By now, you probably can I am a chopper/cruiser rider. My last 2 bike being Shadow 400 and Marauder 125.

The Shadow VLX 600 is my latest ride. Compare to the Shadow 400, this Shadow VLX looks more like the Steed with minimal front and back wheel fender. Also the handlebar is higher and not as wide compared to the 400.

Overall it is a rather economical class 2 cruiser. Fuel consumption averaging about 150km to 10 l petrol. If I remember correct (that was 6 years ago) this is about similar to the 400.

The only gripe is the 4 speeds transmission. At top gear it gives a feeling that there is still another gear to shift up. Above 100kmh, the engine vibration is rather noticeable. Not sure if it is because this is an old 2nd hand bike. Other reviews online also mentioned about the vibration.

It is not a speed demon bike but as for me it has more than enough power and acceleration to pull away from a tailgating car in a swift.

Hero Honda Motorcycles Limited

Hero Honda is a joint venture that began in 1984 between the Hero Cycles of India and Honda Motor Company of Japan. This alliance is to become one of the most successful joint ventures in India, and the subject of business school case studies .

Since 2001, Hero Honda has been the world’s biggest manufacturer of 2-wheeled motorized vehicles, producing over 3 million motorbikes a year.

The Hero group was started by the Munjal family to produce bicycle. Hero Cycles Limited is now also the largest manufacturer of bicycles.

India has the world’s largest number of two wheelers in the world. Indian motorcycle manufacturers includes

• Automobile Products of India (API)
• Bajaj Auto Ltd.
• Royal Enield
• Ideal Jawa
• Escorts

Other joint-ventures are

• TVS Suzuki
• Bajaj Kawasaki
• Kinetic Honda.

Hero Honda (herohonda.com )

(Interesting how things are linked, we just mentioned Honda in the last manufacturer post.)

Sundiro-Honda has manufacturing base in Shanghai, Hainan and Tianjin. Production capacity is 1.5million unit per year.

Honda-Sundiro (honda-sundiro.com)

Hyosung‘s fullname is Hyosung Motors & Machinery Inc. Founded in 1978 , it started by assembling motorcycle licenced from Suzuki (compare Daelim and Honda).

Compared to other Asian motorcycle manufacturers (except Japan) which focused on smaller displacement motorcycles, Hyosung has a range of 650 models for sport, road and curiser.

Hyosung (hyosungmotors.co.kr)

Like Suzuki, Honda also produces cars and engines. In fact, Honda is the largest internal combustion engine maker in the world.

Taking a look at the Honda’s Fiscal 2005 report, it is interesting to see that Asia is top in terms of number of units sold, but North America top in terms of net sales value. This should be no surprise for anyone that had visited any major Asian cities.

Honda (powersports.honda.com)

Suzuki was featured yesterday. Other major Japanese motorcycle brands are Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki.

Talking about Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, it would be interesting to look at market share of these manufacturers put together. If you have a copy of this report, drop me the figure.

• Honda 本田
• Yamaha 亚马哈, 雅马哈
• Suzuki 铃木
• Kawasaki 川崎
• Harley-Davidson 哈雷
• BMW 宝马
• Ducati 杜卡迪

For a moment you might think Honda-Forums talk about all Honda bikes. But they seriously only focus on Honda sports bike. So if you are a speed demon, you will find company on the forum.

Check out also the workshop section where bikers talks about the maintenance of these speed machine.