Karizma XMR: WTF Hero

Back in 2005, I was in school, and not doing so hot. I had scored pretty good in my 10th exams, but as soon as I got into the 11th grade I lost all interest in studies. Partly this was because I found it all to be boring bullshit, but mostly it happened because I was in love.

In a misguided attempt at getting some of my motivation back, I made a brilliant proposal to my dad. The conversation went something like this.

Me: If I score good marks in my 11th finals, will you buy me a Karizma?

Dad, after a long pause: Son, this is your life. If you want to destroy it by not studying, that’s your choice, I am not going to try to change that future by bribing you.

I think about that often, how my dad’s decision changed me as a person. But the more important thing to note here is what a beauty the Karizma used to be.

A few months before my genius plan to get a Karizma, I got to ride it for the first time. A relative had bought it, and had come over to our place on a day trip. I of course took it for a spin, took it to a long and beautiful road near my home. No helmet, no gear, no experience, just pinned the throttle and went past 120.

That scared the shit out of me, literally. The biggest thing I’d ridden before the Karizma was my dad’s Bajaj Chetak, so naturally the power and acceleration of that thing blew my mind.

The girl I was in love with, who had no clue that I was in love with her, now also had no clue that she had to share my love with a motorcycle.

I’m sure I was not alone in loving the Karizma, there was nothing like it in the market, and that remained the case for a very long time. If you had a Karizma, you were the fucking bomb. It looked great, went like stink, and with all that was still a somewhat practical bike you could live with.

Some 18 years later, Hero has today launched the Karizma XMR, and that makes me sad.

With the original Karizma, Hero had such a huge advantage in the market. They basically were the entire “performance” motorcycle segment, and then they decided to fuck it all up. The Karizma has been killed and brought back to life more times than I’ve done to same to RiderZone, and that’s not a good look for either of us.

It is quite obvious why Hero has done this, they are and have been an enormously profitable business for decades on the back of small engine commuter motorcycles. They never had a reason to innovate, to build bigger and better engines. It is frankly insane that the Karizma existed at all, and I’m sure there must be some interesting stories about the development of that machine, but like all motorcycle companies, Hero does not care about motorcycles. They are a business, and profits are all that matter.

The argument can be made that Hero did try to innovate with the Impulse and the Xpulse, and I would agree to that position, except that I would argue that what Hero essentially did there was build a different bike around the same shitty single cylinder engines they’ve been fucking around with for years. I own an Xpulse, and the engine is its biggest weakness, it should be a crime to create such a capable bike only to give it the horsepower of an overweight hamster.

The Karizma XMR is such a mediocre product. It, like all the other variations of the Karizma, will be killed off in the future, only for the dead body to be dug up again, cleaned a bit, and presented to the public with some actor sitting on it, whose career is even more dead than the bike.

The bike is just a picture of average-ness, it looks meh, has nothing special to mention in terms of power, weight, or price, but lacks features like USD forks that even cheaper bikes come with. With all that, who’s gonna give a shit about it coming with a stupid adjustable windscreen?

The positioning of the bike within Hero’s own lineup is also weird. The Xtreme 200S already exists, even though you would be forgiven to forget that ugly little thing. By all accounts the 200S is a sales dud, why would a few extra horses change that situation?

Why couldn’t it be called something else, rather than destroying the legacy of the Karizma brand, again? Why couldn’t it be an actual good bike with a bigger engine and multiple cylinders if the Karizma brand had to be re-used at all cost? Why is it called the XMR, where is the YMR after the ZMR?

It is easy to make the comparison between Hero and Royal Enfield, RE for decades basically did the same shit, just keep rebadging old piss as new gold and let the people pay. Over the last few years they have completely changed their strategy, while Hero is still stuck in the 90s. I don’t think the comparison is valid however.

Royal Enfield had a cult following, they had every right to try and milk that cow until the tits caught fire. What does Hero have? What does the Karizma have for that matter? Do kids these days even know what the Karizma is? Do the oldies who remember the Karizma have any reason to waste their money on that sad hunk of plastic? Who is the XMR targeted at?

What surprises me is that on social media and even on Team-bhp, the XMR is being praised. I don’t get it, if Bajaj or TVS launched something this sad in today’s market, people would’ve dragged their dead body through the streets. I’m not saying Bajaj or TVS have made any world-beating engines, but at least they’ve made it to 300cc. I think people expect so little of Hero that this pathetic little half-assed product is worthy of high praise, I guess people are just happy it isn’t another version of the Splendor?

For some reason, Hero seems incapable of counting above 1. Royal Enfield built a twin cylinder, and that has been wildly successful. Hero, even after their partnership with Harley Davidson, a brand known for unnecessarily big twins, has failed to produce anything that isn’t a single.

The Karizma XMR is a sad, pathetic attempt at more profit, and it’s a failure of Hero’s leadership at getting their heads out of their asses to see where the future truly is. If we don’t push Hero, if we aren’t critical of their product choices, they will never change. Hero is one of the largest 2 wheeler manufacturers in the world, with 40 years of manufacturing experience. I am not asking them to start building 1000cc bikes, I am asking them to use the enormous profits from their 100cc machines, and invest into some actual fucking innovation for a change.

Hero can do better, we deserve better.