Splendor has been the one single bike which appeases all sects of the population, be it the mileage craving middle class or the performance craving biker dudes, it has always won its way with its ergonomic perfections. But a sale of 1crore units of a motorcycle model is a major milestone even for a success like the Splendor.

To celebrate such an occasion Hero Honda has launched a Special Edition of the Splendor with the following changes:

• New Graphics scheme
• Black alloy wheels
• Black saree guard
• Black front forks
• 1 crore special edition badges

Hero Honda has also launched a old new face lifted variant of the Hunk model with the following changes:

• New body colored mirrors
• Black colored saree guard
• Red shock spring
• Bull insignia

Bet you want me to strike out “new” now.

Hero Group which runs the world’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda is planning on a joint venture with Malaysian car maker Proton to produce small car for India.

The company Proton is emerging into a global brand with it acquiring British car maker Lotus and also getting it into Formula 1. Proton is likely to bring into India 3 of its cars initially, the 1.2L Savvy hatchback, which is being sold in Europe, the 1.3L sedan Saga and 1.6L Persona sedan.

However the intricate details of the deal haven’t been cleared out but it is likely that Proton will provide the cars and hero will provide its dealership network across the country.

According to reports a high-level Proton delegation will come to India by the end of this month along with Malaysia’s minister of international trade and industry Datuk Mustapha Mohammad to strike a joint venture which is likely to come alive at the end of this year.

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Bad news from the brochure. Earlier speculations suggested the top speed of ZMR to be 135kmph which wasn’t even acceptable to the Karizma aficionados since it is slower than Pulsar 220. It is now obvious from the brochure that the top speed of the ZMR is 126kmph. Now thats a big bubble burst

Pages from Hero Honda’s new Karizma ZMR’s brochures.

This time around it’s the pictures from the launch at Gurgaon. What we have learnt already is this.

What’s new is:

• The ZMR get a real time mileage indicator, which notifies the mileage at the exact moment.
• The sales will begin before the end of September.
• ZMR gets a maintenance free battery.
• ZMR gets a bank angle sensor, which measures the angle of tilt of the bike during a turn. This data is usually used to turn the head light accordingly or it can switch on the turn indicators using ECU, but we cannot confirm at this time what the bank angle sensor does in the ZMR

My observation from the launch party

Hero Honda says it wants to target youngsters with in the age group of 18-24 but don’t know why the old dude is sitting on the ZMR; it doesn’t suit the appeal at all.

The ZMR looks the best in this set of photos out of all that we have seen so far. So we still haven’t heard from anyone who has ridden it, since it’s a Hero Honda and a karizma on top of that, it will be exquisite.

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More and more details keep emerging on the ZMR. For starters it’s the new Fuel Injected version of Hero Honda’s super bike Karizma. The ZMR has more to it than fuel injection; in fact every dimension of the bike differs from the old Karizma. It has become shorter by 1.5cm and wider by 5cms. The increase in width is because of the enormous front faring, which might look spunky now but it won’t be late before it starts to look like a cheap faring job.

ZMR gets both front and rear disc brakes like most of its rivals. The front has a 276mm disc and the rear has a 240mm disc. From the pictures it is evident that the front turn indicator lights are integrated with the faring. The ZMR has two main flaws the front faring looks big and cheap while the rear end is void of anything new.

Hero Honda has plans to keep the carbureted karizma rolling on the side along with the ZMR. The ZMR cost Rs. 91,000 (ex-showroom, Delhi). The 5 colors to choose from are Blue, White, Yellow, Red and Black.
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ZMR was launched today (19 Sep) in Gurgaon. As we expected it comes with Fuel injection technology but with no increase in Cc, it still has the 223cc engine. The engine produces 17.6bhp @7000 rpm. It will hit a top speed of 135kmph with a torque range of 18.35Nm.

This is bit of a letdown for Karizma fan’s since this won’t be enough to over throw the 220 as the Fastest Indian. We will try to bring you more as the story reveals.

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