Honda CB Hornet 200R Launch Date Revealed

What will it look like? How much could it cost? Here's what we think

[UPDATE: Honda India has launched the Hornet 2.0, a 184cc motorcycle that replaces the CB Hornet 160R. Head here for more details regarding the bike.]

There's been a lot of you asking about the Honda CB Hornet 160R (or the lack of it) recently, and we finally have some news to bring you. There's good news and there's bad news. The bad news is that Honda will not launch a CB Hornet 160R BS6; that model seems to have reached the end of the line. The good news is that it will instead launch a CB Hornet 200R!

The Japanese brand has asked us to keep ourselves free on the 27th of August, and that's when we expect this exciting new model to officially break cover. With Honda already fielding two candidates in the 160cc segment in the form of the Unicorn and the XBlade, and with the latter having become quite expensive in BS6 form, a third 160cc bike from the manufacturer just wouldn't make sense. So Honda has instead chosen to focus its energies on the reasonably lucrative 200cc segment where it currently doesn't have any offering.

So, what could the new bike be like? Well, Honda has filed patents in India for the rather sharp looking CBF190R, and we expect the Hornet 200R to be based on this bike. It's quite likely that its engine could be derived from the CBF's 186cc unit, and Honda would do well to carry over some of the styling as well. Pricing usually isn't Big Red's strong suit, but we hope that they can place the Hornet 200R somewhere in the Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 1.4 lakh range. This would give it a fighting chance against the likes of the TVS Apache RTR 200 4V and Bajaj Pulsar NS200. There's only a handful of days to go now, so stay tuned for more updates!

Representative images used