Kinetic Flyte – the review

Some one asked me to write a review on the Flyte because he wanted to know if it’s worth purchasing. So here goes…

If you are looking for a practical scooter which should help you shunt from office to home and home to the market place, effortlessly, and without lightening up your wallet by much, the Flyte makes brilliant sense. Given, of course, these destinations are in striking distance of each other.
On the practical front, the Flyte offers comfortable seating- the seat, handlebar and floorboard relation for an average Indian (read 5’9” – 5’10”) is bang on. The seat itself is quite agreeable for short sprints.
Then of course you have the huge loading area under the seat which can house your full face helmet, fabric jacket, gloves, mascara, eyeliner, hair drier and all the extra stuff today’s man loves to carry around. Get the helmet and jacket out and there’s place for your shopping bags. Furthermore, there are hang hooks, a mobile charger which can also double up as your i-pod power source.
Front fuel filler, a SYM trait and borrowed by Bajaj for the slow selling Kristal, is another practical touch, as is the key slot guard.
Furthermore, build quality and the fit and finish; two areas which you’d agree Kinetic hitherto has failed miserably to deliver on, thankfully, is top class on the new scooter. The tie up with SYM sure seems to have had its plus points!
The panel gaps, though present are even and as good as on the so-called benchmark scooter, the Honda Activa. The switchgear works well too and is easy to navigate, even on the move. The visibility is good too, and the Flyte is easy of manoeuvre through congested traffic, thanks mainly to its smaller dimensions.
The engine in question is SYM’s 8bhp 125cc engine. But it doesn’t feel like it at all, especially when compared to 7bhp somethings 100cc scooters already available in the market. Not that it feels anaemic or even lethargic; in fact, it motors around effortlessly, be it getting off the mark or overtaking, but it just doesn’t fit the 125cc psychological performance grade. It feels more like a faster Scooty Pep rather than feeling like a faster Dio. Which honestly, it should.
It is overwhelming refined though - there’s hardly any variomatic judder and even with the throttle completely wrung open, moving close to 80ks, there aren’t any uncomfortable vibes that might numb your hands or behind.
To boot, the Flyte is endowed with well sorted ride quality – it isn’t back breakingly stiff nor is it wallowy like the older Kinetic Honda. It just goes about cushioning the rider and the pillion with plush-ness so far uncharacteristic of scooters sold in the country. And is almost perfect for our interior roads.
It, then, does everything you’d ask from your everyday runabout scooter pretty well. So should you buy it? Given its price which is significantly less than the Dios and the Activas and comparable to the likes of the Peps and Kristals, absolutely! It just won’t help you with your hep image if you are a guy, that’s all.

What are we cribbing about?

Was recently in Germany. Hamburg to be precise. And as you’d be aware, like in India, it is winter time there as well. However, the temperatures there during the hottest part of the day hover around 0 degrees! To add, the road surface is slippery, and as a result, bikers are truly few and far between. I saw just one, riding the BMW R1200GS (probably because it had ABS!), during my three day stay in the city.
It’s the same story across most of Europe. Summer, dear reader, is the only time when bikers there can actually enjoy their bike’s full potential, if ever.
Imagine, if we had less than half a year to enjoy biking, I for one would be one unhappy soul. Moreover, we can exploit the potential of our bikes far easily (and regularly if I may add).
So then why do we crib about the goras having it better than us? Just because they have more powerful (and better looking and better laden with technology and better handling and …) machines than we do! Sure, it’s a sore point. But looking at the bigger picture, I think we are better off. And not because we can now buy the R1s and the MT-01s of the world (that’s for the select money bags amongst us in any case), but because we can enjoy ourselves and our set of wheels probably to a level our firang friends can only dream about.
I love the motorcycling here - it’s challenging, what with all the daft motorists around braking, overtaking, lane changing and spewing pan juice (not to mention the trucks laying in the oil for royal treatment) at the most unexpected moments (and places). It’s also entertaining and involving – the roads in Maharastra, in Rajasthan, in Kerela these are superbly surfaced with twisties abound. And for those who enjoy excursions off road, there’s Bihar, and UP too.
We also aren’t burdened with devastatingly high insurance costs, or ridiculously low travel range (barring the Kinetic Blaze, no doubt), or 250kmph rockets – cause the latter will most definitely kill the majority. The stories coming in from Greater Noida are an indication, wouldn’t you say? Rhetorically speaking, of course.
Okay, I am not completely kicked about the sort of bikes we have here at the moment, sure these look good but score poorly under the ‘capacity-horsepower-performance relation’ head. A 125cc bike making 8-10bhp, or a 150cc that has only recently crossed the 15bhp mark aren’t the makings of an enthusiast driven scene. Things get even more dismal up the capacity ladder – a 200 making 18bhp but struggling to beat a 223 with an even more shameful 17bhp on tap is seriously sad.
Now the good news! Come Auto Expo and we will see the capacity-horsepower-performance head realign itself. And expect Yamaha and TVS to lead the charge.
It will also not be a one model brilliance this, but a continual effort leaving us bikers with even lesser reasons to crib!

Indian motorcycling gets a move on

We have seen stunting aplenty - both in motoring magazines as well as on the road. And it’s a brilliant thing because motorcycling is as much about skill as it is about freedom and expression. Stunting, is also an expression, by the way.
Moreover, it’s really heartening to see that we the biking enthusiasts in the country aren’t looking for excuses to steer clear of challenges. We have traversed the most challenging terrain, in equally challengingly inapt bikes; done stunts our western counterparts pull on better suited, more powerful offerings; and the so-called barometer of motoring enthusiasm – motoring magazines have done their bit as well – showcasing brilliantly executed pictures of artistry on our teeny-whiney machines, then be it brilliant shots of wheelies, stoppies, burnouts, jumps or even cornering.
However, what has been missing hitherto has been the lack of show of some everyday riding skill. Getting one’s knee down around a corner is one; power sliding out of bends on opposite lock is, of course, the other!
The former I firmly believe aids corner speed, and is also a vital safety ingredient when it comes to fast riding. The latter meanwhile is a display of not just immense riding ability, but of utmost courage.
And we have been missing both for sometime now, on the road as well as in print. Thankfully, things are changing for the better. And I’d like to congratulate two particular individuals for it - Joshua from BSM who got his knee down on the Bajaj XCD a couple of months back, and Varad from Bike who achieved the same on the Hero Honda Hunk just last month.
There’s good reason to cheer the achievement too, just in case some of you were wondering what the hullabaloo is all about… You see, we have seen all and sundry pulling wheelies and stoppies not to mention burning rubber in mags, on traffic lights, around crowded locales and deserted roads. But, knee down antics, hitherto have been rare.
What makes it all special is the fact that the rider’s have wafer thin contact patches (read ridiculously thin tyres) to play with here. Not to mention tyres that are designed more for life than grip and over roads which are anything but predictable or well-laid or grippy. Unlike our racing friends (in India) who use special soft compound imported rubber on tarmac so grippy, it can shred leather (of your suit and your body) if you were to have a fall. Little wonder, knee down on tracks is a common occurrence.
The feat achieved by both is an indication really that motorcycling in India is getting a move on. We are not afraid to experiment, and take things to a higher level.
What is also of importance here is the fact that a lot of riders look up to magazines and their writers. They emulate them, cause they feel it’s possible – after all the mag guys too are riding the same bikes.
Heart felt congratulations then to Joshua and Varad for not only adding oomph to biking pictures, but also giving the Indian motorcycling youth yet another escapade to embark upon.

Ads – are they a reflection of our bike makers?

I would think so, and here’s why. Let’s talk Hero Honda first.
You’d agree no one understands the entry-level, 100cc market better than the Munjals along with Honda. After all, they have the puny machines to thank for, for their number one bike maker status, umpteen numbers of years running…
And it shows in the CD and Splendor ads. The connect, is superb. And is a reflection of the bike maker’s understanding of the audience. Watch the Blind dad ad for the Splendor and Super Splendor for starters!
However, the ads for the company’s premium segment offerings; the X-treme, the Karizma R or even the latest Hunk, are pathetic, to say the least. These ads lack oomph and excitement; actually they lack everything the product stands for – power, performance and the sheer ability to enthuse. An indication, I believe, that Hero Honda (Honda mostly) fails to understand the needs of the premium TG.
Bajaj on the other hand understands the 20 to 30 somethings as if the company were shaping their thoughts! The Pulsar ads, right from the beginning have had that all-important ‘hook up’ flavour to them. And the fact that buyers, even after having faced quality issues with the bikes, have gone ahead and bought these offerings is a testimony to the same. In fact, they swear by their bikes, do these enthusiasts. And the amazing thing is; they actually consider the bike’s shortfalls as her pluses!
TVS too has done well in the premium segment ad scenario. The Apache ads were brilliant – college guys, frolicking, taking pot shots at boring, and more focused men. And then the RTR ad – the flirting, the rebellion, and of course the carefree attitude – the ad only raises the bar. The Star ads meanwhile have touched the right listeners as well. And though TVS isn’t setting the sales charts on fire, the company is at least logged on to the radar of majorities. And that’s half the battle.
Ads then are a reflection, a refection of our bike makers understanding of our needs.

Why trusting auto mags is a good idea…

I know many of you might not agree with me when I say, making a buying decision based on an auto mag review is a good idea.
But this is where I am coming from – We generally form opinions based on what we see, hear and feel. So, if we find the bike good looking, like the Pulsar or the Hunk, we are already bitten by it. We then hear and read about the bikes and their performance, on blogs, from friends, and from a lot other channels, besides auto mags, of course. We also, more often then not, take a test ride of our short listed models.
It’s all very good, till you realise, all that you have read about are impressions gathered on a new bike. No one really speaks about how the bike is aging up; whether the clutch is slipping; are rust patches forming all over; or the switchgear or instrumentation has gone haywire, or how many times a month does one need to adjust the brakes (if they do it at all).
But the shallow reviews aren’t exactly the writer’s fault. To begin with, the test rides offered by all company dealers is just too short to understand anything.
Then there’s the question of lack of experience. And no, I don’t mean the lack of riding experience, but the lack of experience riding a variety of motorcycles. If, all you have ridden is a Splendor all your life, or maybe a friend’s Pulsar off and on; you’d be completely blown by the P220, or even the Karizma or the P180 for that matter.
But if you have experienced a plethora of bikes, of various segments, back-to-back, you begin to understand who is short changing you, and who is delivering as promised.
The auto mags have this advantage, the advantage of sampling any model, at any time, and for any duration. Needless to say, they are in a better position to deliver the correct verdicts on a motorcycle’s handling, ride quality, ergonomics (both for city use and for the highway), and also things like performance and driveability, the latter, obviously is backed by test data.
Mags, thanks to running a long term fleet, can also tell you and me, how the bike is aging up, and how well or poorly is it doing compared to the competition.
The biggest issue, I believe, you guys have with mags, is the disparity in their test figures, and at times in their judgment.
Here’s a pointer which helps me make sense of it all, and I hope it might help you too.
Every magazine has a different outlook, so while one might lay more emphasis on performance, the other might choose to base its verdict on the user friendliness of a bike. There’s a reason behind that too – the varying needs and preferences of the Indian buyer. My last post on ‘why we buy, what we buy’ tells you a bit about it.
In fact, you can try it yourself. If you own a 150cc motorcycle, let’s say the Pulsar (cause it’s the best selling model in its segment), try asking other P150 owners en route to work, college, or home at a traffic signal, or at the chai tapir, why they bought the motorcycle, dig a bit deeper and you’d realize, he reasons are quite different from yours! You can try the same with your friends even.
As for the difference in performance figures, a few tenths here and there shouldn’t really matter, cause mags use different test routes, different riders, and moreover different bikes for their tests, and just like no two people are the same, neither are two Pulsars, Apaches, or CBZs.
I have bought bikes and accessories based on magazine reviews, and truth be told, besides making a wrong choice of tyres, it has all gone very well.

Why we buy, what we buy?

It might not seem like much, but the above question is an eternal one. After all, cracking this riddle would mean a gleaming top line for our bike making brigade. And yes, the first for-ever hungry company that manages to crack it, will, of course, wear the coveted number one crown.
But if you have been following the Indian market, and I don’t mean in the hard core sort of a way: keeping a tab on numbers, margins et al, but simply a track of new launches, you’d realize it’s almost impossible to solve the riddle. I mean, just look at the number of new launches, variants, paint jobs, feature enhancement surgeries that happen on a model, and that too within weeks of its launch.
This can only mean two things: one, our bike makers are still clueless about what we as customers demand, and second, as buyers, we too are clueless about our needs!
The latter is well highlighted by the questions I have had to field over the years from a widespread audience on what bike they should buy. The needs put forward are equally wide-ranging: “I want a fuel efficient bike, and it ought to be cheap,” says a 100cc customer, almost always. There’s no talk about styling or features. Why then, are bike makers lavishing their entry level models with electric start, alloy wheels, and bright and contemporary styling?
Cause it helps sell! Look at our top three bike companies, and look at their model line up - Hero Honda has constantly updated the CD, there was the Dawn, and now there’s the Deluxe, fully loaded. Bajaj too played its part with the stylish Platina, and TVS, well… TVS introduced not one or two, but four variants of the Star, before bringing in the fifth – the 110cc avatar. The point of it all being; it’s the top-of-the-line variant, no matter which model, that has the lion’s share.
Yes, that’s a typical Indian bike buyer for you: he knows he wants fuel efficiency, and low purchase price, but give him an extra douse of features, which he thought unnecessary, and he goes and picks the best endowed one!
But why just the entry level customer, buyers in the 150cc plus segment aren’t any different.
We say we want performance. Fuel efficiency can’t be in the 30s of course, but kilometer-to-a-litre isn’t our priority. We want our motorcycles to look good, handle well, and offer a newness so far missing in the segment.
The P150 comes out, and we lap it up. Achiever, Unicorn, Graptors, and the likes don’t catch our fancy. We find them lacking in a number of areas – styling and performance to list a couple.
Apache sees light of day – its stylish, a tad faster, and handles like a dream, but we still don’t exactly take to it like a dog (or was it ants?) to sweets. P150 upgrade is launched, this time with a LED tail and LCD read, but a disappointing gain in performance, but we still take to it, and say, “Look at all that fancy stuff! That’s value for money”
Now, here’s my point.
We as buyers don’t exactly appreciate what we demand. And despise taking risks. We are like a herd; we move with the majority; the more bikes on the road means, the make is proven, it would be a safe bet then, forgetting what we demanded and stood for in the first place.
I’d hate to be a manufacturer in India.
But I am not too happy to be a buyer either, thanks to the majority of the bike buying public’s attitude – we get swayed by fancy stuff so easily rather than rewarding true performance and motorcycling purity which we speak about at rides, meets, blogs, and even on a web forum.
No wonder manufacturers refuse to take risks, and we end up saddled with duds, which we have been living with what seems like eternity, and will probably continue to do so... well, at least till the Expo, we will.

World's fastest Indian

I am not one who loves to keep abreast with the latest movies, especially in the first day, first show sort of a way. But I love movies, and love consuming them at my own leisure, with a chilled glass of barely water, and some of my favourite, artery clogging oil soaked crispies.
So please bare with me on this one, cause I understand talking about Anthony Hopkin’s The World’s Fastest Indian, two years after its international release, is ummm… late.
I had just had to watch this one, everyone I knew raved about the film, particularly my motorcycle buddies. That it wasn’t so much about riding, but transsexuals, Kiwi accents, and large hearted Americans, is something they forget to mention. Knowing them well, it’s more a case of not noticing, rather then mentioning.
Overall, I’d rate the movie as watch-able, but nothing exceptional at all. It’s also more for viewers who love to see a man emerge triumph against all possible odds than for a biking enthusiast.
But the beauty of the film is; how the odds just seem to sort themselves out mainly on account of Mr …. age! It’s unbelievable. No, no, not in the positive, exclamationsort of a way, but literally.
I mean, come on, first the shipment holding the bike gets damaged, but there’s barely a scratch on the Indian. Then Mr …. loses a wheel on his trolley carrying the Indian, resulting in the latter rolling around a bit, but behold! the bike still manages to survive without worrisome damage.
Mr kiwi finds himself a log, substitutes it for a wheel and carries on, is something I can digest, as he won’t be trying to break the 200mph record with this four wheel junk.
But the odds disappearing in thin air, or salt flats as it were, for Mr Kiwi continues right till the end of the almost two hour long flick.
Now, he hasn’t registered for the run, which the director conveys is an absolute, absolute must. Thanks a lot, to a lot of large hearted Americans then, for they convince the initially stuck up organizers to give the determined old man from down under the chance of a life time, even though his Indian doesn’t even meet the basic safety requirements for such a run.
There’s more of it, but I am beginning to get bored, and I am sure you are too. Now, I don’t want to sound cynical towards the movie, cause at the end of the day, this one’s based on a true story. And I am sure all of these odds pretty much existed, and were overcome too.
But so effortlessly? I seriously have my doubts. It’s the director’s cut then, that’s not really toothsome.