Blaze- my experiences. Review on Kinetic Blaze

In the past I’ve owned an electric scooter and a kinetic marvel. Both were vehicles I’d opted for the conveniences they provide. However the Marvel is what I used for a larger period of time- almost 6 years. And I must say it’s had its fair(or almost unfair?) share of metro traffic interspersed with quite a few weekend rides out of Bangalore.

So when it was time for me to go for a new vehicle, I was still looking for that gearless convenience to survive the insane traffic, but also something that I could take out on weekend bike trips with confidence. With these two factors in mind, of course the next thing I had to consider was power and mileage. As we all know, one is inverse to the other with most of the options out there. This is where I decided to compromise a bit, indulge myself and opt for more cc’s than the 110 that the marvel came with.

Considering all this, the obvious option I had was the Kinetic Italiano Blaze. Of course, I planned to demo ride it before finalizing.(The other options suggested by friends and colleagues were the Dio and Activa). I test rode the Blaze, accompanied by my fiancé(who has an Enticer and an Avenger) and the first thing that the both of us were awed by was the seating comfort that it provided. Then came the obvious power and pick-up of the 165cc, 4stroke engine and the handling. All this won the Blaze enough brownie points for us to go for it.

I’ve now had the Blaze for more than a year and my experiences with it should qualify for a fair enough review.

Let me begin with the look and feel: The looks are something that one might come to like with time. I wont elaborate much, but the huge twin lamps of the headlight, the body lines, the split seats, huge instrument panel( has a tachymeter and clock), the visor and the beefy wheels all spell design and style – enough to give credit to its Italiano branding.

I also had the option to choose a custom paint(costs extra) from a wide range. The icy

metallic blue that I chose works out in accentuating the lines and contours of the body.

Next the ride comfort – the split seat setup is really spacious and the front seat comes with a kind of ridged back rest that’s extremely ergonomic. The back seat, though equally comfortable, is perched way higher than the front and poses a bit of a challenge for the pillon rider to get onto it – especially for people who are shorter than the average height or for elderly people.

The suspension is good on the Blaze, but after a year of usage I must say their quality has dropped considerably.( this might also be owing to the extremely bad patches of road that my blaze has had to endure – with repair work that’s been goin on in and around where we stay). However, at high speeds(a 100+ on the highway) the vehicle exhibits good road grip and stability. Corner handling as well as the surprisingly tight turning radius are also something that you wouldn’t come to expect in a scooter of this size. Both make for some easy handling.

I’ve serviced the scooter regulary throughout this period, but the service centre hasn’t been able to do much regarding the suspensions. Unfortunately this also applies to the mileage. The Blaze initially gave me 35kmpl in the city and almost 40 on the highways. It has now dropped to a maximum of 28kmpl in the city – so its morphed into quite a guzzler. I wish Kinetic had service centers that would cater to the Blaze in a more specialized way so that issues like this would be dealt with efficiently.

The other noteworthy aspect would be the underseat storage space that the blaze provides – holds a medium size helmet and some more. Also the floorboard is decently spacious. Convenient, be it for your grocery shopping or on long rides. The seat lock/ boot space can be operated from the ignition key point.

On the down side, the huge headlight with its split lamps that are quite powerful, does a very poor job of lighting up the road ahead of you. Gets even worser when you switch to high-beam. It then turns into a lighthouse beacon of sorts pointing to some point way above ones horizon. Once again the service centre has been incapable of rectifying this problem. Also, the horn on the Blaze is a sad excuse for a feeble beep – might help to change it.

The engine by itself is quite noiseless – and it sets itself into a nice purr especially on good long roads. However, depending on the road conditions and usage, a few creaks groans do build up along the joints. This is something that a routine servicing takes care of. I’ve also had to replace the silencer after about 5 months of having the Blaze – one fine day it started chattering away like it was desperately transmitting morse, only louder. Im guessing – bad roads, once again?  However, the warranty took care of it for me.

The road clearance on the blaze is good, but for the rear part where the silencer and engines are. Both tend to hit if you aren’t careful on bad bumpy roads or on speed breakers. Same applies to tilting the scooter on bad roads, though on flat stretches this isn’t a problem at all.

That’s the Kinetic Italiano Blaze for you. Its classifies for a moto-scooter, its fun and stylish, has a wheelbase bigger than that of an enfield, makes for some really pleasurable riding though it’s a guzzler. That again can be minimized if you aren’t too liberal with the throttle and make a conscious attempt at keeping down the revs within the city. It’s a mixed bag, you may come to love it or hate it…it finally comes down to what it is that you are looking for in your ride. The Blaze may not win in a Power vs Mileage quest, but is sure has a lot of things going for it to make it a memorable vehicle for you to have owned.

Hope this review has been helpful, adios!