Hero Honda launched a slight upgrade to the Karizma R a few months back. The changes were not revolutionary and were very subtle but welcome nonetheless. The 2011 Karizma R features maintenance free battery, new instrument colours, silver coloured R stickers, clear lens indicators, side reflectors, and re-designed engine cowl. The company has given the new Hero Honda Karizma R all black treatment along with offering new body colours such as Spotlight White, Darling Yellow, Sport Red, Power Black and Force Silver. The 2011 Karizma R does not have any sort of mechanical changes but the bike now boasts of ASFS (Advanced Swirl Flow System)technology. The 2011 Hero Honda Karizma R is priced at Rs. 88,942/- for the black cast version and Rs. 89,742/- for the red cast version (all prices on-road, Mumbai).

Karizma 250R will be based on this Lamborghini Concept

Hero Honda will launch all new Karizma in 2011, which will have an all new design ground up. The world’s largest automaker plans to get aggressive in the 250cc segment, which has started to see alot of action of late. The new Karizma will have an all new chassis, a more uniform and sporty design and will be powered by Honda’s 250cc motor producing 27hp of power and 22Nm of torque. The Hero Honda Karizma 250R is being tuned for more high end power than low end grunt and will be priced below Rs. 1.2 lakhs (ex-showroom). The company will adapt its umbrella branding strategy and has signed up international brand consultancy firm Wolff Olins for the same. The Karizma 250R will also be exported to other countries as the company looks to form a strong base in other markets post its split with Honda.

The all new Karizma will also feature a segment first. The company is testing a new technology known as HERS (Hero Energy Regenerative System), which will charge an electric motor on braking. A user will get a power boost of upto 10 seconds by pushing the HERS button located besides the horn, helping the bike become a riders delight in terms of performance and outright acceleration. Post the launch of the Karizma 250R, Hero Honda will discontinue the Karizma R, whose availability has already been reduced. The company has also realised the importance of further building the Karizma brand to take on the Kawasaki Ninja and Honda CBR250R and has thus started heavily promoting the Karizma ZMR during the world cup. At approximately Rs. 25,000/- premium over the Karizma ZMR (which retails at Rs. 91,000 ex-showroom), Hero Honda indeed has a winner in the Karizma 250R.

“We still have 7 more engines to be procured from Honda Japan, as per our technical contract which runs till 2014. One of them is the 250cc engine which was recently launched in the CBR250R. We will be using the 250cc motor in the upcoming all new Karizma, which will take the market by storm, owing to its high power, value for money and new design, sharing nothing with the current Karizma R and ZMR. We are also testing a new power boost technology on the bike and are very excited to commercially launch it,” a person from Hero Honda’s powertrain department has revealed to Motorbeam on the request of anonymity. “Ranbir Kapoor will be the brand ambassador for the upcoming Karizma 250, which will be the first vehicle we will promote without the Hero Honda brand name,” he added.

2011 Hero Honda Karizma 250R Details : -

• Launch – October 2011
• Price – Rs. 1,28,000/- (on-road, New Delhi) estimated
• Power – 27hp @ 11,000Rpm, 22Nm @ 6000Rpm
• Mileage – 30kmpl
• Tank Capacity – 14 liters
• Brakes – 300mm petal discs (front), 250 discs (rear), ABS
• Suspension – Mono Shocks, iGRS
• Tyres – 110 section (Front), 140 section (Rear)
• Features – Digital Instrumentation (Analog Tachometer), Built in GPS, Dual projector headlights,
• Performance – 0 – 100kmph in 6 seconds, 4.5 seconds with HERS enabled, top speed of 180kmph

Update - We have added an exclusive audio transcript with Hero Honda, listen to the Karizma 250R Interview

Hero Honda has launched the new 2011 version of the Karizma R. The new 2011 Karizma R gets new colours on the instrumentation, clear lens indicators, new graphics (silver stickers), side reflectors, redesigned engine cowl, maintenance free battery, all black treatment and new colours. There is no mechanical change but Hero Honda is advertising ASFS technology in the engine, which is Advanced Swirl Flow System. The Karizma R is now available in Force Silver (looks very good), Spotlight White, Sport Red, Darling Yellow and Power Black.

Hero Honda will launch a new version of the Karizma soon. The 2011 Karizma will now feature new colours, white indicators, yellow painted speedometer with Karizma written on it, modified handle bar (no clipons!), lowered handle bar, new engine cowl, Hero Honda badge on handle bar, all black theme (black chain cover and saree guard) tubeless tyres, maintenance free battery, and new graphics. Interestingly some of the features have been borrowed from the Karizma ZMR and the new Karizma no longer boasts of R anywhere on it. The new Karizma is expected to be launched in the first week of January.

Pune-based Harish Chellani has diversified his father’s medical equipment import business to provide NOS kits for all Indian bikes. He imports and installs the NOS kit and Bike India recently tested his Hero Honda Karizma with Nitrous Oxide System and they were quite impressed. This is what they had to say.

This misty morning we ushered in Diwali with the best firecracker we could lay our hands on – a modified Hero Honda Karizma with NOS and a reworked, longer gearing. The blue Karizma featured here is fitted with a 300ml nitrous oxide can that is sufficient to propel the 223cc bike forward for 15 short bursts. Harish will happily supply you bigger containers for more bursts if you don’t fancy visiting the refill shop too often. Speaking of refills, a 300ml refill will cost you only 150 bucks – a fair bargain considering the power that’s on offer.

Harish has found a convenient location for the cylinder in the sari guard, from where a silver coated pipe carries the gas to the inlet manifold. Call it direct injection if you will. A toggle switch, resembling the ones used in old spy movies, that controls the NOX induction is mounted inside the fairing. With it, in the on position, the horn switch ditches its usual duty as a traffic shredder and assumes the role of a catapult. Harish hasn’t fiddled with the carb yet but he has two jets of different sizes for varying amounts of nitrous boost, depending on your craving. The smaller one was on the bike and the bigger one was, well, in his friend’s pocket. Bugger!

The rules are clear and simple, you can employ nitrous boost in every gear provided the rpm is above 4000 and the throttle is fully wrung to the stop. On my first run on the expressway, I gingerly pressed the horn button while in the second gear and braced myself for the kick in the back. Although it didn’t quite qualify as a kick, the tacho needle went berserk and raced up the limiter very fast – too fast for a 223cc bike! Approaching the limiter, the engine roared like it was going to blast its innards out if I persisted anymore. Hmmm. . . . must be time to wind up another gear. A momentary slowing down of pace and it was mayhem again as I pressed the horn button hard enough to snap it off its mounting. No time for glancing down at the speedo or tacho, my eyes were too busy watching out for innocent and beautiful belles with pitchers straying on the tarmac as well as four-legged creatures answering nature’s call right in the middle of NHAI’s crowning glory. If you have not ridden anything on the far side of a Ninja 250 or a RD350, the acceleration even with the smaller jet and longer gearing (14 teeth front/38 teeth rear sprocket a opposed to 13/40 stock sprockets) is astounding. The noise too! Even in higher gears, the bike pulls with such alacrity, that it is very easy to cross sane speeds unless you are also keeping an eye on the speedo. Which frankly, we won’t recommend. Whereas this Karizma (with a reworked gearing) does the 0-60km/h run in 4.77sec sans the laughing gas, it does the same run in 3.87sec flat with it. The 100km/h mark was done and dusted in 10.06sec with NOS. Without it, the bike touches the ton at a relatively slow 13.10sec. Lack of saddle time and horrendous traffic prevented us from taking the top speed estimate, although it must be fairly high up on the stock bike. Sorry.

The downsides of this manic exercise are that it becomes very difficult to resist a dab on the horn button every time you see an open stretch of tarmac. If you are ready to compromise a fair bit on the longevity front for some adrenalin, go right ahead and install it – it’s worth every precious penny. Whether it should be used on public roads is an issue only your heart can decide. However, continuous high revving will eventually take its toll on the bike. A small price to pay, we reckon, considering the excitement that’s on offer.

Just in case you are getting ideas, you can call Harish at 9021599535 or mail him at harishnecessary@gmail.com.

This week get featured has a very different entry, where Kodieswaran has not only answered our questions but also gone ahead by telling us alot about himself and how is passion started along with reviewing his Karizma R. He hails from Salemcity and is just 18 years old. So now, its over to him.

I developed a passion for automobies when I was in 7th standard. My inspiration was my friend Sanjay in the sense our school is nearly 20kms from my house we used to go by school bus. It is a 45 minute travel and we used to play spotting the cars on road. He has more knowledge than me and he used to win most of the times. Then a passion towards automobiles took away both of us.

We started to read about automobiles in local magazines, visited local biking showrooms (we are often not treated well by them). I started liking the Karizma. It was kind of a beast. Spotting a ZMA is tough in those days, thankfully an uncle near our house had a ZMA. We were amazed by is size and instrumentation, it was a superbike to us. I dreamt about buying it one day. During my age of 16 I got a Karizma R with red alloys. I was informed by the showroom men that I was the first to take this colour. They were shocked seeing me buy ZMA. Before buying it we used to do stunts on Scooty pep.

When we both rode the beast around our city, all people were dumbstuck on seeing us. Thanks to my parents who helped me realise my passion and promised to buy even most of the safety gears as they knew about my style of riding. But I don’t look like a small boy. I am 5 ft 10 and I weigh 85 kilos. We got caught by cops thrice and got out using my parents. I had done three major accidents. One was on second day when unknowing the power of discs I slammmed the brake and we both fell, thanks to my MPA helmet that literally saved my head. Then another one was when doing a christ, it was a devastaing accident and costed around Rs. 10,000/- besides insurance claim. The third was done by my friend, it was just minor but besides all these my parents only encouraged my passion. Thanks to God for giving me gem of parents. We also used to drive around our new Honda City bought just 4 months ago. We are lucky in our teenhood to get beyond what all we needed.

What urged me to buy a ZMA was that it was designed from head to toe. Hero Honda has done an excellent job concentrating on design even on the key. The front fairing looks majestic and resembles a lions face. The windsheild speaks the history of its own. The all black theme and red alloys touch, I bet it grabs all attention on. When caught on signal everyone would stare as if I am an alien. My friend and I were feeling all pride. Mostly we are noticed by our opposite sex and we are remmebered by others as Karizma guys. I was even called as Karizma kodi by all my peers.

The front suspension was the best, tolerating all pothholes across and it has even travelled terrain, muddy and rocky roads with ease and grace. It fell as if u are in a Benz. The rear was also fine doing its job. The R graphics impressed me the most. It denotes rivalry racing revolution for me. The handle bars which many ZMA users dislike is actually the best fiited for easy travelling. Other rivals such as Pulsar 220, R15, Apache 180 roar very much that at some point it even feels annoying but nice most times. But Karizma sounds like lurking beast ready to go on throttle. The ZMA doesn’t squeeze all power from the engine giving it greater life and reliability. It feels like u have very good grip on road, thanks to the Zappers and weight distribution. The bike masters the higways as it is referred as highway queen.

I had once been to bangalore on my ZMA. I was cruising at around 100-110kmph with ease. With that speed it gave an amazing mileage of 42kmpl on that ride. Normally it gives around 33-35kmpl. Another importent feature is the slim and sleek tank actually holds 16.5 litres of petrol.

The front 276mm disc (the second largest in India) does its jobs excellenlty. The front disc and rear dum works out really well. Thanks to HH, the ZMA I have beaten the fastest Indian Pulsar 220 both on 0-60kmph and on top speed drag. The zma hit a top whack of 142kmph (on speedo)whereas the p220 hits around 135kmph (on speedo). Another major advantage about ZMA is that the stability of the engine, it really supports long rides and it hits it top speed every time you check, not like p220 and R15 which hit top speed on 4 out of 10 trials.

Yamaha R15 is more a track tool and it has a poor pickup which makes it nearly unfit for traffic urban racing. Pulsar 220 is powerful urban street racer but it loses on the highway. Karizma serves its owner both on the highway and on urban streets. The all yellow backlit anlog console is the best I have ever seen in this world. It looks great at dark. The rear tail lamp clusters is also the best around the world with those twin multireflectors. Most of the rivals of the Karizma were well designed only on front end, the rear set was not concentrated. But HH designed the ZMA the very best. The sitting posture looks majestic as the Karizma is the only bike in my consideration which is well fiitted to very few. I am lucky that I am one of it. Proud to be a owner of ZMA, you never regret after buying. You only start loving it more and more everyday and on every ride.

My review on my ZMA may seem one-sided but I urge all bikers to keep a hand on it and taste the beast. You will be very much impressed,then realise I am true. I can write on for pages about my beauty Karizma but no space. All ZMA owners know it i guess. Just last month, on the 25th I turned 18 and now I hav my LLR which I got on my birthday and waiting for my license. I had done 8000 kilometres on my bike and it still revvs and looks like a brand new one. Now I am doing my B.Tech in automobile engg in SRM University 1st year.

Answer to your questions : -

• I currently own a Karizma R with red alloys.
• I bought it in may 2008.
• Small aged passion for its design and styling and performence.
• I hav done 8000+ kms on it and daily around 7-15kms average.
• I like its style and ride posture and high speed crusie.
• For me no cons on my bike, because from the very day i bought it, I started liking it day and day.
• I wont trade and ride untill last drop of petrol on this planet.
• I drove from my city Salem to Bangalore which is 220+ kms.
• The fastest on the speedo against wind is 133kmph, along wind side is 142kmph.
• It gives an average of 33-35kmpl but highway cruising at 100kmph it gave 42kmpl.
• A major accident to my bike while doing christ stunt. I almost spent Rs. 10,000/- beside insurance claim.
• I want my bike to be natural. In future I want to install only an ABS to my front disc.
• Its everything special, its my priceless possesion, its my betterhalf.
• My dream bike is the Karizma and after buying it, I added another choice of the famous Hayabusa GSX1300R.
• Motorbeam is best Indian biking portal i have ever seen, thanks to its admin. Continue your good work. My request is that make the site still more vivid with many graphics and advertise your site on TV.

As part of the celebrations, HH will soon be offering goodies on the low end models and launch the much anticipated bigger Karizma. Hero Honda completed 25 years of operation In India and as part of the celebrations, they will soon be offering goodies on the low end models. This will include offers like free electric start for the 100cc bikes.

We are also told that an upgraded Karizma is ready with a slight hike in engine capacity and fuel injection. But Hero Honda wont be launching this soon. Sources say that they are waiting for Honda to come out with their superbikes (Fireblade, CBR) and only then will HH go ahead and launch the new Karizma.

“In our silver jubilee year, we aim to clock the highest sales in our history. We have pushed up our production and are aiming retail sales of 6-lakh units, which is much higher than our sales in October 2006, when we had sold around 5-lakh units. We expect our October sales to be the highest ever.” says Hero Honda managing director Pawan Munjal.

In the meantime, a new CBZ Xtreme is also lined up for launch with a new paint scheme and Hero Honda plan to launch 7 new models this festive season to achieve their sales target of 6-lakh units.