I bought a Black Mahindra Rodeo SYM about a month back. This is the first time I’m submitting a review this quick, but I’ve done all the experiments and the bike has passed with ease. I actually bought this bike for my wife to use for commuting to office and back. She has a tendency to ignore new bike conditions, so I rode it exclusively for the first 230 kms to get the engine smooth. I know I know, everyone says you should do 400 kms or more at top speed of 40 kmph. I didn’t. One of my friends, an automobile engineer, who was a Service Manager with Bajaj and with Maruthi told me how to get the running in done without issues. His secret was to run the bike in idle for 1 hour as soon as you get the thing home. Did that without any delay and the engine has been smooth until now.
Sometimes the electric start doesn’t really kick in until the third or fourth attempt. Its usually when the bike has been idle for 2 days or so. I travel quite a bit and have taken this bike on 20 - 30 km city rides for quite a few days. Early morning starts were fine, but if I let the bike sit idle for 2 days or so, the electric start suffered. Checking up on it, it turns out that the petrol in carburetor evaporates and until sufficient petrol is there, it won’t start. Obvious from the looks of it, so not a real complaint. EDIT: One more thing, most of the scooters with fuel tanks under the seat don’t have these issues as petrol is always present in the carburetor (gravity helps), but the ones with front fuel tanks will require assistance in getting petrol to carburetor.
The bike packs a good punch, a quick flick of the throttle does deliver good power and the bike can try to jump away, so a bit of smooth acceleration is recommended. The ride control is fine, no issues there.
The PRO’s
1) Mobile Charger - Works as advertised. Even has a small cubbyhole to keep your mobile in while charging. Doesn’t work with vacuum cleaner’s though.
2) LED for Dikki - One small thing that makes a huge difference. I’m soooo glad someone thought of this beauty. I never have to search by "feel" for anything in the dikki again. I keep documents, books, and a bunch of other stuff and I can even read ( a little strain required) to check which documents I’m pulling out.
3) Front Fueling - What’s there to explain??
4) Huge Dikki Space - My wife fits in a full face helmet ( the space is shaped just right for one ), vehicle docs, lunch box, and some misc stuff. That in of itself is amazing.
The CON’s
1) Low Ground Clearance - Don’t know whether to laugh or cry on this one. Try this next time you are on the road: look at a bike, a moped, and a scooter ( doesn’t matter which brand or model ). The bike has the best ground clearance and the scooter the worst. Apparently, bikes use a chain medium to transmit power from the engine to the wheel, mopeds use a belt, and scooters don’t use a medium like chain or belt. This forces the engine to be kept closer to the wheel and hence the low ground clearance. If ground clearance is an issue, go for a bike or a moped. TVS has come up with a clutch less bike for the non-gear type people out there.
IF you really really look at the ground clearances on all scooters, you can make out the difference. A casual glance will leave you scratching your head trying to figure out what the difference is. 25 mm is roughly 1 inch. How big a difference does that truly make on speed bumps? Think about it, if the speed bump was 1 inch shorter, it’s all the difference, otherwise little to none.
I weigh 95 kgs and my wife weighs around 50 kgs ( never know a womans true weight). Riding double, if we slow down to 10 kmph, we can clear those pesky speed humps without issues. Faster than that and there is a kiss (a big, loud, lip smacking one) from pavement to bike. The same hump was fine with an Activa at around 15 kmph.
Problem: Low Ground Clearance Solution: Slow the heck down!!!
2) Low Tank Capacity - For those who don’t know, check this weird thing out. The Rodeo has 2 Fuel tanks. That’s right 2 Fuel tanks. The main tank with a capacity of 2.5 litres ( I think ) and the top tank with 2 litres (or vice versa) with the total tank capacity of 4.5 litres. The Fuel Gauge measure is for the main tank and doesn’t take the top tank into account. Therefore, if you start with a full top up load of petrol, until you reach main tank the fuel gauge will always show FULL. If you reach 1 litre in main tank, the fuel gauge shows 3 out of 6 sticks. DON’T assume you have 2 litres of fuel just ’cuz the gauge is at the halfway point. It actually means you have 1 litre left !!!
I guess that’s pretty much it. I’m sure everyone with ground clearance issues is going to go for my jugular but oh well.
As someone once said, "The perfect bike is the one that you don’t own." ;-)