2021 HONDA CB500X

Friendly fun! The newest Honda takes riding back to the simple days of munching miles

- AREEB SHERWANI

Type 471cc, 2-cylinder petrol

OD Rating

Max torque 43.2Nm@6,500rpm

Fuel tank 17.7 litres

Price ₹8.02 lakh, on-road, Mumbai

Kerb Weight 199kg

Seat height 830mm

Max power 47.5PS@8,500rpm

+ Simple design and ease of use

- Lacks features that one expects at this price

There was a time when riding long distance on a motorcycle meant facing an endless barrage of oncoming traffic on single carriageways. 18PS used to imply a fast motorcycle, every overtake meant holding your breath and a roadways bus was a formidable adversary. But better highways over the past decade has meant that touring on a motorcycle is now relatively safer and I would stick my neck out and surmise that more people are taking to it as a hobby. However, highways connect you to cities, not remote places of beauty. To go there you have to conquer all sorts of terrain and that is why adventure tourers work splendidly well. They are great on the highway and can feel equally at home when facing rough terrain.

In that context, the CB500X is an important motorcycle for Honda. It is meant to fill the gap between small capacity adventure motorcycles like the KTM 390 Adventure and larger capacity motorcycles like the Kawasaki Versys 650 or the Suzuki Vstrom 650, not only in terms of capacity but also in terms of price. So has it managed to do that? Well there is, both, good news and bad. The good news is that it finds a great middle-ground in terms of capacity. However, in terms of price, it comes eerily close to the upper end of the spectrum. I will come to that later but first, let’s see what promise the motorcycle holds.