What Suzuki's cooking??
This is the first take on vehicles from my perspective
India is not tasting new rides these days in the most selling commuter segment.The comeback from unicorn and the refreshed pulsars from time to time keeps the customers engaged.Hero is still in hibernation as the Xtreme is not selling as much as the glamour or the CBZ used to sell . The karimzas are pathetic coz neither they perform nor they give the mileage hero promises post the breakup of hero and the hondas. coming to honda, they have split the shine into 2 variants namely the plain vanilla shine and the "stylish" shine (it doesnt match up to glamour in anyway)
This made the japanese giants to try their luck in India: the yamahas and suzukis
The yamaha was the iconic gunda bike , (remember the RX135 and RX100 the fast and noisy bikes from yamaha?? back in early 80s and 90s). the fazer killed the buzz with those alien headlamps. so yamaha unleashed hell when it let loose the FZ monsters (10 years ago) and it never cared about the 13 litre small petrol tank neither the mileage did. and added a muffler to the same engine. recent FZ2.0 managed to bring the Fuel Injection as basic to its stable which uses yamaha's patented technology called Blue Core.( mileage is still an issue but anyway whos caring about mileage anyway coz its a performance bike)
Therefore,Suzuki came up with its own success mantra. chop down all the international models and fix the 150cc suzuki motor. Remember Suzuki had launched the first suzuki GS160 model with dual LED back lamps and a powerful unicorn like model which never tookoff in sales, the same model had an 150cc sibling as well. Suzuki claims that the same motor has been tailored and renamed it as SEP 150cc motor.Thus launching the first naked street fighter bike called the Gixxer which was a huge hit and swept away all the awards.The gixxer was a ripoff from the suzukiGSX R1000( the asphalt bike).
No bike can still stand the Style Quotient of the Gixxer even in 2018.
Taking this as a hint Suzuki launched new intruder 150cc which claims to be the first stylish cruiser on road(comes in black and grey). If someone looks closely the gixxer and intruder are poles apart. But still if a technician looks at the specs sheet and measure the bikes ,one can easily find many things in common.
Like the handle bars, tires, twin exhaust and the fuel tank size as well. The only technical thing which is different is the wheelbase and the ground clearance.
The similarities are a lesson for other manufacturers that which should learn is that to keep the mechanicals to the minimum and make an entirely different bike .
more to talk about in my next article until then ciao ciao .-That tech guy