Hero’s Hunk is here

Giant Indian manufacturer Hero has arrived in the UK. BDN’s Alan Dowds asked Sanjay Bhan, Hero’s executive vice president, what his plans are.

These are certainly interesting times in the UK bike market. Serried ranks of two-wheeled brands from China and India are landing on our shores, bringing new names, new metal, and some new financial realities to an industry which doesn’t need to search for new troubles at the moment.

From a consumer point of view, there are strong opportunities: cheaper bikes, with big-brand components and comparable spec sheet figures are becoming more available, with only longevity, resale value and quality remaining as questions. The success of the £7k Voge DS800X Rally in October – it was the top-selling bike in both the adventure and 750-1000cc classes – shows that buyers are now more willing to take a chance on those questions. Which, of course, means opportunities for retailers too.

Now there’s another brand jostling for position: the Hero company from India. Industry veterans will remember the Honda Hero partnership in India, which built bikes there from 1984-2011 before Hero struck out on its own. It’s the biggest bike maker in India by volume, well ahead of better-known competitors like Royal Enfield, and is now looking to raise its profile outside its home market. The company’s been working on a UK launch, alongside a broader assault on European markets, for the past eight years, and it has chosen major distributor MotoGB as its British partner. The firms held a joint event at Oulton Park last month to showcase the first Hero bike to go on sale – the Hunk 440 – and to outline their approach to the UK market.

I spoke to Sanjay Bhan, executive vice president at Hero, and he told me about the firm’s plans for Britain. “The UK is an important market for us, which is why we took our time. We needed to ensure we had the right proposition.
The product, pricing, warranty, spare parts, everything that’s important for the trade.

What makes the UK such a major part of the plan? “We believe the UK is, in many ways, still seen as the most important market within Europe. It’s strategically very well placed as a gateway, and whatever happens in Europe is defined by what happens in the UK.”

And Bhan says there’s a lot more to come. “We’re not here to just participate. We are here to open up the market and to expand the industry.”

Does that mean a lot more bikes will be launched? “We are going to be continuously investing to create a line-up.
It’s a long-term project: we’ve got to make more bikes. There’s no way anybody’s going to push us out.”

Matt Kay, general manager at MotoGB, spoke to me about what Hero will do for the British firm. “I think it will bring in some new customers. Some of the bikes in Hero’s future range are bikes that we don’t have. We can see what they’ve got coming and we’re confident that it complements what we already do.”

And Kay praised the Indian operation for its extensive back-office support. “We’ve been working with Hero for two years now, and the majority of that work has been the aftersales side, looking after people once they’ve bought the bike. We’ve been setting up spare parts and warranties, getting our systems to talk to theirs, and sending staff over for training at Hero’s technical centre in Germany. They do a lot of R&D for the European bikes there, as well as technical work for Hero’s Dakar Rally bikes.”

Kay also confirmed that the first batch of Hunk 440 bikes had landed in the UK and were on the way to customers. And he said the first tranche of dealers are right behind the new marque. “They’re very excited about Hero. It surprised me how many of them were aware of the brand and understood its scale. I thought that would be something we’d need to get across to people, but it’s not. Everybody’s aware of it.”

Hunk 440

The Hunk 440 is the first new bike to land in the UK from Hero, and we had a quick spin on it around Oulton Park. Now, it’s clearly not a sportsbike, but the naked roadster still impressed on our short rideout. The engine feels strong for an entry-level A2-compliant machine, with the 440cc long-stroke air-cooled unit pulling well from down low. It makes 27bhp peak power and 36Nm of torque, which are decent figures for a bike weighing in at 188kg dry. Running gear is basic but efficient brand-name fare: ByBre disc brakes by Brembo and KYB suspension, it has a neat round colour LCD dash, and the design is slick enough, if perhaps a tad fussy in places. Fit and finish looks good – albeit on brand-new demo bikes – with an attractive ceramic-like coating on the engine catching the eye. We wonder how the exhaust sensor will fare in a British winter, though, stuck out in the breeze behind the front wheel.

At the launch, with an RRP of £3449, it looks like a very solid option and promises to give the other bikes in this sector a good run for their money.
MotoGB
01257 485222
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www.motogb.co.uk