Honda rumoured to be working on affordable scramblers

Scramblers seem to be the flavour of the season at the moment, and Honda is looking to capitalise on this. The brand is rumoured to be working on two new scrambler motorcycles based on its Rebel 250 and Rebel 500 models. 

These bikes are expected to carry the CL250 and CL 500 name tags, and Japanese publication Autoby has rendered what these upcoming models could look like. The CL nametag is the ideal choice since it draws similarity to the CL72 250cc scrambler and CL450K1 444 cc scrambler from the 1960s.

The chassis that underpins the Rebel 250 and the Rebel 500 is largely welded together and seems rather cruiser-specific, and would require some amount of reworking to support a scrambler-style motorcycle. 

The smaller model is expected to use the 249cc, single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine from the Rebel 250, where it produces 26hp at 9,500rpm and 22Nm of torque at 7,750rpm.

The larger bike – the one expected to be called the CL500 – will get the 471cc parallel-twin sourced from the Honda Rebel 500, which produces 44.9hp at 8,500rpm and 44.6Nm at 6,000rpm. 

According to the source of these reports, the CL250 is expected to break cover by the end of this year and the CL500 should follow early next year. These two should allow the Japanese manufacturer to potentially compete globally for a piece of the lucrative scrambler pie. The Honda stable, as such, is currently devoid of a scrambler and the inclusion of these two motorcycles should remedy this.

With scramblers gaining popularity in India, we’re seeing more and more of these machines at the more affordable scale of things, and Honda could do well to bring in an offering of its own.  

Do you think these Honda motorcycles would do well in our market too? Let us know in the comments below.