I bought a Honda Unicorn two years ago as a beginner and now want a slightly more powerful, reliable bike within a ₹2.5 lakh budget (can stretch a bit). I ride 20–25 km daily and need good mileage, comfortable pillion space, occasional touring (rare off-roading), and low maintenance/spare costs. The Xpulse 210 interests me but its 140 kg max load is a concern. The bike should handle Bangalore road conditions. Please suggest some bikes to explore.

Autocar India

•6d

The Triumph Scrambler 400 X that you have shortlisted is a good one bike to do it all. If you have your heart set on it, you should indeed hurry up and get one soon before the 350cc replacement is launched in the coming months. While its slightly smaller successor will be identical in most ways, the smaller engine with likely reduced performance could affect performance at highway speeds. So it's better to go for the 400cc model while you can. The TVS Apache RTX 300 is another great all-rounder, and if you are ready to deal with its size and weight, then you should absolutely consider it. Do bear in mind that for someone of your stature, the RTX could prove to be a little much inside the city at slower speeds. So we would recommend a thorough test ride before you make a decision. Another option worth considering is the Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450. It has a very approachable 780mm seat height, which will be helpful for you and has good performance and comfort for both city and highway usage. Since all the bikes you're considering are quite different, take a test ride of each before making a decision.

Autocar India

•5d

Since you're looking at just a small upsize in your tyre sizes, you can go ahead and replace the tyres of your Jupiter with 100-section units from the stock 90-section ones. It will help give you more sure-footed handling as well as a slight improvement in ride quality. The flip side to this change will be that wider tyres will increase rolling resistance, which is going to have a small but noticeable negative impact on fuel efficiency. Another point to bear in mind is that the scooter's steering will feel heavier in general, but especially at slower speeds.

Autocar India

•2w

TVS has been giving the Apache RR 310 an update almost every year since it came out, improving small areas like refinement, features and adding more colours too. Today's Apache RR 310 is a feature-loaded machine which has significantly improved NVH levels, although it's still a single-cylinder machine. So, you will have to deal with some vibrations in certain bands of the rev range. Since you seem to prefer a twin-cylinder sportbike experience over a single and have the budget to go for it, the Kawasaki Ninja 500 is a bike we'd recommend you seriously consider. It has reasonably comfortable ergonomics and decently compliant suspension for daily usage. Its 451cc, twin-cylinder engine has a healthy spread of mid-range grunt, and it will also be fun to chase the redline, given some open tarmac. Yes, Kawasaki bikes are expensive to maintain, but that's something you will have to make peace with if you want a twin-cylinder sportbike today. You can also rest easy about E20 compatibility because all new bikes and scooters sold in India are compatible with our fuel. If you don't think the Ninja 500 justifies its high price tag, then move up to the little more expensive but quite a bit more capable Ninja 650. It is one of the few big bikes on sale in India that can genuinely be used on a day-to-day basis. As long as you're mindful of the low ground clearance and expensive rims. Coming to the TVS/BMW 450cc sportbike, an official launch is unlikely to happen anytime soon, considering we have only just spotted a heavily camouflaged test mule for the first time. Thank you for your kind words about Rishaad. We'll be sure to pass them on!