Hero Honda Karizma Review

Hero Honda Karizma, touted to be the first ’sports’ bike in India has its engine derived from Honda CRF230F (available in other countries) which has been scaled down for Indian use. The Karizma is a favorite amog the street racers due to its rev frendly engine.Indias India’s first performance oriented premium bike’s only downside is that it hasnt been properly upgraded ever since it debut in 2004.

Design:

Body: The Karizma has very debateable looks. Up close it has very avarage finish loks a bit akward to a few. But from a distance no one can miss the sculpted “big bike look” all owed to the brilliant positioned front-faring and thick Rear panels.The vinyls are have been recently upgraded and seem to give the bike sharper looks.Ceratin noises are known to come out of the front-faring after a respectable amount of usage.

Cockpit: The cockpit features a 3-pod console (tachometer, speedo,and digital trip and odo meter) It has a rich yellow and black design which look good during the day and invert during the night thus giving a stunning look every time you see it. Fit and finish around the speedometer console is not upto the mark as lots of gaps are seen.

Engine & Gearbox:

Engine: The engine is a 223cc which is derived From Honda’s Entry level Dirt bike for beginners-the CRF230F. The compression ratio is scaled down for use with fuel available in india.The engine is rev friendly. Has a lot of oomph in higher rpms(above 5000). It increases and drops revs faster than you can say “i love this bike“. The engine is electronically limited to 9200 rpm but redlined at 7000prm for safety reasons. The fuel efficiency, it avarages 32kmpl which is pretty good considering it is premium bike.

Gearbox: The Karizma has a 5 Speed 1-down 4-up shift gearbox, which has a very clunchy feel to it - just the way I like it. The gears slot into place perfectly and false neutrals occur once in a blue moon. On heavy deceleration the beast doesnt seem to be able to down shift gears with ease.But this is one gearbox that begs you to rev hard and change faster.

Ride & handling:

The bike has a brilliantly sorted out suspension system and takes all bumps with ease. Under heavy breaking the front forks never seem to give away. Front end feel is fabulous. The chassis is so well sorted out that with better tyres we could expect knee scraping motoGP syle bends out of this bike. This bikes a boon to all the 6footers in india. On the other hand smaller riders seem to be just as comfortable.

My take: Karizma lives up to the badge of India’s first premium bike.