Homegrown bike manufacturer Hero Motocorp has officially entered the premium motorcycle segment with the unveiling of the Mavrick 440. Based on the Harley-Davidson X440, the Mavrick is a roadster with a design language that rides suspiciously close to the Honda CB300R.
Now, there are a number of other 400cc bikes out there, but all of those are liquid-cooled engines. The Mavrick, however, is powered by an air-cooled single-cylinder unit and makes significantly less power, so the comparison would be a little unfair. What the Mavrick’s power plant means is that it directly rivals more of the retro-themed bikes such as the Royal Enfield Hunter 350 and Classic 350, the Jawa 350 and even the Honda CB350 along with the Harley mentioned earlier. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the key specifications of each of these to find out what’s good and what’s not.
Starting off with the design, the Hero Mavrick is clearly the most modern-looking bike here. Then you have the Harley X440 which has a little bit of flat-track styling thrown in. The other outlier is the Royal Enfield Hunter 350 with its retro roadster design. The Honda, Jawa and Royal Enfield Classic 350 are all clearly retro bikes with the engine to match the look.
Exterior styling is subjective, however, so it will be up to you, dear reader, to decide which look suits you. What we can say, however, is that while we have not seen the Mavrick in action yet, if the H-D’s fit and finish levels are anything to go by (after all, it is a Hero product), the Mavrick should see some neat-looking lines. This is especially important, seeing as how Royal Enfield has upped its game when it comes to quality. Honda has never had a problem in this regard and Jawa has also made quite a few improvements with the recently relaunched Jawa 350.
Both the Mavrick and the H-D X440 have the biggest engines here. Their 440cc air-cooled singles produce 27hp of maximum power and 38 Nm of peak torque and are mated to 6-speed gearboxes. The Jawa 350 has the smallest engine in this list at 334cc but still manages to produce 22hp and 28Nm. This is only marginally more than the 20hp/27Nm and 20hp/29Nm engines of the REs and CB350, respectively.
The REs and the Honda also get a lower 5-speed gearbox for transmission duties. Now, the Harley is the only bike to get upside-down forks at the front giving it a little more premium bounciness. All of the others ride on conventional telescopic units and all of the bikes ride on twin shock absorbers at the rear.
Features
Of course, just because these bikes run old-school air-cooled engines doesn’t mean they don’t get modern features. Almost everyone on this list gets a USB slot for charging phones. All bikes except for the Jawa also have optional Bluetooth connectivity for turn-by-turn navigation. The Harley’s instrument cluster is a 3.5-inch TFT display and like the Mavrick gets LED lighting all round. ABS is standard on all bikes, but the Classic 350 and Hunter 350 have single-channel ABS variants as well.
The Harley-Davidson is the costliest bike here at Rs 2.39 lakh and we can expect the Hero Mavrick to be priced in roughly the same range. The Royal Enfield Hunter is the most affordable starting at Rs 1.50 lakh, the RE Classic 350 and Honda CB350 are in the same ballpark of Rs 1.93 lakh and Rs 1.99 lakh, respectively, while the Jawa 350 retails at Rs 2.15 lakh.
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