Hi, I bought my first bike in April’05. You may tend to believe that I am a college student, but no! I am a father of two and bought a TVS Victor GX when my LML had done its job as a family vehicle.
I wanted to fulfil my long pending wish to ride a bike and I chose TVS against Bajaj, HH and Yamaha. I had observed the competition between Honda and Suzuki since 1985. Although HH has been the winner, Suzuki (TVS) always held on in south. People are still using TVS bikes which are from 80s. HH is also good, but its phenomenal success is an example of the typical Indian mentality to follow the tradition / crowd. Many good products have failed in the market just due to this. Yamaha bikes are good, but fail to impress an average biker as it goes for power rather than mileage and reliability. Bajaj minus Kawasaki is a new entrant.
Therefore, as a matured buyer, I did my own survey, went through the leaflets and did test-rides with all the bikes. In fact I learnt riding bike through test rides. Finally I chose TVS. I wanted a bike with average power, but more than 100 cc capacity. I thought of Victor GLX, but found it bulky for my physique. It had VTI technology which was missing in Victor GX. Centra had it, but it had less power (98 cc). I was looking for a bike with 5 gears, but unfortunately, none of the bikes in mid-level (110 to 125 cc) offered more than 4 gears and I had to compromise. Bajaj WIND had 5 gears, but Bajaj had stopped selling it in India by 2005. In fact they replaced it with Discover which has only 4 gears.
Now, after more than one year, I am satisfied with my Victor GX. It has never given me any problem till now, except that it needs some efforts in starting on a winter morning. I got very good after-sales-service from M/s Duggar Distributers of Indore. I have clocked about 7000 km, which means about 15-20 km per day. Not much, but there may be other guys like me who ride to their offices nearby daily and this feedback may help them.
I had always wondered while riding fast on my LML about why the next guy on a HH is riding at 35-40 kmph. Now I know that they try to get best mileage. My bad habit of riding fast has given me a mileage of 60-65 kmpl with my TVS Victor GX, but I am happy. People claim that TVS Centra gives 75-80 kmpl. but it lacks power badly with 2 persons riding it. On the other hand, on my Victor GX, I always feel that it needed one more gear. I am able to pull it up from a low 15-20 kmh to 50 kmph and can tackle turns with 4th gear, though not good for the vehicle and certainly not safe.
The advice -- If you need power, go for Honda, Yamaha, but if you need an average bike, go for 110-125 cc segment bikes of TVS. But do your own survey and test rides with an experienced biker. Entry level bikes should be avoided, unless you are short of funds.
I hope my first attempt of writing a review is also a winner just like my first bike.
Safe riding!
Ravi