Hero MotoCorp has launched Rally Edition with factory fitted Rally Kit on Xuplse 200 4V
After the Impulse, Hero returned to the genre with XPulse 200 which was a sequel to the company’s adventure-tourer saga. It was designed as an off-roader first and then given some touring capabilities. Hence, it was not a fast cruiser. This was worked on in the BS6 model and bettered even further with the launch of XPulse 200 4V.
Hero MotoCorp has unveiled the Rally Edition at an event recently. In the past, Hero tried to give a taste of a proper rally bike on its XPulse adventure tourer in the form of a Rally Kit for Rs. 38,000. It had fully-adjustable front and rear suspension with longer travel, 5mm more ground clearance, hence a longer stand, handle-bar risers, rally-spec seat and rally-spec Maxxis knobby tyres.
2022 Hero XPulse Rally Edition
Front suspension had 30-click compression settings and 30-click rebound settings. The front suspension can now travel up to 250mm which is 60mm more than stock. The rear suspension gets adjustability in terms of rebound and preload and can travel 220mm which is 50mm more than stock.
For reference, its closest rival Royal Enfield Himalayan gets 200mm suspension travel at front and 180mm at the rear. The new Rally kit, however, adds preload adjustability with cartridge-style forks at front and takes the ground clearance to a whopping 275mm.
Rally Edition which is expected to launch soon is believed to get further upgrades, but straight out of the factory. For starters, Rally Edition will be a slightly larger motorcycle than the XPulse 200 4V with a rally kit. Rally Edition will get a longer wheelbase of 1427mm which is 17mm longer than the stock bike and 8mm longer than XPulse 200 with Rally Kit. With a long wheelbase, we also get 33mm greater overall length and 62mm greater overall height than stock XPulse 200 4V.
In terms of design, Rally Edition gets a slightly reworked fuel tank with red and gold accents which make the bike look more handsome. Another notable aspect is that Rally Edition doesn’t get the rally-spec seat offered with Rally Kit. Hero XPulse 200 Rally Edition is expected to be a lot more capable than the stock bike and also its main competitor Himalayan.
New Rally Kit & Price
The new Rally Kit that will be sold is an upgrade over the old kit. It gets better components seeking out more capability. This new Rally Kit is for all existing XPulse 200 owners and for those who want to buy the stock bike now and maybe upgrade it later as they start to crave more off-road ability. While Rally Edition will be kitted out right from the factory.
New Rally Kit is priced at Rs. 46,000. XPulse 200 4V is priced at Rs. 1,35,978 (ex-sh, Delhi) and will cost around Rs. 1.82 lakh (ex-sh) for the stock bike along with this kit. We expect Rally Edition to be priced around Rs. 1.55 lakh to 1.65 lakh (ex-sh).
With Rally Kit, customers have to buy these upgraded components on top of stock components that came with the stock bike. Hence the added cost whereas with a Rally Edition, Hero will “replace” the stock parts with upgraded rally-spec parts right from the factory.
Hero MotoCorp will launch both Rally Kit and XPulse 200 Rally Edition very soon. When launched, it will compete with Royal Enfield Himalayan and Yezdi Adventure. In terms of pricing, it will compete with a lot of other motorcycles including pseudo-adventure-tourers like Honda CB200X.
