On the other hand, the launch of the Honda CB350 range of motorcycles in India has had a slight effect on Royal Enfield sales figures, especially in tier 1 cities.
While Bajaj did manage to get some success with the Bajaj Dominar 400, the sales figures of the motorcycle were nowhere close to the sales figures achieved by Royal Enfield.
Now, Bajaj is trying a different strategy to conquer the segment dominated by Royal Enfield. For this, Bajaj has collaborated with the iconic British two-wheeler manufacturer, Triumph Motorcycles. Together, this joint venture is planning to roll out premium mid-displacement motorcycles in India and other international markets.
However, under this new joint venture between Bajaj Auto and Triumph Motorcycles, the newly developed premium mid-displacement motorcycles will be sold under the iconic British two-wheeler manufacturer.
While it was rumoured that this new joint venture is developing more than one motorcycle, new spied images show that there are two motorcycles that are being developed - One is a roadster variant, while the other is a scrambler-like motorcycle.
Coming to the design, the Bajaj-Triumph motorcycle does grab attention and feels plenty premium with many 'Triumph' design elements such as round headlights, a teardrop-shaped fuel tank with rubber pads, and a triangular engine casing.
In addition to that, the scrambler variant comes with a few more additional bits such as a very premium-looking engine guard, knuckle guards and a short flyscreen.
However, we expect these upcoming motorcycles to sport a heavily modified powertrain from the Bajaj Dominar 400 motorcycle. This engine is likely to be tuned for even more torque low down the rpm range despite a small sacrifice on the top-end power band.
We expect this engine to be more ideal as it would save a lot of money and time for the joint venture as well.
Apart from that, the upcoming Bajaj-Triumph motorcycles will use a tubular chassis with a bolt-on rear subframe. This will make sure that the motorcycle is not only easier to repair, but it will also likely to be cheaper to manufacture as well.
Other than this, the upcoming Bajaj-Triumph motorcycles will sport adjustable mono shocks at the rear and more advanced upside-down forks at the front. Also, the brakes are likely to be similar to the one on the KTM 390 range of motorcycles.
However, to make the Bajaj-Triumph motorcycles a hit among the audience, the new joint venture must be aggressive with the price tag. This means the joint venture must target a price tag of around Rs 2 lakh, ex-showroom.
Thoughts About Bajaj-Triumph Motorcycles
The upcoming Bajaj-Triumph motorcycles are among the most-awaited motorcycles. However, it is still quite early to comment anything about these motorcycles. However, we do know that it will be difficult to capture the 'Royal Enfield' segment in India.