I am from Bangalore. I finished my Bachelors a decade ago, short in height (5’3") but no so light in weight (60kg). I have picked up my Star City 110 cc today. It has black and blue sticker which looked great. I requested for the following accessories
a) Engine guard
b) seat and engine cover
c) blinkers
d) helmet lock
I don’t know how to drive a bike still. So I had to be the pillion for the first ride on my new bike ..
I was happy that it comes with a tool kit, a cell-phone charging station and also a first-aid kit
For ES to work in Star City, it has to be in neutral !!
The seating was very comfortable and the drive of ~10kms very pleasant.
Occasionally, I felt that maybe we were driving at low gear for the speed we were at the engine was making such sounds. Moreover, my friend was struggling with the gears as they were very hard it seems. He was saying that after 1st service things will be OK. What do you say guys?
I have started riding my star but I am disappointed with the initial pickup. First gear maxes out around 10 kmph. Similarly my second gear tops up around 20 kmph and engine groans if you throttle more.
Handling of the bike was very good. Easy to navigate the bike in small gullies, making quick turns etc.
Some more interesting information:
I was just glancing at the owner’s manual and found that the max. speed of this vehicle was only 83 kmph. Maybe the reason why people complain of vibrations near 60-65 kmph ! I am disappointed by the max.speed. Also, when we were driving on some rough roads. The stand was hitting the ground which I did not like it at all. This is due to the low ground clearance height of 160 mm.
I hope to keep you all updated about my bike as time goes by.
UPDATE 1: First Week’s Report
I rode the bike in gullies for almost 4-5 days in the week without getting on the main road. I used it to commute from home to office, a distance of 2kms. I was extremely careful that I did not cross the 45 kmph mark. Even though I was tempted to go overboard many a times. Come weekend and I wanted to experiment on the main road. I took all my courage and went to my brothers house who stays about 7 kms from mine. As it was a weekend, the traffic was less dense and it was pleasurable to ride my bike on the main road. I had difficulties at the signal sometimes, in first gear, in the sense that I did not coordinate my clutch and accelerate properly. It was embarrassing, as the traffic was behind me and I failed to take off.
On sunday, I went for a 60 km round trip on a highway. I started off early in the morning around 6 am. I had trouble during starting. I had to kick at least 3-4 times before the bike started. It was still pretty dark outside, but it was no big deal with the powerful headlamp of this bike. It threw light to a distance of 20-25 ft ahead of you. I was going steady 40-45kmph on the highway. The engine sound was great and the ride comfort was awesome. Even after driving 1hr 15mins continuously, I did not feel tired. Another great feature of the bike was that I was able to go to a speeds as low of 20kmph in 4th gear and to 10kmph in 3rd gear. So I did not do much gear shifting.
Nevertheless, I had an odd incident during this trip. It happened during the early hours when there was not much traffic but there was this guy in a big jeep talking on cell phone and was driving on the service way parallel to the main road and out of nowhere he suddenly steers to the main road. I was keeping an eye on him and honked loudly but he did not care and just continued and I had to apply sudden brakes and my rear tyre skidded. Luckily I did not fall !!. It was little scary though.
I could test the bike much better in this long trip and I am thoroughly satisfied with the bike. It can pick-up when necessary. I overtook couple of buses and lorries raising my accelerate and it just zoomed past them with ease.
Finally, it is giving a mileage of around 61 kmpl. I clocked around 155 km of which the first half was mostly 1, 2 and 3rd gear driving and speeds upto 30 kmph. So maybe the reason for slightly lower mileage. I guess the mileage on highway would have definitely ~ 70 kmpl.
More to come
Happy Biking