Aprilia Terra 250 Adventure: Bikes We’d Like To See In India

The quarter-litre adventure tourer was spotted in China

Aprilia’s been teasing us with the RS 150 and the Tuono 150 for almost a year now, but things haven’t turned out the way we would have liked it to be. Now, spy pictures of a quarter-litre adventure tourer from Aprilia have surfaced from one of the company’s China plants. It's supposedly the same facility that manufactures the GPR 150 (APR 150-V) in collaboration with a Foshan company called Zongshen. And here’s why we’d like to see the Terra 250 in India.

Why and wherefore:

The sub-400cc space has witnessed some serious growth in the past couple of years, with various genres on offer. This includes ADVs, supersports, streetfighters and cruisers. Indian enthusiasts lately have had a taste of adventure touring and it seems to be picking up. What adds to the story here is Aprilia's intentions of moving away from the 150cc segment and competing in the 250-300cc space. So, IF Aprilia were to enter the adventure touring segment in India, it would most likely be in the 300cc segment.

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What’s in it for us?

India currently doesn’t have an affordable sub-300cc adventure tourer -- and the Aprilia Terra with a 300cc engine could fill this space perfectly well. It may share the same engine as the CFMoto 300NK. In its current state of tune, the bike produces 28PS at 8800rpm and 25Nm at 7200rpm from its 292cc single-cylinder DOHC liquid-cooled motor. However, since Aprilia's known for being a performance-oriented brand with a rich racing heritage, we expect the Terra 250 to be tuned differently with more oomph and better bottom end grunt.

A proper off-roader?

The Terra 250, from the looks of it, has all the kit necessary to tackle both touring and trails. This includes a split cradle frame, a long-travel telescopic fork, rear monoshock, spoke wheels (18-inch up front and 17-inch unit at the rear) wrapped in knobby tyres. 

A box-section swingarm should keep costs in check. Its braking setup includes discs at both ends, but it remains to be seen whether it has ABS. If the bike comes to India, expect to see single-channel or dual-channel ABS as standard. The Terra 250 that was spotted in China is reported to be a standard version, but we believe there may be an even more hardcore version with longer-travel suspension and a larger 21-inch front spoke wheels.

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Problem area:

Problem is, Aprilia already offers a smaller Terra 150 in China. However, it isn't very popular due to its high asking price. If Aprilia were to bring the Terra 300 to India, it would have to get the pricing right. We believe around Rs 2 lakh for the standard version and Rs 2.3 lakh (both ex-showroom) for the Adventure variant would hit the nail on the mark. Its closest rival would be the Royal Enfield Himalayan BS6.