At its peak, the Hero Honda Karizma enjoyed a massive following. A lot of it was down to the VFR-inspired big-bike looks and the 223cc engine at its heart. But despite Hero's attempts to keep the model alive after the split with Honda, the later ZMR guise of the Karizma never really caught on, and was eventually resigned to the history books.
Recently, though, rumours have been building about the Karizma nametag making a comeback, and the first signs of substance are now appearing with it. Hero recently filed two trademarks, not only suggesting an imminent return of the Karizma but also giving us a little clue about what the bike will be like.
The first trademark is for Karizma XMR, which is the full name that the new bike is likely to carry. The second trademark goes a little further: Karizma XMR 210. It's unlikely that this is anything other than the displacement figure of the reborn Karizma. Not much is known about the engine aside from this number, but there are a couple of possibilities.
Hero already has a rather capable oil-cooled, 4-valve 200cc motor in its Xpulse 200 models. Perhaps the Karizma could use this engine as a start-point, increasing the bore and/or stroke to achieve the 210cc displacement figure. However, there are also rumours about Hero developing a liquid-cooled 210cc engine specifically for the new Karizma.
Back in the day, the Karizma was comfortably the quickest, most capable bike in Hero Honda's lineup, and perhaps Hero is going for the same strategy this time around, and giving the bike a new high-tech engine to achieve this. Time will tell.
Another thing that's safe to assume is that the Karizma XMR will almost certainly be a fully-faired motorcycle, like the erstwhile ZMR. Whether it'll be a true-blue sportbike like the KTM RC 200 or more of a sport tourer like the Suzuki Gixxer SF 250 remains to be seen.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
