Honda’s Next BS6 Bike Is The X-Blade

Honda has just launched its next BS6 motorcycle, the X-Blade BS6, with prices starting at Rs 1,06,687 (ex-showroom Delhi) for the base trim (front disc/rear drum). This is a steep price hike of Rs 17,551 over the outgoing BS4 model. Honda is now also offering the X-Blade in a rear disc variant priced at Rs 1,10,968.

Even though the bike comes with a massive price premium, it does not get a lot of new features. The X-Blade already arrived with LED headlights and digital instrumentation, both of which are unchanged from the BS4 model. The bike is available in four colours: red, black, grey and blue, with the green option no longer available on the BS6 model. The only new bit here is the addition of an engine kill switch.

The X-Blade is powered by the same 162.71cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine that you also find on the Unicorn BS6. This engine was quite gruff and not particularly refined. The inclusion of a counterbalancer and fuel-injection should hopefully smoothen things out. Nevertheless, the X-Blade gets a racier engine tune than the Unicorn BS6. Here, the motor puts out 13.86PS and 14.7Nm, which is 0.94PS and 0.7Nm more than the Unicorn. Even compared to its BS4 unit, engine output has not changed much. The new engine is 0.26PS lower but crucially produces 0.8Nm more.

The mechanical elements found on the X-Blade remain more or less the same. The stylish 160cc commuter gets a telescopic fork and monoshock suspending the diamond frame. You get 17-inch alloy rims at both ends shod with bias-ply tyres. While the front braking components remain the same on both trims -- a 276mm rotor with a twin-piston caliper -- you can opt between a 130mm drum and a 220mm disc brake unit. Kerb weight has gone up by a kilo on the base trim (143kg now) while the twin-disc variant tips the scales at 144kg.

Honda has not given the X-Blade much to justify the Rs 17,551 price premium and that is extremely disappointing. In light of the recent launch of the Hero Xtreme 160R, which manages to undercut the X-Blade by around Rs 3,200, Honda seems to have priced it a bit too high.