Best bikes Above 2 lakh

The end of 2022 and early 2023 was about going long distances, primarily because I had the Suzuki V-Strom and this luggage from Rynox – the Navigator tail bag. I’ve been a regular user of Rynox luggage for many years now.

The V-Strom SX is the second motorcycle that has crossed 10,000km during my long-term use. The first one was the Royal Enfield Meteor 350, and it took me almost a year with this cruiser. But the V-Strom SX has taken less than six months.

My love for long-distance riding has grown multi-folds over the last few years. This is primarily due to two reasons – the number of new bikes launched in the segment and secondly, the roads have gotten better in terms of tarmac quality and safety.

For most of us, tyres are just black coloured hoops made of rubber that are attached to motorcycle wheels. They are meant to roll with least resistance possible, offer the most amount of grip in every situation and be resistant to punctures. It all seems very easy but there’s a lot and I mean unfathomably lot to design and develop tyres. It’s something that struck me in the two days I spent experiencing two new tyres by TVS Eurogrip.

Ever since the Royal Enfield Scram 411 joined the BikeWale Long Term fleet, what I was looking forward to was working on my off-road skills. I also wanted to figure out if the Scram 411 is up to speed with its sibling when it comes to taking the broken path- after all, it is quite similar to the Himalayan in many ways.

We managed a few trips from Mumbai to Pune and back which contributed to a good 1200kms on the odo. Now, these trips were not only to deduce if the Scram 411 is a capable motorcycle on the highway but also if it can match or outperform the Himalayan’s abilities here.

We rode the Ninja 400 extensively in the city and highway to answer three questions and here is what we came back with...

The Adventure is the most expensive Yezdi one can buy in India, and the reason for this is the segment it belongs to. The adventure touring segment in the country is booming, and many young Indians want to get out of their mundane life and explore the breathtaking scenery and rural parts of the country. To do this, there’s a need for a motorcycle that can take care of the comfort and luggage and also allow the rider to go to places that standard bikes can’t go. Such bikes don’t come cheap as they are engineered to take a lot of beatings from Mother Nature. Plus, this bike also has to be an all-rounder because, like it or not, weekdays are when the bike will be used as a commuter, and on the weekends, it should transform into an explorer.

There’s a new rival to the segment leader the Royal Enfield Himalayan – it is called the Yezdi Adventure and it is the most expensive Yezdi motorcycle on sale in India currently. It is priced at Rs 2.48 lakh on-road Mumbai and that makes little affordable than the Himalayan.

Jawa has created a niche in the sub-350cc segment with the Perak. A niche that is likely to remain untouched for the next few years atleast. And in the time that we spent with the motorcycle, it raised a lot of questions for us, the most important out of which was whether you should sacrifice functionality for looks? Read on to find out if you should get one of these home.