Hero HX250R might be more Buell than you thought
Documents suggest Europe-bound Indian machine is designed entirely in the US
HERO MotorCorp’s HX250R is already a pretty good looking machine and given the firm’s tie-in with Erik Buell Racing in America it’s known to have had at least a bit of input from Buell during its design process.
However, we’ve just dug up indications that the bikes might be more of an EBR than it first appeared.
Details of shipments into India last year reveal that several prototype 250cc motorcycles were sent from America to India, and while the data doesn’t reveal the machines’ maker or their final recipient, it does give each bike’s frame number. And they all start with the letters EBR.
While that’s not definite confirmation, the facts that the machines started life in the States and carry the EBR VINs heavily hint that they’ve been made by Erik Buell Racing. All of the bikes are listed as prototypes in their documentation, some as ‘Prototype Test Motorcycles’ others as ‘Working Prototype Models,’ and all are listed as being painted black, as befits a secret prototype. The listings also confirm engine numbers and the bikes’ 250cc capacities.
The chances are high that the bikes in question, which started to be sent from America to India last January, are development models for the recently-launched HX250R, which Hero says has been developed with the help of Erik Buell’s operation, which Hero owns a minor stake in. However, far from simply being tweaked in America, they have actually been created there.
The HX250R’s spec is already impressive, with a high-revving 31bhp single using an oversquare 81mm bore and 48.5mm stroke. Hero revealed late last year that it plans to start selling the machines in Europe and the UK before the end of 2015.
