FB Mondial recently launched the HPS 300 Scrambler in India at a steep price tag of Rs 3.37 Lakhs, top 5 things you should know
FB Mondial is an Italy based motorcycle manufacturer who was well known in Europe for their performance oriented small displacement motorcycles back in the 1930s and ’40s era. They were quite active in the motorcycle market up until the year 1957 but later were forced to close the doors because of financial crisis.
The old Italian motorcycle brand was again revived in the year 2014 and they introduced two new motorcycles called the Hipster 125 and Hipster 250. The premium two-wheeler brand partnered with Motoroyale (owned by Kinetic) and set their foot in India this year. They have set their eyes on the quarter-litre motorcycle segment and introduced the HPS 300.
The HPS 300 is basically a Scrambler styled motorcycle which looks heavily inspired by old-school motorcycles. This brand and this particular motorcycle are quite new in the Indian market, but here are 5 things you should know about the FB Mondial 300 before actually planning to get your hands on one.
1. Scrambler Styling
The HPS 300 is basically a Scrambler which has a neo-retro styling to it. The front face gets halogen headlamps, while the tank in particular too looks retro and gets an extended shroud which covers the top portion of the radiator grille which makes the front look heavy and stylish. The long handlebar gets leather wrapped grips while the round offset instrument cluster provides all the important information like speedometer, tachometer and an odometer.
The seats look quite short and there is a small hump towards the end which kind of a gives a cowl type appearance to the Scrambler (we can assume that it is quite uncomfortable for the pillion rider). The twin exhaust which is positioned towards the side gets a brushed steel finish to it. To make things comfortable for the rider both the exhaust gets a heat shield which finished in Black.
What we didn’t like about this particular motorcycle’s styling is the presence of that huge engine cowl towards the bottom. To be quite honest the engine cowl looks massive and slightly out of shape as well. The rear profile of the motorcycle gets a number plate integrated on the tire hugger covering the fat knobby tires.
2. Suspension setup and brakes
The motorcycle uses 41 mm USD forks for its front and dual shock setup for its rear. It uses an 18-inch front and 17 inch rear spoke wheels which are wrapped with 100 section front and 130 section rear knobby tires. For braking the motorcycle relies on a 280 mm front and 220 mm petal disc brakes which also gets duel channel ABS as standard.
3. Powertrain
The HPS 300 is basically a 250 cc motorcycle because it is powered by a 249 cc, DOHC single-cylinder liquid-cooled, fuel injected motor which is capable of producing about 25.1PS of peak power at 9000rpm and 22Nm of torque at 7000rpm. The engine is paired to a 6-speed transmission which sends power to the rear wheels via a linked chain drive.
4. Better Power to weight ratio than its rivals
The newly introduced HPS 300 weighs just 135 Kilograms and deliver around 25.1 Ps of peak power which gives it a better power to weight ratio than some of its closest rivals like the Duke 200 or the Yamaha FZ250.
5. Pricing and availability
The HPS 300 was launched this October with a price tag of Rs 3,37,000 (ex-showroom) which is quite expensive for a 250 cc motorcycle. However, the FB Mondial officials are justifying the steep price tag because they believe that this motorcycle is exclusive and unlike any other motorcycle you will find in India.
FB Mondial inaugurated their very first assembly line in at Ahmednagar plant and already started assembling the FB Mondial HPS 300 motorcycle at the unit. The good news is that they also have received 100 bookings for this motorcycle already. Currently, FB Mondial has around 7 stores in India, but they are planning to expand it to at least 20 stores by the end of 2019. The deliveries for this particular motorcycle will begin from December 2018 onward.