Twin-cylinder Suzuki Gixxer 250 Incoming

It is an exciting one no doubt, but the question is… can we expect to see it in India anytime soon?

Words: Priyadarshan Bawikar

Representative Image

For the last couple of years, the Haojue HJ300, also known as the Suzuki GSX-S300, has really caught our fancy. It’s the perfect “next platform” that Suzuki could bring to India for those who want to graduate from the company’s single-cylinder offerings onto something more powerful, but not intimidatingly so. But so far the HJ300 has been limited to the Chinese market. That, it seems, is about to change now…

Recently, a leaked patent image by a Japanese blogger has revealed a new twin-cylinder offering from the Hamamatsu based bike maker. Clearly visible in the patent image are twin header pipes emanating from the fairly small sized liquid-cooled motor. This leads us to believe that this indeed could be a 250cc parallel-twin based on the same 300cc engine that Suzuki makes on the HJ300. The chunky double-barrel exhaust from the drawings is also standard Suzuki small-bike fare, as seems to be the alloy wheel design.

The drawings also point to a chunky upside-down fork at the front, which assures us that this is going to be a premium offering by Suzuki in the quarter-litre space. At the rear, you can observe a standard (non-linked) monoshock. The rest of the underpinnings aren’t too visible, but the bike seems to run a similar diamond-type frame to the one from the HJ300. That said, the HJ300 runs a chunky cast aluminium swingarm, while the skinny box-section unit seen in this drawing doesn’t look very reassuring. But then again, it could just be a representative drawing in this patent application.

Also Read: Haojue DR300 (Suzuki GSX-S300) vs Honda CB300R: Spec Comparison

Overall, the chunky design does look suspiciously like the HJ300, especially the fuel tank area, although the tank extensions in the drawing seem smaller than those on the Haojue bike. The tail section on the other hand looks rather stubby - something we haven’t seen on a Suzuki motorcycle of late. 

Based on everything we can observe, it’s likely that this drawing is of an Asia-specific naked twin from Suzuki, slated for sometime in 2021. And from the looks of it, there’s a good chance that it borrows a lot from the HJ300. In fact, we believe that in all likelihood, this will be manufactured in the same Haojue/Suzuki plant in Guangdong, China. If it is built there, then it’s unlikely that Suzuki would bring it to India - their CKD plans for the country start from 650cc currently. But we do believe that there is a non-zero chance that India might end up becoming the production hub for a motorcycle like this, which would be great news for all us bikers here for sure.