TVS expands beyond Indian borders. Plans to set up manufacturing facility in Uganda

AMPALA: TVS Motor Company today said it plans to set up manufacturing footprint in Uganda, besides launching two new motorcycle models in the African nation, as the company aims to have 25 per cent market share in the country.

In keeping with its commitment to serve Ugandan customers, the company plans to set up an assembly line in that country, TVS Motor Company said in a statement.

"The company will also launch two new motorcycles models for Uganda. These motorcycles will be specific to the Ugandan markets in terms of usability and durability," it added.

Commenting on the development, TVS Motor Company President and CEO, KN Radhakrishnan, said the company has reaffirmed its commitment to the Ugandan customer with the opening of its distributor Yuvaraj International Uganda Ltd.

Most common and stupid modifications on bikes.

Modifications, or as we commonly call them 'mods', are expected to be done in order to get some increase in our bikes' performance or even looks but what if they do more harm than benefit? Are they justified? Are they worth their ill-effects or cost?
Here we mention a few very common but worthless modifications done on bikes these days.

Helmet with Augmented Reality vision like Iron Man.

GPS & naigation for motorcycle riders has always been a terrible mix. Turn by turn directions leave riders distracted from the road which for a motorcycle rider can be far more costly than a car driver. However, a company in Russia is working to change all of that.

LiveMap, a startup based in Moscow, is developing a motorcycle helmet with a head-mounted display, built-in navigation, and Siri-like voice recognition. The helmet will have a translucent, color display that’s projected on the visor in the center of the field of vision, and a custom user interface, English language-only at launch, based on Android.

How to change engine oil of a motorcycle.

The instructions are given in the pictures itself quite briefly and precisely, so you don't really need to read text separately.

Note: The illustration in this article is done on TVS Apache RTR180, though it can be generalized for almost all motorcycles in Indian market and most of the motorcycles in the world.

Things you'll need:

Kawasaki Ninja 300 launched at INR 3.50 lakh.

NEW DELHI: Bajaj Auto today said it hopes to sell around 2,000 units of the premium sports bike from the Kawasaki Ninja platform launched today, which is priced at Rs 3.5 lakh.

The new 'Ninja 300' is the fourth of the Kawasaki Ninja range of products launched in the country and the company said it will phase out the Ninja 250R model soon.

"We have sold 3,500 Ninja family bikes (250R and 650R models) since the first launch in 2009. We are planning to sell 1500-2,000 units of the Ninja 300 by the end of the fiscal," Bajaj managing director Rajiv Bajaj told reporters at the much-awaited launch here.

Honda CB Trigger unveiled.

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Ltd. (HMSI) has unveiled the CB Trigger, a naked streetbike and sequel to the Dazzler. The new CB Trigger takes some styling cues from the full size CB1000R, and is a naked 150cc streetbike, purpose built to thrill the Indian market. The CB Trigger will sell alongside Honda's popular 150cc Unicorn in the competitive 150cc market space.

The CB Trigger is a street focused motorcycle which bears resemblance to the Yamaha FZ series of 150cc bikes. The CB Trigger headlamp sits encased within a sharp bikini-fairing. The CB Trigger comes with a chunky, well sculpted fuel tank, with twin pseudo intakes set below. It provides an amber backlit digital instruments bay that includes a speedometer, odometer, and cascading tachometer. The CB Trigger's LCD display reads out fuel-level, and offers the convenience of a digital clock. Only minimal body panels and decals adorn the zesty looking new motorcycle.  

TVS Wego gets disc brake.

TVS Wego will now come with an option of a disc brake at front, keeping the standard non-disc variant still in place. TVS Motors was already producing the disc variant of Wego but to ship and sell it in other markets (read countries) but now India will also have it as an option for those who want the disc up front in their scoots as well.

Wego follows the suit and becomes the second scoot in the market to have telescopic shock abs and a disc brake up front as option, after Honda Aviator. This can be a start of a trend of offering these features as standard for all scoot manufacturers to keep up the competition.

The disc plate on Wego will be a 220mm one, and the rear will still sport the same 130mm drum brake as in standard variant. The disc variant can we seen in showrooms quite soon with a ex-showroom (Delhi) price tag of 49,157 INR, while the standard variant comes against 45,807 INR.