The BS6 Honda X-Blade has a starting price which is more than Rs 17,000 over the BS4-spec X-Blade and Honda hasn’t thrown in considerable upgrades for that kind of a premium either.
After launching the BS6 Livo earlier this month, Honda has now dropped their next BS6 motorcycle in India. Honda today launched the BS6 X-Balde, with its price starting from Rs 1,06,687 (ex-showroom Delhi). This is only the base trim with a front disc/rear drum brake setup and Honda is also offering the BS6 X-Blade with a new rear disc brake variant which has been priced at Rs Rs 1,10,968. With the BS6 update, prices for the X-Blade has however gone up by a massive Rs 17,551 over the outgoing BS4 model.
The steep hike in price is not compensated by an expansive set of updates either. There are not many new features either. The X-Blade already had features like LED headlamps and digital instrumentation with its BS4 model and that has been carried on unchanged. Honda offers four color options on the BS6 X-Blade – red, black, grey and blue. The previous green color option has been discontinued on the BS6 motorcycle. The only new addition here on the BS6 motorcycle is that of an engine kill switch.
The BS6 X-Blade continues to be powered bythe same 162.71cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine that also does duty on the BS6 Unicorn. The BS4-spec motor was however quite gruff and not so refined. Honda has obviously thrown in a fuel-injection system and a counterbalancer and hopefully that will make the engine smoother. On the X-Blade, the engine puts out 13.86PS and 14.7Nm of torque. The X-Blade has a sportier engine tune than that of the BS6 Unicorn and the engine also produces 0.94PS and 0.7Nm more than the Unicorn.
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Comparing with the BS4-spec X-Blade, the engine now produces 0.26PS less power but crucially produces 0.8Nm more. Other mechanical components on the motorcycle also remain unchanged. The diamond frame is suspended by telescopic forks at the front and a monoshock at the rear. There are 17-inch alloys at both ends shod with bias-ply tyres. For braking, there’s a 276mm rotor with a twin-piston caliper at the front and you either get a 130mm drum or a 220mm disc brake option at the rear.
Also Read : Honda BS6 Livo Launched in India – Price and Details!
The kerb weight of the motorcycle has also gone up by a kilo. The base rear drum brake variant weighs 143kg while the twin-disc variant weighs 144kg. Honda hasn’t thrown in enough updates on the BS6 X-Blade to justifty such a steep hike in price of more than Rs 17,000 and its bit of a let down. Although the X-Blade is a stylish looking motorcycle, the recently launched Hero Xtreme 160R manages to undercut the price of the X-Blade by Rs 3,200.
