I don’t own a HH Passion, but one of my friend owns one and I have driven it some times. Odo reading of his bike is around 9000 km and 5 services so far has been done on the bike.
So here we go.....
1. Looks : HH does the styling of its bikes very carefully. The finishing and styling of HH bikes are way ahead of it’s competitors (mainly Bajaj). Passion is very much stylish. It looks nice. It’s availability in 11 colours, dual tone finishing, big tail light nice angled seat (You will feel it’s importance with your gf as pillion) makes it’s styling comparable to 150cc counterparts. It have best styling in 100cc segment.
2. Performance : HH has used it’s ages old 97.2cc (7.2 bhp) engine. The only good thing about engine is that it is reliable, tried and tested for so many years. Passion has a kerb weight of 116kg. So this engine provides perhaps the lowest power/weight ratio (of 62 Ps/ton ) of all the bikes in all segments. Pick-up is slow. Fortunately engine’s peak power comes at low revs (5000 rpm), unlike Bajaj engines which peak at high rpms(mostly above 7000). This makes low-end torque acceptable for the tiny engine and you can easily reach peak-power region.
3. Riding Experience : Ride quality of the bike is excellent. Due to it’s heavy built, It does not have vibration at any speed unlike other 100cc bikes like splendor which starts shaking after 50-60. Passion can reach around 80 km/h and it is steady at that speed. Gears are never a problem for HH bikes. Even CD-Dawn (the cheapest bike in HH stable) has very smooth gears. It never gives any starting troubles. Even in cold mornings you don’t need to kick it twice.
4. Mileage : Here comes the question that everyone surely asks about any commuter bike. Because of it’s weight Passion gives less mileage that other 100cc counterparts. The mileage that my friend is getting is around 58 (in Bangalore with normal unleaded petrol). Considering the fact that my 125cc Wind also gives mileage around 56-57, mileage of Passion can’t be treated as good.
Did I miss something? Yes Pricing , price of Passion in Bangalore is around 46 K (on-road price in october). Price is a bit too high for 100cc segment. Price is quite close to 125cc segment bikes.
So all-in-all you should go for the bike if you like it’s styling and in your priority list power/pick-up and mileage are low as compared to styling and stability of the bike. You can ride this bike steadily on 70-75 but don’t expect 0-60 in less than 10 sec.
Please put your comments so that if I missed something I can update the review.
Atul