MOTORCYCLE REVOLUTIONS

My 3rd column in Business Standard Weekend.

“Those were the days my friend… we thought they would never end… “ crooned Mary Hopkins  way back in 1968. In those days smart young men had just graduated from big 4-stroke bikes that used to be imported like those of BSA, Triumph, Norton, BMW and even the American monsters like Harley Davidson and Indian Chief to little Lambaretta and Vespa scooters. The Lamby faded out and the Vespa evolved into the Bajaj that quickly became the mainstay for almost every Government babu. With the lumbering Ambassador and Fiat cars It ruled the Indian roads throughout the 70’s while the Rajdoot and Jawa motorcycles as well as the old Royal Enfield motorcycles trailed far behind. I began my motoring on a curious American 300 CC Allstate scooter and later graduated to a 500cc 4-stroke Jawa that I rescued from a junk heap.

In 1970 I joined Escorts Limited that used to make the 175 cc Rajdoot. By this time small Japanese bikes had revolutionized the global roads but none of the Japanese manufacturers were willing to part with their technologies. In 1977 Escorts persuaded Yamaha to sell their technology for the 2-stroke 350 cc Yamaha RD 350 motorcycle because they were phasing it out. The twin cylinder bike was one of the world’s fastest road bikes but way ahead of its time and was not a success even though it taught Escorts a great deal about Japanese engineering and systems. Escorts also discovered that to make this bike they had to also enter further technical collaborations with eight other Japanese companies for the manufacture of carburetors, clutch assemblies and even the spokes for the wheels.

2-stroke and 4-stroke

Conventional wisdom at the time had it that the 4-stroke technology was best for engines above 200 cc and that smaller bikes should use 2-stroke engines. In 1980 the Government decided to allow 100 cc motorcycles and issued licenses to four bike makers. Suzuki was first off the mark in collaboration with Kinetic Engineering in 1983. It did very well until Honda collaborated with a cycle maker Hero to introduce the 4-stroke 100 cc CD100 the following year. Critics claimed that it was too complicated for India’s after sales service but its extraordinary fuel efficiency, captured in their memorable slogan… “Fill it, Shut it, Forget it”, made it an instant hit.

The Yamaha RX100 next entered the market in 1985. Though 2-stroke it belted out a huge 11 bhp as compared to the 7.5 bhp of the Honda CD100. It got off to a slow start with its higher fuel consumption but gradually became the preferred bike for youngsters who wanted its phenomenal speed and performance. A year later Bajaj introduced Kawasaki’s KB100 that was not a great success because Honda had captured the space of buyers who wanted economy and Yamaha had the market among those who wanted performance.  

Hero Honda’s CD100 and successor bike models not only offered outstanding fuel efficiency with very adequate performance but soon proved to be very reliable as well. After that all 2-stroke engines came under a cloud with concerns about pollution and had to be phased out. Hero Honda therefore flourished despite growing competition from home grown 4-stroke bikes made by TVS and Bajaj and from Yamaha who were now an independent foreign company in India.

Bajaj parted company with their collaborator Piaggio who owned the Vespa brand and Piaggio formed a new collaboration with LML to continue with the making of their famous product. They both did well for a few years until they began to lose ground before the onslaught of so many good 100 cc motorcycles and both companies suddenly stopped scooter production. After Kinetic Suzuki tied up with TVS while Kinetic tied up with Mahindra & Mahindra after trying to battle it alone for several years. It was very difficult for small companies to survive in intensely competitive markets.

With a loosening of Government controls foreign companies were allowed to build or import their models. Suzuki motorcycles as a 100% foreign company then began to fill the gap making a range of scooters and were followed by scooters from Honda who had separated from Hero in 2011. The excellent scooters from this new company made them great hits and scooters began to revive and make inroads into the huge motorcycle market. Today scooters are growing fast and account for nearly 30% of India’s 2-wheeler sales. India is the world’s largest 2-wheeler market today after China with an annual sale of over 19 million units.  

Bigger bikes

All the bike and scooter companies broke out of the 100 cc restrictions of the past and bigger bikes and scooters began to be offered to Indian buyers. In the world of 2-wheelers the huge volume of small machines are mostly commuting vehicles in warm countries like India, China, South-East Asia and southern Europe. Big bikes, that often cost as much as a car, are mostly `boys toys’ for the rich and sporty of cooler climes. India had long been a market for commuting bikes and few Indian customers were interested in big machines. When the BMW 650 CC Funduro was launched in the late 90’s it had great difficulty selling 80 machines but there several sporty buyers today who are going for big bikes imported by Harley Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki and Triumph despite the heavy customs duties they have to pay. There is nothing like a road of a big bike to stir the adrenalin and to catch the attention of all the pretty girls.

Almost forgotten in this hectic scramble was India’s first and most iconic motorcycle the Royal Enfield that began life as a World War II messenger machine. Madras Motors went into a collaboration with Enfield Cysles to make it in 1955 and production began a few years later. It was a rather sluggish 18 bhp 350 cc 4-stroke machine with a classic personality and distinctive `dhug… dhug… dhug” exhaust note. Its quality used to be questionable and many riders getting oil on their boots used to call it the `royal oilfield’. Sales used to be sluggish till 1990 when Eicher Motors took control of the company. Eicher retained the classic styling of the RE but completely revolutionized the production technology to quickly make it a very popular and sought after product that is offered with 500 bhp engines as well. It is available in eight models that include a low slung cruiser and has a long waiting list despite impressive sales growth.

BOX

Brijmohan Lall Munjal who died recently at the age of 92 was without doubt the doyen of India’s motorcycle industry. His company Hero Cycles made cycle parts and then cycles from 1954. He was impressively tall and his warm and genial personality must have charmed the heads of Honda Motor company who entered a joint venture to make the Hero Majestic moped that was followed by the Honda motorcycle in 1984. Honda and Hero were a very good partnership in which the products, manufacturing systems and marketing were guided according to Honda systems. Though the two companies parted ways in August 2011, the new company Hero MotoCorp continued the production and marketing disciplines to continue with impressive innovations and growth.