| The world may have fixed its gaze on Tata Motors’ Rs 1 lakh car at the upcoming Auto Expo, but a bicycle with a fancier price tag is set to create a flutter at the fair.
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| Noida-based FireFox Bikes will launch the Madone-5.2 bicycle, priced at Rs 1.68 lakh at the expo.
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| “We feel the Auto Expo is a mobility exhibition. It will have e-bikes, cars, trucks. As the concept is mobility, why not bicycles?” FireFox Managing Director Shiv Inder Singh said.
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| He said the company’s participation at the expo was aimed at creating brand awareness and target up-market customers who like to take bicycles on holidays to hill stations.
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| “The target audience is people who are going to spend their holidays at hill stations such as Shimla and Manali and may travel short distances of 4-5 kms with bicycles,” Singh said.
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| The company is sourcing the bike from its US-based partner, Trek.
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| “This bike is not for mountaineering. It is a road bike, a kind of speed bike made of ultra light weight OCLV carbon fibre frame with about 20 speed options.”
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| “We expect to increase sales to 60,000 bikes a year by 2011 from 12,000 initially,” Singh said.
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| The company has already launched the Fuel Ex 8 bicycle priced at Rs 1,06,000.
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| “The latest bikes are for urban kids. This (sizeable) population has the tendency to imitate the West, especially in their lifestyles. Since such bikes are a hit in the West, we expect a good response from the Indian buyers, too,” he said. |
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