I bought this bike because I was looking for an entry level 100 cc, low cost bike with good mileage with all the standard equipments. I bought the bike last April. From the very fast day I had gear issues. the gear would suddenly get stuck(as if in neutral) between 4th and 5th. U have to press it again to go down to 5th. Besides the ride posture was not so great, specially with someone who is accustomed to the low seating of a splendor. On the plus side from the day go it gave mileage of over 70 in city conditions, the suspension was reasonably good and the bike sounded refined and smooth. It had all the standard gadgets like tripometer, fuelometer, self-start etc. I must say the headlight which remained constantly bright without respect to engine rotation speed due to direct battery connection was a delight. Gradually the more problems surfaced , the start up was not good, the bike often refused to start with both kick and electric start. Eventually it would start with electric after multiple trials.
I did the first servicing at about 500 . After that many of the problems like the start problem and the gear shift prob reduced considerably. The ’gear-stuck’ prob became extremely rare. The bike also responded quicker when starting. I started occasional travelling to my place of work abt 40km on not so good quality state govt. highways along with city driving. But I noticed that the mileage started dipping. It eventually came down to 57 kmpl within 3 months of buying. More importantly I discovered that the bike has quite poor acceleration even compared to other 100cc bikes (actually it’s 94cc, so I should have expected that) and top speed was only about 90 km per hour. Overtaking trucks in the highway was tricky. But the most dangerous thing was, the bike was horrible when it came to braking. even around speeds of 35 if u break moderately hard..the back tire will skid and slip erratically , and in a slightly higher speed u are bound to fall. I became scared to speed the bike because of the braking problem. It is absolutely dangerous. I fell down once and injured myself when I was just riding at around 40km and had to brake due to one cycle suddenly emerging from a left hand alley. Though I confess, I am not a great rider, still I blame the bike’s handling for the fall completely.
Anyway I did my second servicing around 1700 on the meter. The service guy said that there were reports of variable mileage on different units of the same discover 100 model. However he looked into my bike and tuned it. Amazingly, the mileage increased to 80 kmpl right after, and I noticed it had become quieter and felt smoother. I also had a problem with the fuelometer. It showed full even if I put only 5ltrs and sometimes the bike occasionally went to reserve even when the fuelometer showed(falsely) quite a bit of oil left. The service guy couldn’t fix it completely.
Overall, I must say that the biggest plus point is definitely mileage, and worst flaw is handling..specially braking. Others plus points include constant headlight, reasonably good suspension , nicely designed tail light etc.If you are looking for a bike with good mileage with the petrol price going up every month, u can go for it. But you should not be looking for highway drive and even in city condition keep your speed within 40-45.
P.s.: if anybody can give me any suggestion, how to improve the stability and avoid skidding during braking.
I will look forward to it. can I change the brakes or tires to something else? how?