Of all the bikes produced by TVS after its estrangement from collaborator Suzuki, the TVS Fiero is the only bike that has really stood the test of time....
The long forgotten Fiero and Fiero F2 provided little happiness to most of their owners and their numbers dropped significantly, strangely after offsetting the trendsetting CBZ from the Indian markets....
The Fiero FX somehow survived the sands of time and though its sales were far below expectation, most of those that were sold are still seen roaming arounnd today’s streets...
Now to discuss the bike in detail....
Looks : Well... To be honest the looks were a bit of a let down... A design inspired by the legendary Harley Davidson fully garnished with liberal quantities of chrome fell flat because of slightly bulbous looks and too large a headlight... Agreed the bike has decent looks generally but they were a tad disappointing...
Engine : Fitted with the good old Fiero engine, any rider of this chrome plated workhorse would have expected a close enough performance to it... Sadly, this was not the case... With the overall weight of the bike on the upward trend, the mileage took a beating and with it, the common Indian mileage oriented customer base... Yet the engine still stand apart simply for its longevity and decent performance... And if the Fiero FX were marginally revamped and re introduced with better advertising today, it may just do well... In general I would rate the engine as pretty good even in a long term sense of the word...
Gearbox : This is one the areas where the FX is seriously lacking... One would have expected a 5th gear to be standard fitment to this bike, but somehow TVS did not feel so... Anyhow, with the existing 4 speed box, the Fiero perform pretty smoothly... Yes, there are the occasional false neutrals and such like, but when ridden well. the gearbox has few glitches to be spoken about....
Mileage : The mileage of the Fiero FX is decent, giving a steady mileage of about 45 kmpl... And many users have said they get better than that even after a good few years of usage.... Considering the power and weight of the bike, this mileage is good considering that TVS is known for its false mileage claims...
Build quality : This is where the FX scores pretty well... The quality of materials used is good... To an extent where one can just pcik up the bike and continue riding with few scratches after accidents... the chrome mirrors do not break very easily and that is definitely good since they are no so easily available.... The brakes are pretty good with the discs performing adequately well...
Ride quality : The ride is quite comfortable even on longish drives into the country side... The engine provides a steady performance and the suspension is suited to Indian roads.... The weight of the bike increases the controllability and makes for a far more comfortable when travelling with a pillion...
Well.. In spite of all these good aspects, the FX was withdrawn along with the original Fiero... Why one may ask... Well speculation is high... And though its successor the Apache is doing reasonably well as of now, only time will tell what lies in store.... For all those hopefuls out there, maybe a revamped FX could be on the cards if TVS can derive enough character to it....
To sum it all up, the Fiero FX is a pretty good bike which, with improvements would have done well if not for its premature withdrawal...
Please do rate this review after reading till this mile... It will give you another well wisher even if you don’t like it....