Hey there, this is a review of my new bike after riding it for almost 50km (inside city, but will update this incase i find other things worth telling here). Here are the pros and cons (points are ordered in descending order of important / significance to me):
PROS: -
- Excellent mileage (though initial mileage was lower but I'm not sure if it was because of engine break-in period or I adapted to drive optimally. Initially avg mileage was around 50kmpl it came for a load of 100kg on bike. Then as I tried to drive it economically by early gear shifting and constant speeds, it gives 53-57 kmpl for now with instantaneous mileage going very high sometimes)
- Power Delivery is pretty good for a 125cc, which is expected for a brand new bike, but still I'm pretty satisfied in this. As long as you upshift late power delivery isnt "bad".
- Digital display with - Trip A,B meters, avg mileage, instantaneous mileage, range (only appears when fuel isn't full), with Eco indicator just as reference to teach rider to drive at constant speed at lower rpm.
- Quick and Clean Silent Start - The start of the bike is very silent and easy , you dont hear a starter motor or anything as it doesnt have one exactly like other bikes (uses some magnetic stuff to spin it directly apparently) WARNING: Engine sound will only be silent when you buy or immediately after services. Later it creates a sound so not very silent but silent enough.
- General Look, seating etc - Has a look of a stylish commuter vehicle which has a sport vibe in some angles, but generally nothing bad to say. It also has a chain guard to avoid mud getting stuck on chain. Seating was ok though I've heard in other reviews it was mentioned to be hard, but I feel its fine, atleast the "fatigue" level seems reasonable when driving it for me. Also, the rear wheel width which has improved in bs6 phase 2 does have some good effect on confidence so that's another plus point.
But I dont know if its for my size, but sometimes i felt the tank being so wide, i get some muscle cramp like pain when sitting, it rarely happens though, but not in bikes with thinner tanks.
CONS: -
- False Neutrals and Incomplete Gear Shifting - Suddenly while gear shifting, the gear doesn't fall and we have to press twice most of the time. Worst thing is sometimes it doesn't fall at all!!! Took a few seconds after I slowed down the bike, and pressed it by slowly "feeling" the gears, then it worked. This happens occasionally but can be very irritating. So just see about that (asked in 1st service, so have few others, they have tried but only slight improvement)
Edit: When you drive for long you get the touch of how to not make it fall in false neutral, and it gets better with time also.
- Breaks could be stronger - Yes this has CBS built in it, but (if you didn't know) it works only for back / foot pedal brake, but front brakes neither have CBS nor are strong. So when travelling I have to slightly be cautious since I cant brake very fast. Its good for regular breaking but sudden breaking...not exactly.
Though I bypass this by conciously using BOTH normal braking along with engine breaking simuntaneously, and this works good enough. NEVER go for drum brake variant. breaking will become useless then. - Back Tyre Ridges are deep but their shape is such that mud gets splashed on underside parts of the rear of the bike, especially bad even if you go on slightly wet roads. So keeping this bike clean in even slightly wet roads is not easy at all in some regions.
- Build Quality does feel slightly low for some structural things, but also more important things like indicator lights. Yes, the kerb weight is low but some things they shouldn't do tradeoff to reduce weight and also reduce cost like this.
- Heating felt in your legs - For an engine you expect to have super smoothness, silent start, etc., the heating radiated onto your legs feels wrong as if something is malfunctioning. If friction is so less, just after some time of riding it heats up which doesn't make sense with the overall impression of the engine.
Edit: This eventually went away and/or I've got used to it, so maybe a false alarm.
Overall, I would still go for the bike even though current on-road price with "good to have" extra fittings like engine guards,etc (like 7 things or so) costed 1.17L . Besides, honda gives 3+7 years warranty! (on mostly the engine ONLY)
Bonus Content:
Important not to rev engine too much or lug the engine too much initially in break-in period after buying (not recommended other times also, but mainly initially after buying) for proper calibration of engine in terms of friction between parts, etc. So one of the things you can control is gear shifting...
Bonus Content:
Important not to rev engine too much or lug the engine too much initially in break-in period after buying (not recommended other times also, but mainly initially after buying) for proper calibration of engine in terms of friction between parts, etc. So one of the things you can control is gear shifting...
Too early shifting and engine lugs, Late shifting and high rpm is bad for mileage and heating, reducing life of some vulnerable parts slightly. (Though it is controversially suggested redlining is good for the general engine (search "italian tune up" in google), anyways do it conservatively only.)
Here I have given minimum speed for each gear below which you should never drive. Infact for upshifting, you would need to go much higher speeds/rpm to upshift. Below given is the absolutely minimal cruizing base rpm speed which you shouldnt accelerate rapidly as engine will struggle, only suited when traffic is high but you can go exact constant speed especially without suddenly breaking, even 1 kmph down and engine will lug:
- 1st : 4 kmph
- 2nd : 8 kmph
- 3rd : 12 kmph
- 4th : 17 kmph
- 5th : 20 kmph (has high amount of load so strictly above 29 is recommended, I can literally hear the strain below this number)
(3rd and 4th are very close in gear ratios and barely any difference, just use 3rd if you can't maintain a speed perfectly above 20kmph or 5th if more than 25 kmph )
