Bajaj Freedom 125 CNG Bike Vs Honda Shine 125: Battle Of Mileage Heavyweights

If we talk about the power on offer, the Freedom 125 has a single cylinder engine with 9.5 bhp while the Shine 125 has more power at 10.74 PS with also having slightly more torque

The Shine 125 is the no-nonsense commuter bike and is more affordable hence as a petrol only option it works but the Freedom 125 CNG looks better along with offering lower running costs with CNG. (Image Source: Somnath Chatterjee)

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The first CNG motorcycle is here and while currently, it would be sold in select markets in India and later across all, the big question is how it stacks up against the other commuter motorcycles. Here, we chose the Honda Shine 125 to check the value for money factor. The Bajaj Freedom 125 CNG price ranges from Rs 95,000 to Rs 1.10 lakh with three variants along with seven colour options. The Honda Shine 125 is cheaper as it starts from Rs 79,800 to Rs 83,800 ex-showroom.

If we talk about the power on offer, the Freedom 125 has a single cylinder engine with 9.5 bhp while the Shine 125 has more power at 10.74 PS with also having slightly more torque. The difference of course comes with the CNG set-up for the Freedom 125 where you can run on CNG or petrol with a flip of the switch. The petrol tank capacity is 2 litres and the CNG tank has 2 kg capacity. The Shine 125 on the other hand has a capacity of 10.5l. Back to Bajaj and the claimed efficiency does mean less running costs. The mileage on CNG is 102 km/kg while on petrol it is 65/km. The combined range is more than 300km. The Shine meanwhile has less mileage at 55kmpl.

The other factors matter too and Bajaj have made the Freedom 125 CNG more muscular in design and less of a commuter with the headlamp design plus the details. The Shine 125 looks more restrained in comparison. Both bikes do not offer a lot of features but the Freedom 125 does offer an LCD console/Bluetooth while the Shine has an analogue one.

The Shine 125 is the no-nonsense commuter bike and is more affordable hence as a petrol only option it works but the Freedom 125 CNG looks better along with offering lower running costs with CNG. The Freedom 125 from Bajaj would be cheaper to run but you have to keep in mind the long queues at CNG stations plus less in number when compared to normal petrol pumps.