5 Best Bikes For Indian Roads: Across All Possible Budgets

As much as we love sportbikes or even aggressive streetfighters, the truth is that our roads are broken. And while you’d look like a Bollywood superstar while riding a sportbike, your body wouldn’t be as happy and that’s because such bikes have firm suspensions that cannot absorb our broken roads well enough. And that’s exactly why comfort is such an important thing when selecting the bike you want. In fact low levels of comfort can also be a dealbreaker even though it’s a bike you really enjoy riding. 

So here’s a list of 5 very comfortable motorcycles across 5 different budgets, ensuring we list at least 1 comfortable bike, no matter what your budget is: 

Under Rs 1 lakh - Hero Splendor Plus

Of course Lord Splendor had to make its way to this list. Jokes aside, it really is impressive how comfortable the Hero Splendor Plus is. Hero has been making excellent suspensions for a while now and the Splendor Plus is testament to the fact that it’s true even for the less expensive Hero bikes. For a bike that’s made to carry a lot of load, the bike’s still very comfortable even with just a single rider on and it feels more than happy to just be hammered through bad roads. And you can see that almost every day around you. While all the bikes on the roads stop for the super broken roads, there’ll often be those guys on Splendors who’ll just open the throttle and ride it through the patch like an off-road racer. 

And when the Splendor is even more impressive, is when you load it up. Put a pillion and some luggage between you and the pillion, and the bike still feels calm and composed. It doesn’t start bottoming out everywhere and even the up and down bouncing is very controlled. In short, if you think budget bikes can’t be as comfortable, the Splendor Plus will wholeheartedly prove you wrong. 

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Under Rs 2 lakh - Hero XPulse 210 

If you thought the Hero XPulse 200 4V was a brilliantly comfortable bike, the 210 takes things up a notch in terms of comfort and sophistication. First of all, you’re sitting so high up on the bike that you’re looking above all the other cars already, and hence spotting bumps much quicker. And not that you’ve to worry about them anyway because the XPulse 210 will take care of everything without bothering you at all. If you ride over an undulation, it’s almost like the bike will just inform you about it, like a speedy messenger, but without disturbing you. 

The XPulse has so much suspension travel that everything our roads ask from it feels like a child’s play. It’s like asking The Great Khali to lift the weights that you and I do. He could probably do that with half a hand, if that was possible. And that very effortlessness is how I’d describe the XPulse 210’s suspension. To sum things up, if your budget is capped right around the Rs 2 lakh mark and you want something that’ll keep each and every person in your house comfortable, the XPulse 210 is the bike to get. 

Under Rs 3 lakh - Royal Enfield Himalayan 450

Magical - is the word all of us thought when we first rode the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450. For a bike that heavy and with that much suspension travel, the way it remained controlled and extremely stable even when ridden hard was mind blowing. And while a lot of people were disappointed on seeing that it missed out on adjustable suspension, Royal Enfield showed us that if tuned right, a stock suspension setup can do wonders in most conditions. With so much suspension travel, softly-sprung bikes often start bouncing around a lot and feeling a bit unstable on the highways. These bikes also don’t like sudden and quick direction changes, for they can make the bike feel a bit wallow-y. And that’s exactly why the Himalayan 450 was such a pleasant surprise because even with that height and weight, the bike handles beautifully. In the city, it’s surprising to see the way it takes to the smallest of gaps. 

We had a long term Himalayan in the office and after riding it for about 17,000km, none of us remembered the vibrations, the awkward switchgear or the loose bolts. All we could think of was just how brilliantly comfortable it felt no matter what you threw at it. In the sub Rs 3 lakh segment, the Himalayan 450 definitely takes the first spot of being the most comfortable bike. 

Under Rs 5 lakh - KTM 390 Adventure 

The KTM 390 Adventure had to live up to pretty steep expectations and thankfully, it did. And one of the highlights was the suspension. It’s not as plush and comfortable as say the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, but it’s still very comfortable and it definitely stands out in this segment. That very firmness feels much nicer when you start off-roading, since the suspension literally tells you how it feels over every bump that you cross. The icing on the cake is its adjustability. So even if it doesn’t feel as comfortable as you’d want it to be, you can always tinker around with it and make it suit you. 

With the new 390 Adventure, KTM has shown why it’s such a force to reckon with in the off-road racing world and that it knows how to make excellent suspensions. 

No Budget - Ducati Multistrada V4 

Without money as a constraint, what’s that one bike you’d buy for pretty much any sort of riding? Ask me that question at any time of the time and 10 out of 9 times (yes, 10 out of 9), my answer would be the Rs 21,48,000 (ex-showroom India) Ducati Multistrada V4. And one of the highlights about the V4’s package is its suspension. The fork and the shock, both are fully adjustable but I doubt any of you would ever want to tinker around with it. When the road undulations knock on your door, the V4’s suspension is that loyal butler that answers the door and takes care of the antisocial elements at the door itself, without it ever getting to you. 

The Multistrada V4 is a bike you cross continents on. So be it crossing countries or crossing tons of potholes on your everyday commute, the V4 and its suspension can handle it all with aplomb.