I am 5 ft 11 in tall and currently own a 2018 Dominar 400. I plan to upgrade to a Bear 650 for my daily commute of about 60 km each way to an office on the Outer Ring Road. I am attracted to the Bear 650’s performance but am concerned about maintenance costs. Please advise whether the Bear 650 is the best choice, and suggest other 650 cc bikes with lower maintenance.

autocar.india

•3d

Since your commute is quite long and comfort is your top priority, the Hero MotoCorp Xpulse 210 and the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 are both worth considering. The choice between the two depends largely on your typical highway cruising speeds.Both bikes offer an upright, neutral riding position that is well-suited to long hours in the saddle. They also have comfortable seats (the Himalayan 450 has the upper hand here).The Himalayan 450 offers stronger highway performance. However, it is noticeably heavier. If you want a lighter motorcycle that is easier to manage in daily use, the Xpulse 210 is the more approachable option.Take a test ride of both motorcycles before making a decision, as that will give the clearest indication of which one feels more comfortable for your riding needs.

autocar.india

•9h

Since you have a long daily run, predominantly on the highway, we'd recommend you step up to something more powerful. Specifically, the Hero Xpulse 210 will be a good fit for your needs. It has great suspension, which will isolate you from the worst of our road imperfections; good performance on the highway and when ridden sensibly, it will also give you decent fuel economy. If you want to stick with a street-biased commuter, look at the Honda Unicorn and Bajaj Pulsar N160. These will feel more natural for you to ride and will return good fuel economy, although highway performance will be weaker than the Xpulse. The Pulsar N250 is also a good machine which would make sense for your use case.Take test rides of these bikes before you make your decision.

autocar.india

•11h

The Suzuki V-Strom SX is a severely underrated machine, and we at Autocar are quite fond of it. It would actually serve your needs well, but we'd recommend you don't buy the V-Strom right now because Suzuki is understood to be working on an all-new Gixxer 150/250 lineup, which will likely debut towards the end of this year or perhaps at the start of 2027. These same updates are then likely to trickle over to the V-Strom in due course. Instead, for now we'd recommend looking at the TVS Apache RTX 300 and Hero Xpulse 210.