Hero MotoCorp XPulse motorcycle concept revealed at EICMA; India-bound

Hero MotoCorp unveiled the XPulse on and off road bike concept at EICMA yesterday. This bike’s production version will be launched in India sometime in 2018. The concept will be shown at the 2018 Indian Auto Expo as well. Hero has not revealed anything about the technical details of the concept but there are a few things that we can make out by looking at the bike.

One thing is that it has long travel suspension at the front and the rear. The front suspension consists of telescopic front forks while the rear consists of a monoshock. This was the same layout that the Impulse 150 had. The wheels are on-off road units and the front seems much larger than the rear. The bike has a fair bit of ground clearance with the engine sitting quite high in the frame.

The engine is well protected by two items – a bash plate at the bottom and a crash guard at the top. The concept shows pannier boxes for luggage, a small fairing for wind deflection, an LED headlamp, knuckle guards, a twin seat and a high handlebar. A few of these features may be missing from the production version, and could instead be offered as accessories. It has disc brakes and ABS, both of which we’d like on the final version.

Talking about the engine, Though Hero is remaining silent about specifications, the grapevine is saying that it could be a 200cc single. The four stroke engine will be air cooled and may have 19 PS and 18 Nm. A five speed manual gearbox and fuel injection could be offered on this bike.

These specifications should be enough for easy cruising speeds of about 100 Kmph, and a top speed of around 120-125 Kmph. A lot of bikers in India were disappointed after Hero discontinued the Impulse. We hope that the XPulse quickly fills the void created by the Impulse’s demise.