I wanted a trusted model of 100cc bike. I just wanted to get around Delhi a little and I wasn’t looking for a great motorcycle experience or anything -
Just basic reliable transportation. I thought a Hero Honda CD Deluxe would be cheap to run, and be reliable. But the dealer said I couldn’t hope for more than 70 km to the litre on a CD Deluxe and 65 km to the litre on a Glamour.
I remembered that the Suzuki dealer claimed 70 kmpl for the 125cc Zeus, and I found this surprising - a 125cc bike has better fuel economy than the mainstay in this area, the CD Deluxe ? It did cost about 8000 rupees more, but it was much better value - it is all aluminium, not steel like the others, it has five gears with an indicator for every gear, it has much better switches, a useful tachometer; and it looks quite beautiful in a sober way.
The model I got had an electric starter, and alloy wheels, and I paid Rs.47, 500. I’ve had it for nine months now and I’ve driven about 7000 kilometres on it.
The Seat
The first month riding it was quite uncomfortable. It comes with the kind
of chiseled seat that is popular these days - the seat starts at a low
level at front and midway, rises sharply for the higher rear seat. This is a
very bad idea that many manufacturers use these days; when you ride alone, you
can’t sit farther back for comfort - the seat rises sharply and you can’t
sit on the bump can you. The rise wastes a good three inches in the
lengfth of the seat too, that no one can sit on . Isn’t this bike made for
India - don’t families like to travel on a motorcycle with a child between the
father in the front and the mother behind ? How is the child going to sit on
this bump in the seat? It also makes the rear unnecessarily high - for
say, a woman passenger. I must not complain too bitterly about this though -
lots of bikes have this kind of seat. The manufacturers - what do they employ
those designers for, is beyond me. The rise grinding into my bottom all the
time was quite uncomfortable at first........but I’ve learned to sit with less
discomfort now.
*Ride Quality
*The bike balances so well and such good balance makes it easy to
handle. You can ride with your hands off the handle bar so easily. And
what a surprise, it does actually give you 70 kilomertes to the litre if you
drive at about 55kmph. The shock absorbers are quite stiff - much stiffer ( and
more uncomfortable) than say, the Bajaj Discover. The gears are one front, and
the four on the back, which system is not all that easy to use. Finding neutral
in the middle needs a delicate touch. The twin-horns sound pretty good, and the
switches are all well-made. The fuel gauge works well, and the speedometer and
engine-speed meter are thoughtfully laid out. I wish manufacturers would light
up the meters better - not use a miserable 1 watt bulb.
Starting in the morning takes three or four kicks, but that’s not so bad I
guess. I like the thoughtful attention paid to the position for the kicker. The
Discover puts the kicker close to the front foot-rest; if you aren’t careful,
you will painfully hit your shin bone against the front foot-rest every time
you use the kick-start . The Zeus thoughtfully places the kicker far enough from the front foot-rest to not hurt you when you use the kicker. The other
useful feature they have here is, what they call the secondary kick. Starting
can be done, even when the bike is in-gear. This is just the best thing - you could stall in heavy traffic and have
people behind you be impatient with you ; all you have to do is pull in the
clutch, and start - no bothering with the gears in neutral.
Acceleration isn’t much though. It seems marginally poorer than a
Bajaj Discover in the acceleration area. Travelling at 50kmph, and then
accelerating to 70 from there is reasonably quick; 80 kmph takes a little
longer though. I don’t ever need to go faster than that, but I tried once on
the Delhi-Karnal highway. It needs a full two kilometres to get to 100 kmph .
This is quite unsatisfying - even if I don’t need to ever go at those speeds.
If you are in third gear and going slow - at say 30 or 40 kmph, and you
see a truck suddenly in front of you - wouldn’t you want some extra burst of
speed to use in case of emergency ? Well, not possible; you will need to take
the time to get down to second gear to spring out of harm’s way.
*The Problems - though Suzuki is generous
* The thing about buying a Suzuki is that, you will never find the
service centre crowded - almost no one has a Suzuki, and the mechanics there
give you all their time. The first three months were trouble-free. Then, it
began to just die by the roadside every day. I would be 10 kilometes from home
and going at 60kmph or so, and suddenly the engine would just sputter and lose
power. I just didn’t know what to make of this and I took it to the
service center. They took a look at it and said there was water in
the fuel line probably and did a little cleaning. I went back home and is
this kept happening just as before. I went back to the service center and
this time they cleaned out the petrol filter. It changed nothing and I kept
getting stuck in the middle of the night and far from home still. By
this time I was getting fed up as nothing was helping. I telephoned
Suzuki and spoke to a service engineer in-charge, a Mr.Abbasi. He found
out the problem immediately -the problem was in the petrol cap. A petrol
cap is supposed to have a vent in it to let the air in so that petrol can go
out the other end to the engine. There was something wrong with the tiny
vent and the air was not passing through. They replaced the petrol cap
immediately, and everything went back to normal.
Then I noticed rust on the silencer. It has never been in the rain at all
but there is still rust on the silencer. I’ve spoken to them about it and
they have promised to replace it next week. I noticed another bike in the
service center with this same rust problem. And then the rear red lamp
began to go out all by itself. They found out that the headlamp switch
was faulty -it turns on the front lamp but not always the rear. They have
promised to replace this too.
The bike runs smoothly, and I’m quite happy with it. And it is still
under guarantee - it has a two-year guarantee. I’m just worried
what might happen once the guarantee runs out. It does seem unusual to me to
have this many things go wrong with a new motorcycle. The fact that there
are few other Suzukis on the road has me a little anxious.
Conclusion
If I could make my decision all over again, would I buy the Suzuki Zeus? I
don’t think so... they do not seem to have their quality control process in
proper order. This is not something I can explain - the silencer in by Sankei, the Japanese company
that specializes in this area. A silencer isn’t a new product to them, the way
the Zeus is to Suzuki. Why then a rusted silencer on my bike and the other one
I saw? Suzuki do have their hearts in the right place though, for their
replacement policy, is very nice to their customers . I ’m recommending this
motorcycle - but only because other bikes are probably just the same .