Reference Auto

With the Indian motorcycle market slowly passing the nascent stage and bike buffs willing to pay through their nose for their dream machines, Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd, an arm of Suzuki Motor Corp, has decided to make inroads into the country with the Intruder M800 bike, priced at an economical Rs 8.88 lakh, in order to have a smooth ride in India.

A superbike under Rs 9 lakh is a judicious idea and could see many flocking for the Intruder as there could be a desire to own a superbike but people may not be willing to shell out Rs 12 lakh like they would have to for a Harley-Davidson or a BMW.

The Intruder M800 is propelled by an 805 cc engine (that’s pretty grand considering the price).

The Intruder M800 motorcycle has been launched in 12 cities such as Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad, the company revealed in a statement.

“The Intruder M800 will come as an entry-level cruiser which performs like its bigger brother (the more costly bikes) and will give a chance to the Indian youth to step in to the world of performance motorcycles,” Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd vice-president (sales and marketing) Atul Gupta said.

The launch of the Intruder M800 is aimed at expanding the company’s big bike range in India (even though it is among the smaller of the big bikes), he added.

Currently, the company has the following high-end bikes in its stable in India: the M1800 priced at Rs 13.25 lakh, the GSX-R1000 (at Rs 13.75 lakh), the Bandit 1200S (at Rs 8.8 lakh) and the Hayabusa (at Rs 13 lakh).

The Intruder M800 comes for nearly half the price of M1800 and is believed to have a better ride quality.

The Intruder M800 has an overall length of about 2.5 metres and is loaded with chrome finishes everywhere. Start the engine and you’ll soon get into the mood of zooming past.

The Intruder M800 is propelled by the 805 cc, liquid-cooled, 45 degree V-twin engine that has the capacity to produce 53 PS at 6,000 rpm and 68.38 Nm at 4,000 rpm. This is really cool, especially at a price of less than Rs 9 lakh.

While power output seems just about adequate, power delivery is enough to propel this bike (weighing 269 kg) to 100 km per hour in just eight seconds.

Suzuki had first launched the Intruder with a price of Rs 15 lakh. That wasn’t accepted by Indian bikers.

So, with this change in strategy - Much lower price and features of a high-end superbike - the Suzuki Intruder M800 may soon witness a smooth ride with Indian bikers.