For Gearless Scooter Buyers!. Review on Kinetic Nova 135

My brother has just bought the New Nova 135 as he does not feel riding my Activa thinking that it?s a bit girlish vehicle does not suit him. The much-matured look of Kinetic Nova inspired him to buy Nova 135 few weeks back. and he is upset as the vehicle is not up to the mark as expected.

I have been riding Activa since a year now and it has never let me down. I was in dual minds while buying Activa but after a year now I never regret my decision and I am highly satisfied with Activa?s performance.It's pleasure and trouble free riding experience.

He is happy about the looks and added features in his Nova which would impress you to buy it but somehow he is not satisfied with the riding pleasure with his new vehicle. He says the pickup is good but the engine knocks and is noisy while taking off and he faces this on each redlight when he stops and has to start again. He has been visiting the dealer regarding this and every time they adjust the clutch box in an attempt to rectify it but without the knocking is still there.

I would like to provide few suggestions to the buyers of gearless scooter.

Its not wise to compare power between gear and gearless scooter. A geared and gearless scooter with the same power (100 cc) will have differences in the pickup and power. Any gearless vehicle will have lower pickup and power as compared to geared scooter even though the specifications are kept same, reason being the Automatic gear transmission.

Lets us understand this to a little extent in a layman language. In automatic gear system the the gear pads have to first make a contact with the inner circumference of the clutch drum and once it is done the vehicle is ready to take off. The entire process makes the pickup a bit slower than any geared scooter. And there would be some amount of knocking while the clutch takes the inner circumference position of the clutch drum.

Here lies the difference between Nova and Activa.Nova has more knocking/vibration as compared to Activa, where it is negligible in Activa.The vibration would lead to more engine noise and an uncomfortable feeling to the rider.

While taking a test ride do not start the vehicle with full throttle rather increase the throttle as the speed of the vehicle increases. By doing this you would come to know the intensity of knocking and vibration if any. Then slow down to a speed of 5 or 10 and again slowly increase the speed in order to make sure. Also try to ride at a high speed of 60 to see the balance and control of the vehicle.

I was going thru one of the earlier reviews which has a mention of vibration at a speed of 40. Actually the vibration has nothing to do with the speedometer speed rather it is the engine speed that would matter. It would highly depend upon the horse power that he engine is generating and also on the engine racing or tuning whatever you may call.

My personal opinion is to have a gearless scooter which is somewhere a good balance of power and utility. Its not expected of a gearless scooter to be running around at a speed to 80. One should go for a motorbike if speed is the major buying factor. In the category of gearless scooter 100 - 115 cc should be an ideal combination.

Kinetic has come up with an upgrade now it would be Honda's turn to come up with something. At this point of time Activa's engine seems to be less noisy and less vibrating. Its definitely a competitive market.