X - tremely disappointed. Review on Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme

Nothing pisses one off more than products claiming to deliver the moon. Heck, even space agencies dont make that claim!

So in comes Hero Honda Motors with a new product that it advertises as the CBZ Xtreme. Taglines like “Blink, and you will miss it!“, or “Once you see it, impossible to forget!” hyped the product up, like never before. If you had followed the Indian biking scenario, and saw this kind of advertising, you would be thinking the CBZ Xtreme to be at least a quarter-litre bike delivering 25+ bhp(One wouldnt expect litre class bikes from HH, after Honda has entered India on its own).

Ah! But that is the twist in the story. The CBZ Xtreme is a bike in the 150cc class, which is. the same class as the original CBZ was! Shaking your head in disbelief? Dont, not yet! There’s more to it.

First, the power - reportedly a increase to….14bhp(from 12.62)! Didnt you jump with joy? No? Not even for that extreme hike in power? Well, never you mind, I have more info for you to jump with joy on.

The snaps, courtesy Xbhp. All of them showing how xtreme the product is, indeed

Tank from the Ambition, side panels, wheels from the TVS Apache, Tail lights from the Libero probably, and a grosteque fairing+ headlamp. Add in garish stickering and the dials, and you get - an Xtreme-ly bad looking bike.

No wonder they call it the Xtreme. It disappoints Xtreme-ly!

Hero Honda has specs up at the CBZXtreme site. 150cc 14 bhp 143 kilos and claimed 0-60kmph time of 5 seconds. When it arrived, the original CBZ was a 158cc, 12.6 bhp, ~130 kilo machine. With the same 0-60 claimed time. Thats what Hero Honda call progress!

guys, guys! let’s put things in perspective a little. yes, this bike is a disappointment because:

1) the ads had us believe we could possibly be looking at something revolutionary - maybe a 25 bhp machine, international styling, liquid cooling, front and rear discs, fuel injection.

2) instead we got another 150 cc, 14.2 bhp, air cooled, quite disastrously styled bike

however, let us forget the ad and remember the plus points:

1) in the 150cc class, 14.2 bhp is pretty powerful

2) black alloy wheels - again a 150cc bike

3) POSSIBLY a superior ride quality compared to other 150s.

at the end of the day I too am pissed that the bike was marketed the way it was - back when cbz was first launched it captured all our hearts because it was path breaking. the ads and the past history of this bike led all of us to believe that the new cbz would be path breaking too - none of us expected it to be exactly what one would normally expect of an upgrade - the same bike improved slightly. however, for someone buying a 150, where styling isn’t the only consideration, this probably isn’t such a bad choice. the styling would still be alright in my opinion(despite appearing like a mix and match of other bikes) - what let it down in this dept especially the front fairing. I saw some pics on another site and whole fairing/headlamp looked rather like it belonged on a 100cc petrol sipper.

now I hear that HH plans to launch another new bike(apart from the other 7 they had planned on earlier)… not sure what to expect but i’m not getting my hopes up too much.

in other news, the pulsar 220 is almost certain to come out although there hasn’t been any advertising so far… all I can say is that the bike does turn out to be how all of us expect it to be.

about HH introducing true sports bike(plz, no one say that karizma is a sports bike, or even pulsar - that is laughable)… well 2 things:

1) honda is more likely to do that exclusively and keep the hero honda brand for the smaller bikes(if and when they do launch a sports bike that is)

2) dream on - remember we are in india… the day I took my friends RD out in bangalore, someone asked me at a signal what mileage I get. some other friend saw the bike and asked why I was driving a rajdoot(this rd had rajdoot stickers)

conclusion: TVS apache, bajaj pulsar dtsi are the better option.