I’ve been driving this bike for past 10 days so it may be very early to give a thorough analysis. Anyway I would tell you my initial impressions; I’ll revisit after a while for future updates.
I’ve owned splendor before I got centra, so for most part of this review you’ll find me comparing both.
The first thing that strikes you when you ride centra is its smoothness; engine vibrations hardly carry upto the seat.
Suspension is excellent; I hardly realize I’ve crossed a pothole unless I looked down.
Headlamps are quite powerful
I noticed that the speed doesn’t dip abruptly when you close the throttle suddenly. This was a problem with my Splendor. But I’m not sure whether it was an issue with only my bike, as I never heard any of my splendor-owning friends complain about this.
Styling is far far better than splendor. I admit this to be a very personal opinion varying with individuals, but I’m simply bored with splendor’s looks. Like the Ambassador it has changed very little since it was introduced (or at least since I started watching it).
Riding posture is higher which suits me
I found no big difference in brakes.. and I’ve not tested high-speed stability yet, as I’m waiting to get on with the run-in period. I’m very interested in this area as splendor used to give me shivers once I crossed 55kph.
Now for some cons...
Sometimes I can’t get hold of the heel side of the gearshift. It seems to have been tucked in.. this really irritates me as I drive in heavy traffic most of the time. I’m planning to get to bottom of this problem this weekend & check if this can be solved using a shoe with wider heel.
The kicker feels harder. At times I have to do a little ’’pumping’’ before delivering the actual kick.. The positioning also seems to be a bit awkward which I hope will get used to. It also doesn’t start immediately during cold mornings. My splendor was fantastic in this area. It used to start anytime with a single kick.
The main reason I went for TVS centra is that I’ve seen my friends owning TVS bikes have absolutely no problems. Those guys used to give their bikes such a treatment that if it had been my splendor, I would have had to take it for servicing every month.
Mileage was also my another reason. I’ve not measured it yet though. I’ve filled the tank with 3 ltrs above reserve and bike has so far done 160kms. Fuel gauge looks like the reserve is still a long way off. I’ll let you guys know on this later.
One the whole -
I feel Centra to be a very compelling reason to retire the ageing splendor. The other players in this 100cc range are Bajaj & Kinetic. For some reason I can’t explain, I don’t prefer any Bajaj product. And with Kinetic I feel it has to yet to prove itself in the motorbike segment. So I’d to choose between Splendor and Centra. With TVS’s legendary reliability & centra being priced so much lower, it made lot of sense for me to go for it.
Only catch here is I’ve just assumed this bike will be as reliable as its previous siblings (samurai, max100 etc). Whether this assumption will hold true is a million dollar question at this stage.