[parrys]

UM (United Motors) International showcased their bikes at the 2014 Auto Expo.

• In India, they will be known as UM India Two Wheelers Private Limited.
• Aim: To position themselves as a premium commuter manufacturer.
• Will announce local assembly & distribution partners by the end of this financial year.
• Bikes to be launched during festive season of 2014.

The bikes

Renegade Sport:

• Powered by a 223cc air cooled, single cylinder engine.
• 5 speed gearbox
• 18 BHP @ 8500 RPM & 15 Nm @ 7500 RPM.

Yes, those are LEDs on the forks.


Closer look at the cheesy LEDs.


Decent looking speedo console. Blue looks good. Notice the branding on the handlebar clip-on.


Rear view mirror is size small.


Closer look at the air-cooled engine.


Exhaust pipe is well finished in chrome. Even the alloys with black & chrome look good.


Front disc looks way too small, funny & punny both.


Gel seats.


Has the typical cruiser look from behind.


The Renegade Commando:

• Powered by a 223cc air cooled, single cylinder engine.
• 5 speed gearbox
• 18 BHP @ 8000 RPM & 15.5 Nm @ 5500 RPM.

The Commando, in matte black.


This one looks like it is oil cooled.




Check out the fuel indicator.


Chrome on the switch console looks very tacky.


Matte finished dual exhaust pipes, dust magnets?


Will this level of quality work in the market?


A bigger disc on the Commando variant, spoke-wheels.


Exposed chain.


Big seats, no back support for the pillion.

[parrys]

An accessorized version of the Renegade Duty:

• Powered by a 137.8cc single cylinder engine mated to a 5 speed gearbox.
• 10.97 BHP @ 7900 RPM & 10.53 Nm @ 5600 RPM.

Different exhaust compared to the stock Renegade.


Flat section over the mount for the trailer.




Does the rear view mirror look familiar?


Regular telescopic front forks.


USB charging point from the speedo console.


Xtreet R:

Powered by a single cylinder 223cc engine mated to a 5 speed gearbox.
19.13 BHP @ 7900 RPM & 18.05 Nm @ 3800 RPM.



Some more orange frames for the Indian roads.


LEDs on the tank.


Digital + analogue speedo.


Petal disc brakes at the front & back.




Step-up seats. Pillion seat does not look that comfortable.


LED tail lamps, look very Hyosung.


The Commando in military green.








Accessories to be sold.

[moralfibre]

Thread moved to the Auto Expo 2014 section from Assembly line.

Mods, Thanks for a nice coverage.

I have couple of questions.

The 223 CC engine block specs and power figures look more like the Honda's 223 CC engine mill, which is doing its duty in Zma. More over the block looks similar to that of Honda's. By any chance, Are they same?

As said in the begining, they UM motorcycles wants to be a premium brand in india, but their products doesnt seem to deserve any premiumness. Am i correct? or is the build quality exceptionally good? But you have pointed out that, the build quality is not around acceptable levels as per our standards, in one image.

Also, adding a couple of lines of introduction to this new manufacturer would have made the thread much better.

[CarCynic]

Found this older webpage discussing some other motorcycle from the same company, says they are manufactured by a Chinese manufacturer and rebadged by UM for the US market.

http://www.alternativecruisers.com/i...pic=24.0;imode

And here is a contemporary looking website of the company http://www.umglobal.com/en/

I knew something was fishy just by looking at the pictures in this thread. They can come up with slick marketing campaigns but they can't take the Chinese out of these nondescript motorcycles.

Their MO looks like that of Micromax and Karbonn phone companies in India. Selling rebadged Chinese products with questionable quality and reliability.

Good luck to them, they have underestimated the Indian premium bike market. While I would love to see a newer alternative to Bajaj Avenger, I am not going to spend hard earned money on a shady and sub-par Chinese product.

[niv26]

I agree with the above comments, there is no premium (at least from pictures). Hamara Bajaj much better than this.

[a4anurag]

Is it only to my eyes but I see a bit of Harley-Davidson, Triumph and KTM copied in the 3 bikes displayed.

People (less attention) will still mistake these bikes for the above mentioned brands .

Overall I feel that something is lacking in these backs and needs to be beefier in looks to get that impression to a buyer.

Anurag.

[Aditya]

UM Motorcycles has started testing its bikes in India.

Link to Team-BHP News Article

[FourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by CarCynic

Found this older webpage discussing some other motorcycle from the same company, says they are manufactured by a Chinese manufacturer and rebadged by UM for the US market.

http://www.alternativecruisers.com/i...pic=24.0;imode

And here is a contemporary looking website of the company http://www.umglobal.com/en/

I knew something was fishy just by looking at the pictures in this thread. They can come up with slick marketing campaigns but they can't take the Chinese out of these nondescript motorcycles.

Their MO looks like that of Micromax and Karbonn phone companies in India. Selling rebadged Chinese products with questionable quality and reliability.

Autocar India says UML will launch in the 2nd quarter of this year. Source : http://www.autocarindia.com/auto-new...er-394091.aspx

I could not but help have the same view as stated above by CarCynic.

Even more importantly, I find that none of the Indian automotive journalists / websites have had the courage to call it like it is.

Not one Indian site has mentioned the Chinese roots of the motorcycles in questions.

In sharp contrast, they have highlighted the Chinese antecedents of the Force Motors One, Chevrolet Sail and Enjoy, Benelli et al quite elaborately.

While I do not carry any brief against Chinese manufacturers entering the Indian market per se; I do believe that they should be allowed only the same access to India as they allow Indian automotive manufacturers to the Chinese market - which is currently none to speak of.

Cheers,

FourWheelDrift

[Tushar]

Renegade Commando launch expected at the 2016 Delhi auto expo. According to the Facebook page, the bike will be offered in two variants.

Link to Team-BHP news article

[Joxster]

Came across this article on indianautosblog.

Source

In a recent interview with Mr. Juan Villegas, the Global Director of Business Development, UM International LLC, IndianAutosBlog learnt the company’s plans to make India an export hub for the emerging markets. Here are the excerpts from the conversation.

UM Motorcycles is planning to produce, sell and export only cruisers, at least for the first three years. Do you think cruisers will be a good start when the market seems thirsty for naked and sports bikes?
“Not in the first stage of our plan. We are concentrating on our cruiser segment, where we have a strong background and capabilities to innovate and excite the market. Sportbikes, even though we have, we actually develop and sell sportbikes, we think our strategy in India will leave that for the second phase, honestly we are concentrating on cruisers. UM Motorcycles is planning to produce, sell and export only cruisers, at least for the first three years.

Are you planning to export all the models?
“Yes we have plans for exporting the models that are going to be produced here, initially in the indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, that is like a natural market, and then onwards to other countries in the region, especially Asia, and Latin America as well. UM Motorcycles is targeting sales of around 3,000 units a month in India, and plans to export 10-15 percent of the volume produced.”

What is the initial rate of production?
“We will be having an incremental volume production. We are initiating on the manufacturing side in India and it takes sometime to level out the volume but its going to happen fairly quickly. I think that by the end of next year we should already be on a good level of production on a monthly basis. We have estimated that the plant has enough capacity to cover our first three phase of operation before requiring an expansion of the production capabilities.
We think that we would quickly reach, within the segment we are talking about, which is a premium segment, we think we could reach about 3,000 units a month, in a fairly rapid way. Remember that this segment within the overall market is a small segment, probably we are talking about a segment of 600,000 units a year, and within that we think we can reach 5 percent within the first couple of years of operation.”

What is the percentage of production that will be dedicated for exports?
“Initially we think around 10-15 percent is the number we are looking at.”
Is the company open to develop new products in India in the next two years?
“We actually have a plan and we are working on it. Not only we will be launching at the next Auto Expo, but also we are already developing the second wave of products.”