India’s ABANDONED superbikes: Konica MinoltaHonda CBR 600RR & more
India is neck-deep with automotive enthusiasts, more so towards the biking side of things. India is also the world’s largest two-wheeler market, however, the reason could be poor road infrastructure along with the majority of the people lying in low-income groups. The market of performance bikes is still saturated and is only serving customers with deep pockets. This is due to the high tax slabs on imported vehicles. Any enthusiast feels more than content to even get a glimpse of such superbikes on public roads and poorly maintained superbikes can depress you to the same extent. Read on to find out about such high-end performance bikes which are left to rot away.
The bikes that you see in the picture above have been spotted at Andheri Police Station, Mumbai. This picture clicked by Sidhartha M made waves amongst a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts. As you can see in the picture, the bikes include a Honda CBR 1000RR Fireblade, Honda CBR 600RR and a Yamaha FZ-1. It is sad to see that a bike like Honda CBR 600RR, which is not legally sold in India is lying abandoned in this place. There are four of them that can be seen in the picture and who knows how many more are lying across the country.
Moving ahead, in the same police station garage, we could also spot a Honda Repsol official. It has the same paint scheme as Honda Repsol MotoGP and is a head-turner. It’s extremely popular amongst Honda CBR600 to get the replica stickers as in Honda Repsol MotoGP. Those people’s heart will ache to see the condition of this powerful bike, just lying here.
Our eyes catch another rare paint job on a bike in the same parking lot. This is the official Konica Minolta edition of the Honda CBR600RR. This is an extremely rare product and an even more rare paint job. Most of the buyers of Konica Minolta prefer the standard colour options available in this bike. Along with this beauty, we can spot a naked Yamaha FZ-1, which is extremely damaged. From the look of it, it seems like this bike came in due to an accidental damage case and the headlamp has melted away due to extreme fire or heat from another vehicle. However, this damage could be repaired easily.
Mid-segment imported bikes
The majority of these bikes are mid-segment. International manufacturers offer their flagship litre-class product in the Indian market and get customers as well. However, due to the restrictions of the customs and government, selling CBU motorcycle of up to 600cc is a difficult job. The reason behind such heavy taxes and laws against importing motorcycles was to promote Indian manufacturers and allow them to develop new motorcycles to sell in the market. However, the market remains dominant with entry-level motorcycles and commuter bike. Even though manufacturers like Royal Enfield has launched 650cc motorcycles, other manufacturers like Bajaj and Hero are yet to catch up.
In the present-day scenario, the law has allowed manufacturers to sell 800cc and above CBU imports in India. International manufacturers have set up assembly lines in India to import CKD versions of their high-performance bikes. Now we have options like Kawasaki ER6n, Kawasaki Ninja 650F, Honda CBR 650 and the Triumph Daytona 675 more. None of the manufacturers can legally sell bikes like the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R or the Honda CBR600RR in the Indian market, which are powered by less than 600cc engines.
This unavailability of performance bikes leads enthusiasts to take illegal routes to procure their dream bikes. They try to illegally import bikes and evade the tax liabilities. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has been extremely active in finding people who have done or supported these irregularities. These bikes are thereafter seized by the DRI and the owners are liable to pay even more if they want to get it back. The fine and the taxes precede the actual cost of the bike and as a result, most of the owners don’t even get their bikes back. We aren’t sure if any of the bikes in the above picture falls under this segment.
