The Hindu Business Line : With lots more charisma

Hero Honda had a decent debut with the Karizma, when the stylish performance bike was launched in 2003. It was clearly an expensive bike for most two-wheeler buyers, but the Karizma quickly went on to become a style icon with loads of aspirational value.

But a few months down the line, as the sales of the Karizma did not pick up to the desired levels, Hero Honda re-priced the bike to make it more affordable. That did improve the demand for the Karizma, and the increasing popularity of hunky Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, who has been the bike's brand ambassador, helped boost its sales in the interim.

However, Karizma sales have been stagnating and that was due in part to the prevailing image of Hero Honda being more of a 100cc bike-maker than a manufacturer of performance bikes. For a company that is the market leader overall, its image issue shows up, ranking fourth amongst the country's bike makers that have a presence in the 125cc to 250cc bike category.

Though the Karizma still has a strong fan following and good brand recall, the design had become a bit too staid and a visit to the design shop seemed long overdue.

So, to invigorate the Karizma's image and take on the competition from the new 200cc Bajaj Pulsar, Hero Honda has launched a new, snazzier, refreshed version of this 223cc bike.

The Karizma, in its new avatar, comes with swashbuckling new looks and international styling cues found often in high performance street bikes.

Some of the most striking features of the new Karizma include:

An attractive new logo, which represents the bike's cutting edge imagery of being racy.

International styling graphics with a pronounced `R' on the tank and an asymmetrical one on the visor in keeping with the latest international trend.

New sporty under-cowl, which makes the bike look more powerful and mean.

Night vision feature in the digital console, which illuminates the console to a bright neon yellow and makes the speedometer stand out in the dark, forming a stunning contrast.

Matt-axis grey coat for the engine, which makes it look very rugged.

A special edition version, which has a set of racy-red mag wheels, makes it one of the most attractive bikes on Indian roads.

The other notable features in the bike are the red-coloured springs in rear suspensions, stylish fender with new graphics, alloy wheels and front disc brakes as a standard fitment, powerful multi-reflector headlight with two pilot lamps for that added beam, an integrated clear-lens lamp tail light for better visibility at the rear. The special edition is also offered with a dual-tone finish for the exhaust pipe.

Overall, though cosmetic, the changes to the Karizma will have managed to dramatically improve its image amongst young bike buyers who constitute the target segment.

The Karizma will continue to have the same 223cc, four-stroke, single cylinder, air-cooled engine that generates a peak power of 17PS at 7,000rpm. The progressive feel, multi-plate wet-type clutch and the smooth five-speed gearbox are again the same as in the previous version.

The new Karizma will also continue to be priced at almost the same level as the previous version, with on-road prices for the regular variant working out to Rs 79,000-80,000. The special edition variant with red mag-wheels will be costlier by about Rs 1,000.