Confirmed: Honda to launch Royal Enfield rival on September 30

Earlier this week, Honda revealed that it will launch a brand-new motorcycle in India on September 30. Today, the manufacturer shared with us the exhaust note of this upcoming motorcycle in a rather unique way.

    Upcoming 300cc-plus Honda motorcycle to rival Royal Enfield

    Will be a brand-new motorcycle for India

    To launch on September 30

The audio clip is of an exhaust note that sounds exactly like that of a Royal Enfield’s signature thump. It reveals what the bike sounds like while starting up, at idle and as it accelerates through the gears. Listen to the clip below and tell us what you think.

It’s no secret that Honda has been developing a motorcycle to take on Royal Enfield and, at the end of this month, we will finally get to see what it’s come up with. Given what it sounds like, we are almost certain to expect cruiser motorcycle styling from this upcoming Honda.

This also leads us to believe that it could be a 350cc bike if Honda really wants to take on the REs. Interestingly, the upcoming Honda motorcycle launches just before the brand-new Royal Enfield Meteor is expected to go on sale.

Given the more modern technology that the Meteor 350 is expected to feature, it’s going to be this Honda's most direct rival.

We are given to understand that this will be a never-seen-before motorcycle designed specifically for our market. It will be interesting to see whether the bike is based on an all-new platform or if it uses a modified version of something like the Honda Rebel 300 that is sold overseas.

However, considering that the Rebel is based on a modern liquid-cooled platform borrowed from the Honda CB300R, it is quite possible that this new bike will be based on a completely new platform.

This new bike will be retailed out of the Honda Big Wing dealer network. The Big Wing network has been designed for premium products and this new bike will be the most affordable motorcycle sold from it. Honda announced in November 2019 that it planned to aggressively expand the Big Wing network to 75 cities across India.