Rise & Shine

Honda's Splendor challenger is ten years too late, but can it get the job done?

- SHIVANK BHATT

What you see here is the brand-new Honda Shine – Honda’s first 100cc motorcycle in the country. Well, believe it or not, this is the company’s first-ever 100cc ‘basic’ commuter ever since it parted ways with its ex-partner, Hero MotoCorp, nearly a decade ago. A bit of a surprise, isn’t it? The Splendor had been the cash cow of the now-defunct Hero Honda brand for decades. And while Hero took the Splendor brand name with it and continued to mint money, Honda did, erm…well, nothing in the segment. Now, you might think that Honda was sleeping all this time, but that’s far from the truth. According to the company, they expected the 100cc customers to gradually move to the 125cc segment in the last ten years. But that didn’t happen – commuter or 100-110cc motorcycles still account for an impressive 33% of the overall sales in the 2W motorcycle category at the moment. Sure, Honda has 110cc offerings on the market – the CD110 Dream and Livo – but they hardly matter. Why? Well, because 110cc products only contribute around 15% to the overall 100110cc commuter motorcycle sales. The 100cc basic commuter, or the Splendor, still rules the roost in the entry-level segment. So, Honda could no longer afford to ignore this segment, and that’s precisely why the Shine 100 is here.

ANOTHER BRICK…