the stepny to the rear of the scooter and created a lockable space at the left. However, this did not really hurt Bajaj since it was a bit late in the day to make the change and also because LML went into management problems and changed hands from the Lohia family to the Singhania family.  As is usually the case such transitions set companies back by years.

Meanwhile other entrants into the two wheeler market decided not to go headlong in competition with Bajaj and therefore they took another route, a route that changed the face of the Indian two wheeler landscape radically.  They decided to go into the under utilized and under exploited motorcycle segment.  TVS took the lead.  It created a new company called India Motorcycles Limited and collaborated with the Japanese Suzuki company.  TVS looked to Japan because it knew that Japanese companies had decimated European two wheeler makers in all markets including the European markets.  But Suzuki was a strange choice.  There are reasons for that yet again.  Escorts India, the makers of the venerable Rajdoot, had in the very early 1980s (before the liberalization process began) collaborated with Yamaha to bring out the wonderful RD350 a bike that was too ahead of its times and since it was race derived it was expensive and returned poor fuel consumption figures.  But the collaboration was there and so was the bike, though it sold in minuscule numbers.  Honda wanted to come into India but its first choice was Bajaj.  Honda always wants to be numero uno and a collaboration with Bajaj would have ensured that.  So negotiations were on between the two companies.  So TVS went to the third biggest Japanese bike maker Suzuki and launched the first Indo-Japanese 100cc motorcycle, the Ind-Suzuki AX100 and it tasted success with it.

Meanwhile, negotiations between Honda and Bajaj broke down.  Bajaj knew that it was big in India on a monetary scale due to its near monopoly for decades and only wanted a technical collaboration (the kind it had with Piaggio) while Honda wanted equity in the company since it wanted a foothold in the Indian market.  With neither side refusing to budge there was no prospect of any collaboration.  Therefore, Honda scouted for new partners.  Honda even at that time was world number one in motorcycles and scooters and wanted a partner who would be at its bidding rather than the other way round.  If TVS (Sundaram Clayton) makers of TVS mopeds could go to making bikes with Suzuki, Kinetic Engineering (makers of the Luna mopeds) wanted to get into scooter making.  Arun Firodia the head of Kinetic was prone to doing things differently so he tied up with Honda to make gear less hundred cc scooters, a first for the Indian market.  Everyone who knows Honda also knows that Honda is as much about marketing brilliance as it is about technological superiority.  Hence Honda did not want to place all its Indian eggs in the Kinetic basket.  While it agreed to enter into a joint venture to produce two stroke scooters with Kinetic it also entered into a joint venture with the Hero group who were till then making cycles and yes, mopeds under the Hero Majestic brand.  The Hero group was not technology savvy nor were they so big that they could resist Honda’s domination, so they were the perfect partner for Honda.  Honda decided to make motorcycles with Hero and make four stroke motorcycles at that, a domain that was till then the exclusive prerogative of the Enfield Bullet.  But this is not a story about Honda, so lets get back to Bajaj.

Now where did these developments leave Bajaj?  Its traditional bastion, scooters, was being attacked by not one but many players, and one of the many was Honda.  At that time Rahul Bajaj famously said”Honda is serious competition for me, I just cannot sit around doing nothing”.  So what was the option for Bajaj?  In scooters the only manufacturer of consequence from Europe was Piaggio and Bajaj did not end its collaboration with the Italian company too well.  Also Piaggio tied up with not one but two manufacturers, so that was a closed road.  All motorcycle manufacturers in Europe had shut shop or were in the process of shutting down and the ones that survived made big and ungainly motorcycles that would not fit the 100cc norm.  Bajaj therefore had to look east. Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki were taken.  Only Kawasaki was left.  Though in its history as a two wheeler maker, Kawasaki did build scooters, they were not known for them.  Though they were smaller than Bajaj in output, they were pretty good technologically.  Something that was to Bajaj’s liking. So Bajaj inks a deal to make motorcycles for the first time through a technical collaboration with Kawasaki.  Kawasaki was happy enough to get royalties for its technology.

Bajaj chose the KE series from the Kawasaki range, a range comprising of motorcycles with small engine capacity and the relatively low tech and easy to maintain two stroke engines (what a lovely place the world was before it went politically and environmentally correct).  Bajaj picked up a model that was a scaled down version of Kawasaki’s wonderfully styled GPz500 from the late 1970s.  As opposed to the other Indo-Japanese bikes the KB 100 that came out of the Bajaj stable had pleasing styling cues and it came with all the bells and whistles that were possible at that time.  A dashboard that featured a tachometer, fuel gauge, speedometer, tell tale warning lights, a rear fairing, a concealed carburetor, single ignition and handle bar key and lock, thumb operated choke on the left hand side of the handle bar, solidly built foot rests and the best electricals (it was the first motorcycle to feature 12 volt electricals while all others had 6 volt electricals) in the market then were standard on the KB100.  It also had the best handling chassis (I am willing to join issue about this with any die hard Yamaha RX 100 fan) with ideal front and back end weight distribution and an engine that could rev happily till 10, 500 RPM and put out only .5 PS less than the RX 100.  It was also the cheapest bike, despite featuring saree guards, crash guards and rear view mirrors on both sides as standard fitments while most other manufacturers sold all those as extras. The bike was a recipe for huge success.

When launched in the Indian two wheeler market, the bike bombed, in spectacular style.  While people were fighting for Hero Honda motorcycles and buying the TVS-Suzuki and Yamahas in decent numbers, they did not want anything to do with the KB100. So what went wrong.  It was not one thing, but a combination of many things.  First factor was that Bajaj, a company used to selling scooters to people who were waiting for decades, did not know anything about marketing products and did not even have a marketing division.  Second, the dealers of Bajaj scooters knew nothing about motorcycles and since they were also used to customers falling at their feet for Bajaj scooters, they knew nothing about customer service.  Then there were mechanics who did not know a thing about servicing and repairing motorcycles.  Most could not even find the correct clutch and carburetor settings.  Due to the existence of a rear fairing the seat on the KB100 was relatively cramped, and the rear end did not have a carrier (of the cycle variety) and the pillion rider foot rests did not have a separate sub-frame (like the RX100 did) and were welded to the swing arm itself.

The Indian buyer used the idea of utilitarian modes of transport did not give two hoots to styling, tachometer and other such things.  What he wanted was a seat that could three comfortably (while the KB100 barely seated two in comfort, though young boys who had girl friends appreciated the seat tremendously), did not have the rear carrier and due to the indifference of dealers, motorcycles that were never serviced properly gave bad fuel efficiency figures.  The younger lot while appreciating the seat did not understand motorcycle dynamics too well.  They fell in love with the RX100 since it had a long seat and a light front end and that combination (especially with pillion riders sitting) produced effortless wheelies and most believed that it was an indication of the “brute power” of the motorcycle.  I must say here that many were terribly miffed when I pulled effortless wheelies on a 1971 model Vespa 150 made by Bajaj.  The heavier front end of the KB100 due to good weight distribution would not levitate easily.  The benefit of this was that braking was phenomenal on the KB100 and it also did not change its handling with a pillion on board.

The resounding failure of the KB100 galvanized Bajaj into action.  It set up a marketing department.  It started getting tough with the lax dealers.  It lengthened the seat on the KB100 by shortening the rear fairing, changed the front chain sprocket’s number of teeth from 14 to 13, added a sub frame for the rear footrests, increased the power to 11PS and added RTZ and Delta Super tuned to the KB100 name.  But the more important thing was that it decided to go head on with Hero Honda and set to work on the BR100 project that launched the 4s motorcycle, unimaginatively named the 4s for four stroke.  The 4s was smaller and lighter than the KB100 and was de specced completely.  The tachometer was gone along with the ignition/handle bar lock, the seat became longer and ended with a carrier, choke went to the now exposed side draft carburetor but the motorcycle gained bragging rights over fuel efficiency.  Thus Bajaj joined battle with Honda.

The engine on the 4s continues till date with some very minor modifications on the Platina just like the Honda motor that continues almost unchanged on the Hero Honda CD 100 and Splendor.  With the 4s under the tutelage of Kawasaki, Bajaj learnt the art of making motorcycles and selling them.  That was till the turn of the century, when Rajiv Bajaj decided that the way to go was to start developing its own products.  This became especially important with the scooter market dwindling and only supporting the twist and go scooters.  The legendary Chetak had to be laid to rest and newer scooters that Bajaj developed on its own such as the Sapphire, Wave, Sunny, Spice, Spirit and Kristal (the last of the scooters that Bajaj made) also quietly lay down and died.   The M80 and the ahead of its time big wheeled Rave scooter based on the M80 mechanicals also vanished.  Bajaj had started making the Pulsar and I don’t need to tell you the success story of the range.  But other bikes spawned by the 4s such as the Boxer (not the new BN150 but the old AT, CT), Caliber (in all its avatars such as the Chroma and the 115 aka hoodibaba), the CT 100 all disappeared.  The Discover in its first 125cc iteration found very limited success and the 110cc Discover fell like a stone to earth and the Platina sold in reasonable numbers (enough to keep the hopes of the company alive) but the 100cc Discover kick started good numbers again.  At this time Bajaj started slowly buying into specialist European manufacturer KTM who has had tremendous success in the Dakar.  Bajaj slowly took its stake to nearly 40% in KTM, thereby getting Rajiv Bajaj a crucial position on the Board of Directors of the company.  This is crucial because it this that started this new synergy between the two companies that came to the fore with the launch of the KTM Duke 125 in different markets but made in India followed by the launch of the KTM Duke 200 in select markets including India.  More importantly Bajaj will manufacture bikes for KTM in cubic capacities up to 350.  To facilitate all this the Bajaj Probiking showrooms which were distributing the Kawasaki Ninja 250R and the Ninja650R have been rebranded as KTM dealerships. So now comes the question where does this leave Kawasaki?

Before the KTM effort Kawasaki and Bajaj forged synergies by distributing each other’s products in markets where they had dealer and distribution networks. Bajaj even made small capacity motorcycles such as the Wind 125 for Kawasaki.  It was this that brought Kawasaki to India to distribute its made in Thailand/Japan Ninja250R and the Ninja650R through the Bajaj Probiking network.  The Ninja250R was atrociously overpriced and old rival Honda cocked a snook at Bajaj by making an affordable 250cc for half its price. Now Bajaj has tried to get back by launching the KTM Duke 200 at even lower price but with better specs.  Good for Bajaj, good for KTM, but hey where is Kawasaki in this?

In spite of Bajaj saying that it will sell the Ninjas through the KTM network, it does not look convincing that Kawasaki will put its hugely overpriced and underselling products in KTM showrooms and get salt and spices rubbed into its wounds.  More importantly even if they do put their bikes there who is going to push them and who is going to buy them?  I therefore am sure that Bajaj’s two wheeler no show at the Expo had something to do with this imbroglio. It is difficult to believe Rajiv Bajaj’s proclamations that they kept the two wheelers out of the Expo to concentrate on the RE60.  Some months ago Rajiv Bajaj when questioned about Kawasaki in the context of KTM had said that it was up to Kawasaki to decide the way forward.  Kawasaki set up India Kawasaki Motors Ltd but no one knows if this entity exists still or where from it functions and what it actually does.  There is no address, no website, nothing.  So here comes the painful question.  Have we seen the last of Kawasaki in India?  I am not sure, but don’t be surprised if the answer turns out to be a yes.