Who would forget the famous
tag line, "fill it, shut it, for-
get it," which for long had remained a folklore, a sign of
assurance for millions of bikers who would pack their lunch and kick-start their
favorite Hero Honda bike for work every morning during the 1980s and the 1990s.
The introduction of CD 100 in 1984 came as a relief to hundreds of thousands of
aspiring and existing scootorists who struggled to kick-start their
scooters every time they have to use it. And, adding to it was the burden of low fuel
efficiency. The old war horses like Bajaj Chetak and Lambretta would
scream to deliver even one-third of the mileage which Hero Honda motorcycles came
to pump out.
Truly, their joint venture had acquired the status of a legend, the
stuff the corporate folklores are made of. However, unfortunately, the
quarter-of-a-century old partnership is a past now as the Munjals-owned Hero Group
and Japanese auto major Honda have decided to part ways.
The story of this great and enduring partnership began when way back
in 1983 Hero Group owned and spearheaded by BrijMohan Lall Munjal
and Honda Motor of Japan signed a joint collaboration agreement to
manufacture and market motorcycles in India. A year later, in 1984, Hero Honda
Motors was incorporated to kick-start the group's mission in India. In 1985,
the company launched its first motorcycle, CD 100. And soon, the joint venture
was on a roll. CD 100 had sold one-lakh motorcycles within two years of its
launch. Bolstered by the success of its first offering, the group went on to launch
two more models—Sleek, in 1989, and CD 100 SS, in 1991, the same year in
which the group also achieved another milestone of producing 5-lakh
motorcycles. But the moment of reckoning, for the group and probably also for the
Indian two-wheeler industry, came 10 years after the JV was formed when in
1994, the company launched the model which was to change the fate of the group
for ever and also rewrite the history of two-wheeler industry in the country.
No points for guessing, it was the Splendor, the model which went on to
become India's first iconic bike, a la Harley Davidson, perhaps. Splendor not only went on to rule the roost for almost
a decade, but it also established Hero Honda as the master of the
motorcycle universe in India. During the same
year, the company produced its
100,000th motorcycle. This tells a lot about
the breakneck speed at which the joint venture was driving past the
milestones and also rivals, who helplessly watched Hero Honda, by this time the
market leader, vroomed past the 2,000,000 mark in motorcycle production
within just four years of the launch of the Splendor model. After a gap of
five years, since the launch of the iconic Splendor, the company introduced
its first heavy-duty yet stylish CBZ in tune with the changing preference of
bikers and also as a ploy to chip away at the traditional Bullet (motorcycle)
riders as well as aspirants.
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