Hero XPulse 200 4V review – testing the cheapest adventure bike you can buy

Adventure bikes are heavy, expensive and festooned with complex tech; we all know and accept that to be the case. Except for Hero, who recently popped up on the UK market with the cheapest go-anywhere tourer we've ever seen, the £2699 XPulse 200 4V. But surely, at a tenth of the cost of some of the segment's flagship models, it can't be any good, right?  

To put the little XPulse to the test, Adventure247 opted to put the bike through exactly the sort of riding it's meant for – we stuffed our camping kit and a spare pair of pants into our trusty Giant Loop rackless bag, threw it over the back seat of the bike and set off for 48 hours exploring the great green yonder that is South Wales. 

Our plan was simple enough – two days traversing the Tetty Trail, a 313-mile loop offshoot of the Trans Euro Trail, mixing a healthy selection of winding rural roads with miles of off-tarmac trails – the latter comprising a mix of forgotten overgrown singletrack and wide 4x4 tracks. Nothing too wild, just 48 hours of green laning fun. 

Before that, ADV247 also spent a few weeks living with the little Hero, running it about for general life admin duties as well as taking a spin on our local enduro loop for no good reason other than to see if it would survive. Spoiled alert – it made it... slowly. 

Hero who? 

You'd be forgiven – assuming you're reading this review in Europe, North America or Australia – for not being hugely familiar with the Hero MotoCorp brand. The Indian-based manufacturer is in fact the world's second-largest motorcycle builder by volume, cranking out a new bike every 18 seconds, supplying 130 million buyers across 53 countries. The UK is now among that customer base with bikes supplied through MotoGB. 

The XPulse itself has existed in Hero's domestic market since 2019, where it costs the GBP equivalent of £1400. The cheap-as-chips runabout now comes to us to satisfy the growing demand for simple, affordable machinery, alongside a longer-legged sibling model – the XPulse 200 Pro – yours for an additional £300. 

If it were our money, we'd stick with the standard model. A quick spin on the Pro model at the ABR Festival gave the impression of a somewhat lazy attempt to take the existing (and perfectly serviceable) standard platform and jazz it up for European audiences by bolting on some longer-travel suspension and a set of hideously tall bar risers. 

The result is a bike that simply feels wrong, geometry-wise, paired with an almost ridiculous 891mm seat height (that's more than a KTM 890 Adventure R). Hero might say the extra few inches of travel make it more capable off-road, but we'd argue that more of a bad thing isn't of benefit to anyone. 

What's the XPulse like to ride? 

It is, in short, distinctly okay. Not exciting, but it gets on with the job in an honest, uncomplicated sort of way. It's (mostly) everything you need and nothing more. 

Let's be real, with 19bhp on tap and 159kg plus rider to shift, the air-cooled single-cylinder is never going to offer much in the way of thrills. 

But that's not what the XPulse is about. It is clearly a machine made to be a tool, not a toy. It's unintimidating, affordable transport designed for the masses – whether that be a young couple in its New Delhi home city or a self-professed adventure rider here in the UK. 

If you want a bike to nip to the shops and commute to work during the week, then take on the odd multi-day trip when time allows – with a few unpaved routes thrown in along the way – there is simply no cheaper new bike available. Period. 

It's also worth noting that despite boasting rather modest specifications, throughout our entire 300-mile test weekend the bike never once got stuck, and quite impressively plodded its way up Brechfa's somewhat tricky, somewhat steep (as green lanes go at least) 'Dunlop Hill' without the slightest hint of fuss. 

What we like 

Fuel economy, as you might expect from a 199cc four-stroke, is excellent. 100-plus mpg figures are not unobtainable. Even so, it still delivers a meaningful increase in power versus a 125cc machine. The difference isn't night and day, but it's enough that with an adult-sized male rider plus luggage aboard, pulling 70mph is no issue. It's revving its nuts off at those speeds, but getting there is no bother. 

The low and narrow 825mm seat height and 159kg kerb weight make it as accessible as the bottom-dollar price tag. So if you find most twin-cylinder adventure tourers a little on the hefty side, you'll likely be pleasantly surprised by how easy the XPulse is to manage. 

Its diminutive size and underwhelming engine output also combine for a package that, like pretty much every small bike, is a hoot to rip around on. With sub-20bhp at your disposal, windy country roads become akin to a lap of Oliver's Mount – only no matter how much you stretch the throttle cable, you'll never be breaking the speed limit. 

Kudos has to be given for the decision to spec an 18/21-inch wheel combo, too. It may seem a small detail, but that big rear hoop means any full-on enduro tyre set will comfortably fit, should you want to use the XPulse primarily for greenlaning purposes. 

What we don’t like 

At such a bargain price, there's bound to be a few niggles present. It doesn't take long for these to become apparent, either. A quick look around the bike highlights its budget nature – electrical wires are unsheathed (albeit not exposed) in places, while the front nearside-mounted oil cooler looks and feels very flimsy and at risk of damage. 

The oil cooler is at least protected by a pair of engine bars, though these also don't seem hugely robust and flex when nudged. The jutting-straight-out position of these engine bars also seems to be perfect for trapping a leg in a crash. Other clearly budget-orientated foibles include a lack of rear ABS hardware, despite the ABS settings having a specific setting to turn off rear intervention (even though there is clearly none from the start!). 

The windscreen fitted to our test bike also rattled its way loose and the general performance and quality of the parts isn't great – but again, IT COSTS LESS THAN £3000, and at that price how much can you fairly grumble? 

Swing a leg over and get moving and the slightly alien seating position becomes quickly apparent. It's far from uncomfortable at first, but it is a little odd compared to European and Japanese machinery. The forward-mounted footpegs create an armchair-like posture, not unlike a scooter, which is perfectly fine for seated riding, but attempt to adopt the standing 'attack position' and the pegs are simply way too close to the bars. 

After a couple of hundred miles attempting to contort to the Hero's funky ergos, we (I) eventually forwent the idea of standing up and stayed seated most of the time, which, to be fair, suited the bike's modest engine and suspension performance. 

Speaking of sitting down, the saddle, it must be said, is not exactly comfortable over distance. On a personal note, given that most of my time on two wheels these days is spent on enduro bikes – or, worse still, the type of two wheeler one has to pedal – I don't consider myself particularly sensitive to botty discomfort. Even so, I still found myself battling a sore arse after several hours' riding thanks to the seat's square-edged shape. 

Our final ergonomic moan comes directed at the footpeg height. The bike's super-low seat naturally means the footpegs also need to be close to the ground, for obvious knee-bend-related reasons. 

That's fine on the road – though a bit of roundabout exuberance did see the pegs scraping – but off-tarmac the pegs constantly impact obstacles that would be no issue riding, say, a Yamaha Tenere 700. 

It's worth mentioning that before completing the aforementioned enduro loop on the bike, we threw on a 140/80 rear tyre, which offered a noticeable gain in ride height, not exactly fixing the issue, but improving things marginally. 

The bottom line 

If you're happy to brave the second-hand market, you'll find plenty of 'better' machines available for similar money to the XPulse and, of course, if you can afford to pay more for a brand new bike, doing so may well get you something superior – that much is pretty obvious. The Hero doesn't punch above its weight so much as nothing else really exists in its weight class, figuratively speaking. No other manufacturer builds such a back-to-basics bike anymore – it even still has a kick starter! 

If what you're after is a bike for simply using as a tool for getting from A to B and back again, there's very little to quibble about with the XPulse. If you're looking for a bike that can reliably transport you into nature, without much regard to how fast you can get there, again the Hero is right up for the task - just bear in mind the slightly off ergonomics. 

Clearly, it isn't the ultimate riding machine, and it certainly is not the most capable trail bike known to man, nor is it loaded with gizmos. But as a value proposition, it's pretty unbeatable. An entire motorcycle, yours with a two-year warranty and zero miles on the clock, all for £2699, is not to be sniffed at.