HUNKy Dory
7 12 2007I was talking to my friend Abhishek about bikes when we touched upon this topic. Hero Honda came up with the “Hunk” recently. (The ads in TV were pretty sad. )
Why am I making a big deal of this ? See for yourself:
HERO HONDA CBZ EXTREME:
HERO HONDA HUNK:
Here is a comparison of specs:
After poring through the details of the specifications, except for the height (in a few mm), fuel tank reserve capacity (trivial) and the weight (again about 2 kilos) i did not find any difference between the two. The site was pretty well done though. Ill have to give credit to Hero Honda for that. My question is, what was the need to come out with Hunk when CBZ has almost the exact specifications ?? Anyone any wiser ?
I accept that both the bike have the exact specifications.But i presume Hunk to be more muscular.And the ad,God!its dipressing!!!!
All our Indian bikes look like shit. Pulsar, Hunk… everything. Just wait for the Yamaha bikes to come in a few months.
Well, a bike looks like a bike…which looks like a bike. Who really cares about how it looks?
1. Is it going to screw up when I need it most?
2. Is the price bleddy high by my standards?
If I look at myself saying “maybe” to even one of the aforementioned, I’d kill the idea of owning it. By the way, you have a bike, ji?
@Marc,
The Yamaha bikes you are talking about cost over 10 lacs. I don’t know may be you can afford it. But I can’t. I think of the existing lot, Pulsar is pretty decent. It’s better than the first editions atleast.
@Hariji,
Welcome. I am honored to have you on my blog.
As for how it looks, thats the point here. Maybe i need to make those pics small. (I shall do it after I finish typing this.) The point I was trying to make was that the specifications of both the bikes is exactly the same. Why bother to come out with a new bike at all ?
As for the prices, I heard 150cc bikes cost in excess of 60,000 INR these days. Whoa!! And no I don’t own a bike yet. The red scooty I had when we were in school was sold off!!
Yeah Karthik I got your point alright…my point is a few people still go by looks and buy the damn thing!
And 60k ellam forget dhan. Veetla kaetta kolai vizhum…with a bit of persuasion I may be able to get a new scooterette in exchance for the old lodaklas (pardon the atrocious spelling) Spirit…
Dude with your pay, I doubt if you will ever require a two wheeler,
Straight aa car wonly!! That too Skoda.
Hari, what kind of lame ass thinking is that? You obvious have no eye for design. If people didn’t go by looks the crappy contraptions from India would be selling worldwide.
@ Marc : There’s some such thing as opinion dude. If you prefer to call it lame-ass-thinking, fine, be my guest
. A few (practical, if I may add) people tend to go in for performance rather than appearance, which I think is justified even if the bike is on the ungainlier side.
Hari, if you had said I don’t care how the bike looks then it would be your opinion. By saying what you did you seemed to be implying that no one cares how bikes look which is untrue. The fact is you and a small percentage of people don’t care for looks.
Another thing: show me any high performance bike and more times than not the design would be awesome. And if by high performance you actually mean high mileage then you should buy something like a TVS 50. No really, the mileage is 120 or something!
@Marc,
TVS 50 is a two stroke vehicle. It gives lesser mileage than some of 150cc bikes do.
It’s impossible to get a mileage of 120 kilometers per litre, unless you go around pushing it. (or if you meant some other convenient unit like metres per litre.)
Dude, it is part cycle. You can always pedal it around.
I think the auto companies should release some new model once in a year or so. There is some principle I think. My friend was saying about this. I don’t know for sure. But I think they should come up with some new model with new specifications (which here most of the companies don’t do. They just change one or two things and claim that to be a new one compared to the older version). Hunk met the same end which CBZ X Treme met. I think they came out with this thinking that it will do some good fortune to them in the 150cc category which is presently ruled by Pulsar followed by Apache according to me.
@Vinod,
You are right in thinking that Hero Honda wants to get some market share in the 150 cc segment.
However the attempt by Hero Honda to release Hunk when CBZ extreme didn’t do much is pretty lame. That too without too many changes to the performance. (Even the name ‘Hunk’ tries to imply that it’s all macho. A strategy Pulsar adopted with their ‘Definitely Male’ tag line, years back)
Hero Honda Motors which didnt had a big market share in 150cc which was dominated by Bazaz Auto ( Pulsar) & TVS Motors ( Apache) tried to enter into this segment with the launch of CBZ Xtreme & Hunk. CBZ once dominated the market share of 150cc segment. Before the launch of CBZ Xtreme it create a good reputation because of it. But Hunk was also launched soon after which didnt grab the market as i personally think the launching of Hunk could be delayed a year later. Instead of branding Hunk They could have spend it in branding Xtreme. This would have given a good result of Hero Honda in terms of selling units of Xtreme.
@Sudip Chandra,
I am no marketing expert.
So I can’t really comment on those things. But I’d anyday prefer a Pulsar over an Extreme or Hunk. The old CBZ was good looking. But then, back then as you say, they had no competition.