Triumph Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X are the first bikes from the Triumph-Bajaj collaboration
It was nearly six years ago, in August 2017, when iconic British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph tied up with Indian two-wheeler giant Bajaj to build small to mid-capacity motorcycles for emerging markets. Today, the first two products of this joint venture - the Triumph Speed 400 and the Triumph Scrambler 400X have launched in India.
The Speed 400, a street naked motorcycle that takes styling inspiration from the bigger Street Twin 900, has been priced at an extremely competitive price of Rs 2.33 lakh. The first 10,000 customers will however get the bike at 2.23 lakhs (ex-showroom).
The pricing for Scrambler 400X - which takes styling cues from the bigger Scrambler 900 and 1200 - will be announced at a later date. It will go on sale in October.
The Triumph Scrambler 400X looks like a scaled down Scrambler 1200
The motorcycles, designed by Triumph, will be built by Bajaj at their Chakan plant near Pune. And they might just be the most significant motorcycles for the over 100-year-old manufacturer, considering they are meant to bring in, relatively, huge numbers - just like how KTM's partnership with Bajaj and their single cylinder 'Made-In-India' line-up propelled them high up on the sales charts.
Triumph, which only has a handful of showrooms across India, plans to expand to 80 showrooms by the end of the year to handle the anticipated demand from the 400 motorcycles.
Both these Triumph motorcycles are built around a 398 cc, four valve, liquid cooled, dual overhead camshaft (DOHC) single-cylinder engine that puts out 40 PS of peak power at 8,000 RPM and 37.5 NM of peak torque at 6,500 RPM. The engine is paired with a six-speed gearbox. The fuel economy claimed by Triumph is 80 miles per gallon or about 28 kilometres per litre.
These are the first single cylinder Triumph bikes to be made by Bajaj
Both the bikes have been built keeping in mind beginner to intermediate riders, and have friendly ergonomics, like a low seat height and low weight.
The street bike, Street 400, comes with 17 inch alloy wheels at both ends, with a 110/70 section front tyre and 150/70 rear. The seat height is an accessible 790 mm while the ready-to-ride weight is just 176 kg.
The Scrambler on the other hand is slightly beefier and rides on a 19-inch rim at the front. At 150 mm at the front, it also has a little more suspension travel than the street bike and the seat height - keeping in line with most scrambler-style motorcycles - is slightly higher too, at 835 mm. It weighs 185 kg, nine heavier than the street bike.
The Triumph bikes will have 25 official accessories
With these two motorcycles, Triumph would be aiming at a slice of the Royal Enfield's sales figures in India. The Royal Enfield 350 cc motorcycles are the highest selling mid-capacity bikes in the country, and by a fair margin.
The baby Triumphs will also face stiff competition from the Harley Davidson X440 that was launched just yesterday, the KTM 390 series (Duke and Adventure), the BMW G310 and the G310GS and the upcoming Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, built on a completely new platform.