5-years back. My elder brother needed a new bike. It was a time when Crux, Fiero, Energy/Adreno were quite new to the market. Since it was going to be the first bike for my brother, my preferences were 1. nice handling, lighter in weight and good average of course. RX 100’s legendry performance was fresh in our mind and we had great regards for Yamaha. Hence we opted for Crux . At that time Crux was priced quite near to Splendor.
Crux was a peppy performer. Its handling was wonderful and we virtually played with it. At that time I was having a Fiero and Crux’s performance sometimes would put to me to think, why at all I went for Fiero. While Fiero was great on high speeds, Crux made city driving a pleasure! And I remember touching speeds of 75-80km/hr with almost no vibration or so!.
Now that Crux has done almost 50, 000 kms. Yesterday my brother came to me and I again got an opportunity to drive his bike.
It was in somewhat battered condition. Breaks creaking, Shockers demanding early replacement, few of the instrumentation in dead condition . We went for a 100 km drive in Delhi. I was driving the bike .Its pick-up was no more good. Now a days Delhi has got so many flyovers. The way this old bike negotiated uphill drive on the flyovers , that quite impressed me. Still, its engine was not in bad shape. However gears have become quite nightmarish. They will frequently get stuck-up.
Yesterday’s drive made some good past memories fresh. Delhi city driving is so risky and this bike gave my brother a quite faithful service. Here I will like to mention that my brother learnt bike driving from this bike only!
Crux accounts for almost 50% of total Yamaha sales.Being such a reliable performer , Crux still could not much impress the Indian buyers. May be because of the following:
• Under powered-Its engine capacity is 107cc but it develops almost same power as does splendor at 97cc.
• Low Mileage: Its mileage is in the range of 55-60 km/litre. Much less than contemporary 100cc bikes. Discover and Super splendor give better mileage while both are 125 cc bikes.
• No technological advancement; For improved performance different Indian manufacturers introduced new technologies like CV carburetor, digital control of spark timing and much more! However Yamaha has been quite lethargic. No change in Crux.
What Yamaha has done that Crux is priced these days at entry level. It has introduced some better variants of 100cc bike but no real technological changes. All these bikes have the same 107cc engine and all of them are under powered. I don’t think , under such conditions, John Abrahm can do much help to Yamaha
Still I think this bike is worth buying because it comes with a highly reliable engine and good transmission system.