The narrow, abyss-ridden, cow-obstacled roads of India make fertile ground and conspire together to bring together the sacred trinity of man, machine and OPEC :|
Well being a pragmatic old soul the rising oil prices have left a h o l e in my heart not to mention my pocket...and having to contend with this zippy, moody beast has been no consolation.
THE Yamaha RX100 a formerly Jap imported powerful 125 cc wonder straight out of Tokyo Central soon became an indigenous 100cc snarler.
My handmedown of a Scarlet screamer has left me void of any personal detail regarding its history, from what I can make of it, its been remodelled a fair few times. (Desis are truly tasteless).
Before you purchase a motorcycle in India the practical consumer looks at a few basic things...
-Easy Maintenance.
-Fuel Economy.
-Good aftersale Service.
-To a lesser extent the styling.
Well this bike has none of the above stated.
But if its a bike that will announce your presence a mile away and scare the pants off hapless linear driving commuters...this is the bike for you.
The RX100 is a very basic design... the company hadn’t gone in for any major makeovers. The 2-stroke engine doesn’t help with the economy, and it needs a lot of mollycoddling on cold mornings to get it going.
But what it has is a lot of personality in that little frame of its.
Its an absolute pleasure to hear it roar as you screech out of traffic deadlocks, its legendary zipping through mainroad traffic at 80 kmph has been a source of great pride for its riders and a nuisance to just about everyone else.
To those who haven’t ever driven this bike, just try this... drive along at cruising speed in 4th...slow down a little bit...drop back into third ...hit the throttle hard... and just listen to this bike let out the most soul fructifying orgasmic cry that’ll make you think that this was the only reason you were born.
I have no technical insights to provide, the electricals on the bike are as bad they come....nothing on mine works and to give you an idea of how bad the fuel economy is...think about 200 bucks worth of petrol not lasting 2 days within city limits.
All in all I can say that this bike has one fierce engine...it just rips the road up. Light and easy to handle, its great for manoeuvring through the stationary wild life(read cows) on the road.
The spares are pretty inexpensive and easy to find, getting a second hand bike should be pretty light on the wallet as well... all in all if you have low self esteem and need a lot of attention... well this would a good place for you to start.
Before you ride this bike I would suggest that you wear your helmet, get the brakes checked, forget about a petrol allowance and for gods sake never hit the front brake first...unless ofcourse you like the view skidding across some of the PWDs finest work.
ps: Mouthshut needs to fix its filter ... its getting very annoying.