Brixton Cromwell 1200 quick ride: Most affordable 1200cc motorcycle

My guess is you’ve never heard of this brand of motorcycle before. Well that’s alright, because Brixton is a fairly new brand and hasn’t been around for even a decade. Brixton motorcycles are manufactured in China and are owned by the Austrian KSR group, which owns multiple motorcycle companies, including the old Italian marque Malaguti.

They’ve partnered up with Kolhapur-based KAW Veloce Motors who will be assembling these motorcycles in India. While Brixton internationally sells 125cc to 1200cc motorcycles, they’ve been rather bold with launching their 500cc and 1,200cc motorcycles here in India.

Brixton Cromwell 1200 performance and handling

This was a very quick ride and we were only given 20 minutes on each motorcycle around the parking lot of a hotel in Kolhapur. So this will be more of a first look rather than a review. On paper, the Cromwell 1200 seems quite qualified to take on the competition. It has a 1,222cc in-line twin cylinder motor that produces 83hp at 6,550rpm and 108Nm at 3,100rpm. This motor is mated to a 6-speed gearbox and the bike has a 16-litre fuel tank. It tips the scales at 235kg. Brixton has also been quite generous and added features like traction control, ABS and even cruise control.

From the moment I started moving, this motor felt surprisingly engaging and the limited space allotted to experience this motorcycle didn’t quite do justice to it. The strong surge of torque propels you off the line with incredible ferocity and I never had the chance to experience what any of the higher gears felt like. That aside, refinement levels were pretty decent and despite packing in so much performance, the vibrations were reasonably well contained.

Unlike its smaller-capacity siblings that come equipped with J.Juan brakes, the Cromwell 1200 gets a set of Nissin calipers that performed surprisingly well, and the brakes provided good feedback for the speeds I did.

While there is no hiding the heft of this motorcycle, its Pirelli Phantom Sportscomp tyres performed adequately well and I found myself scraping the pegs more often than not. Unfortunately, I can’t quite comment on the ride quality and outright handling since the location had but one low speed turn.

Brixton Cromwell 1200 design and features

The speedo is a circular TFT that isn’t too bright, and it's hard to read under direct sunlight. It can also be a little slow to respond at times and the animations aren’t as smooth as I would have liked. You also get an Eco Mode and Sport mode that can be controlled via a mode button. Weirdly enough this isn’t a simple tap-to-change-modes sort of setup, but instead, you’re forced to hold the button for at least five seconds.

I tried changing the modes on the move but the button wouldn’t respond. Switchgear quality seems adequate, but it doesn't match the quality levels we’ve come to expect from other premium offerings.

In terms of design, the Cromwell 1200 carries a typical silhouette of a modern retro motorcycle; it’s a good looking machine. Currently, the Cromwell 1200 is only available in this shade of Timberwolf Grey, which looks quite sombre.

If you take a closer look, the Cromwell 1200 does have some nice looking details sprinkled around. Design elements like the beautiful looking LED headlamp and a knurled finish on the fuel tap cap look exceptional and are sure to catch your attention.

Brixton Cromwell 1200 verdict

For a price of Rs 7.84 lakh (ex-showroom, India), the Cromwell 1200 makes quite a case for itself. It undercuts its closest rival from Triumph by nearly Rs 4 lakh! It packs punchy performance and a timeless design at a price that’s hard to resist for buyers looking for a large capacity motorcycle on a relatively tight budget. The issue is one of multiple unknowns.

There is no brand awareness and we also have no way of knowing what the long-term quality and reliability will be like. Moreover, availability will be very limited with the bike being sold in two cities currently and plans to expand to six by the end of the year. The company intends to address this and hopes to have a considerable footprint across the nation, but it remains to be seen how long that may take. All these are concerns that only time will answer.

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