Bike Review: CBZ Extreme

By Jiljith C.P

[Disclaimer: This write-up only stresses on the differences between the old CBZ and the new Extreme model]

Seven years on and I find myself on the CBZ Extreme-- the supposed avatar of the CBZ. Having
known the CBZ for so many years, I felt well positioned to differentiate it from the older one from which it is supposed to have been derived and improved upon....

The first thing that struck me was the weight. It is so well distributed that the 143kgs feels like 133!
And the engine, as many say, is the same as that of Honda Unicorn (not exactly?) [the three bikes-- Hunk, Unicorn and Extreme all have ’Tumble Flow’ now: this can’t be a coincidence, can it?]
At 14.4 bhp it has enough to speed this one on the road. The brakes are precise in their application, though not as brilliantly married to the character of the bike as before. They still retain the 18" alloys and the seating feels higher than other bikes of this category. You have to be at least 5’ 8" if you want to keep both feet firmly planted on the ground.

The bike continues in the tradition of the track-attitude straight-line/cornering, fine gradated braking, handling and line-holding capability-- the essential features which distinguished this bike from the Pulsars. The TVS Apache also shares these characteristics except that it slants too much on the racy side leaving the commuter out of the picture.

The Honda engine is smooth and remains smooth as you rev up; it encourages you to rev and the throttle does not require effort to be twisted as was the case in the old CBZ-- due to air injection in the exhaust port? This, though, doesn’t seem to have given it much higher top speed than before. The older Keihin carburettor has also been replaced by the more standard Mikuni. The mileage is low-- 45+, but far better than that of the old CBZ-- 35+.

The looks though are the biggest put-off: you have to close your eyes before you get on the bike or wear really dark shades. In the night, though, the LEDs at the back, I thought, present a fine sight. The pilot lamp overhead the headlight is the most ugly looking thing I have ever seen on a bike! You should probably only look at the bike from the angle advertised on the website: any other angle should also be ok provided it is a very dark night else you might require medical attention.
The new Extreme [the newer of the new, I mean] has chrome beside the pilot lamp to blend it better with the headlight section. HH realized their mistake, I guess. Another grievance is the exhaust note-- you can hardly hear it, and this was another attraction of the old CBZ. The exhaust itself is not inclined upward sufficiently and robs the bike of a sporty look.

All newer updates are there though, making the bike upto date with the current generation of bikes-- halogen bulbs [hopefully you no longer have to wear a coal-miner’s lighted cap while riding in the night], LED lights, pilot lamp (yuck), split grab-rails [where do I keep my helmet, saar?], alloy wheels [lighter/stronger], self-start [Optional on the old CBZ], front mudguard with its lower portion in black [CBZ Star had this too], a black theme throughout [except for the saree guard] and a Tuff-up tube in the rear [thank you, MRF].
The Tuff-up tube can be a handy thing. My friend’s tyre finally went flat one day and when they opened up his tyre, they found 3 punctures in the tube already which had been automatically sealed with the liquid! The tube itself though is a lot heavier thanks to the liquid and costs more than the ordinary tube. This is the tradeoff for reliability.

The standard fitment seemed to be MRF tyres. Someone did remark that the bike’s grip improves if you fit them with Dunlop instead. I would agree on the same-- having ridden Dunlops on the old CBZ, and MRF on the Extreme and many others [Unicorn, CBF Stunner, Pulsar]. The MRF tyres don’t seem to grip the road well enough especially while cornering [I’ve tried both treads]. But I have not done an exact apples-to-apples comparison and so I shall withhold my judgement though my personal opinion would sway in the way of Dunlop. Even with 7 year old tyres, the rear wheel would slide and engage again on sharp corners. Need I say more about Dunlop?

No Gas filled suspensions: the ride’s gonna be stiff and your handling is going to be better. We also hope you have a strong back, and pray that your pillion’s is even better. No comfortable ride offered here unlike the Hunk. If you have minor back injuries, well...you’re gonna have to stoop and ride.

So it all comes down to the handling, engine and power delivery-- and this is where the bike separates itself from the rest.
I have to take my hat off for this one. It is no wonder that bike magazines raved about it when it launched years back. There is still no bike that handles as well as this one and at the same time provides this level of comfort for the commuter. It stands as the most tightly packed bike which thrills you but refuses to spill you. I always believed that street bikes should handle better than their power delivery and this bike stands as a testimonial. It is not as laid back as the Karizma nor is it as extreme as the Apache: it blends in the best of both worlds. The saddle lulls you while cruising and encourages you to move out while cornering.

But..this bike is late. They kept the old CBZ going for too long and then expectation ran high. 200cc bikes were making their news and CBZ owners believed that ’Extreme’ meant that HH would get extreme on the power too but Hero Honda had other ideas. The bike shines in the 150cc category and outdoes many others with its superior handling, but the ’Biker’ Indian market has gone ahead. Both words-- CBZ and Extreme-- ill suit the bike unless we look at it from the perspective of 150cc bikes alone which has now become more of a standard option among Indian commuters-- this not being the case years back.

This one improves on some aspects of the old CBZ while falling back on many others which makes me wonder what truly defines the CBZ? It must be that loud vibration from the engine [which makes you feel you’re going at 180 instead of the actual 80]; the roar of the catalyst-less exhaust; the smooth flow of the body contour from headlight to tail lamp [though it may seem a bit outdated now]; the incredible handling/cornering/braking/power-delivery/comfort combo which had not been felt before rendering a unique balance which brought to light the sport-riding theme to the Indian masses and ushered in an age of Indian sport-bikes [with the demise of the two-stroke speed demons] which even the Pulsar-220 to this day with all its claimed prowess and technology is unable to free itself. Only the Yamaha R15 has pulled away sufficiently to leave this era behind to begin what could truly be called a bike of present-day sport biking [again Indian-styled].

The CBZ then, in retrospect, was a landmark, and the new one is not ’extreme’ in that sense. The verdict then must be that the CBZ has died and a not-so-extreme one has taken its place.