Bajaj Spirit

So out of these four sub-100 cc scooterettes on the market today, which is the best? Which is the most reliable? Which is the cheapest? Which gives the best mileage? Which is the most comfortable? To find out, I decided to do a shootout between them. These were Kinetic Pride, LML Trendy, TVS Scooty and Bajaj Spirit. While Kinetic, LML and TVS provided me with Pride, Trendy and Scooty respectively,

LML Trendy

Bajaj Auto did not give any vehicle. Consequently, I had to borrow one. It was an almost brand new ungeared SPIRIT, which I borrowed from a friend who who plays badminton with me.

The specifications of the four scooterettes as claimed by the manufacturers are as follows:

Pride

I decided to do an ENDURANCE TEST, that is ride them almost to the ground. Push the bikes to the limit as far as speed is concerned. Ride the bikes full zip all the time as much as the road / traffic allows. The idea was to do about 500 kms, over varied terrain - costal + mountain + plains. Thus the route selected was : Pune - Paud - Valnay - Ambavnay - Lonavala - Pen (pronounced Pain) - Alibag - Murud - Panchaitan -Mhasla -Mahad - ShivTharGhal - Varandha Ghat - Hirdoshi - Bhor - Kapurhole - Pune. (see map).

Kinetic K4

Meanwhile, I also had an overdue long-term-test due on two other bikes of another class : four stroke step-thrus. That is the Kinetic K4-100 and the Hero Honda Street. So I decided to include them too in this run. A back up four wheeler was needed. What better than a Sumo? So I hired one. I got all the six bikes properly serviced from the authorized dealer as certified by the service engineer of each company. I was all set.

A word on the four strokers. The Kinetic K4-100 has a 89.57 cc, single cylinder engine with standard LH operated clutch and four foot operated gears. In a Road Test done on a K4 early last year, it gave me 105 kms per litre at steady 40 kmph on the outskirts of Pune, which is a record. No other bike, not even the two-stroke, 22 cc Enfield MOFA, which I tested years ago, has given this kind of mileage. Also In the 4000 kms Kashmir to KanyaKumari Mileage Challenge Rally, done by me in June 1999 (just after this shoot-out), two K4s gave 92.6 kms per litre in actual road conditions across the country. Again a record, which no other bike has matched until now.

Street

The Hero Honda Street has a 97.2 cc single cylinder engine with no LH operated clutch, and also has four foot operated gears. The clutch is automatic and the gears are rotary. The Street has the distinction of being the worlds largest selling single model of bike ever, with over two-and-a-half crore bikes of this model sold world-wide until today. The auto-clutch and rotary gears were designed by the legendary Soichiro HONDA himself.

Read the full story ( Scooterette Wars ) -
Background | The Bikes | The Riders | The Journey | The Performance | The Economics