Bajaj Avenger 220 to get a major facelift; Launch in January 2018

Bajaj Auto will soon facelift the only cruiser in its motorcycle range – the Avenger. The facelifted Avenger 220 will be launched in January 2018. Bajaj Auto is one among many automakers who have decided to skip the 2018 Auto Expo – a biennial car and motorcycle exhibition held at Greater Noida.

What this means is, the Avenger 220 will be launched just before the Auto Expo, sometime in January 2018. Both the Street and Cruise variants of the Avenger 220 will receive a facelift. The bike maker was recently seen testing the facelifted Avengers on Pune streets.

Test mules that were spotted have shown that the bike will get a range of updates, many of them significant upgrades. For example, the instrument clusters on the handlebar and the fuel tank will now go fully digital. The Cruise variant also gets a larger windshield and split seats.

The engine is expected to be the tried and tested 220cc four stroke unit that is air and oil cooled. This engine produces 19.03 PS of peak power at 8,400 rpm, and 17.5 Nm of peak torque at 7,000 rpm. The gearbox is a 5 speed unit. The current Avenger uses telescopic front forks and gas charged twin rear shock absorbers.

The facelifted model is expected to continue with this suspension layout. Braking on the current bike is handled by a disc brake on the front wheel and a drum brake on the rear wheel. The facelifted version is expected to get a single channel ABS unit, making braking much more sure-footed.

It is not clear if these changes will be made to the 150cc Avenger as well. Bajaj is also said to be working on a bigger engined Avenger which could use the 373cc, liquid cooled four stroke engine from the Dominar. The bigger engined Avenger will challenge the the Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500, but could be priced much lower.

Via Bikewale