Solid & Stable. Review on TVS Centra

Update: 19th May 2005

Finally today when I checked the kms clocked for 4 litres of petrol, it was 290km!! converting to 72.5 kmpl!! This is truly amazing. But I must add that there have been some problems with the horn, it stops working once in 3 months or so (when it is time for a service:)...it is easily fixed during service though.

>>Changing mileage info on the review from

My original review:

I bought a Centra after considerable thought and research which included reading the reviews on mouthshut.com as well;). Hence I thought I would return the favour by writing one of my own.

I bought this bike on November 11, 2004 which means I have been driving it for 4 months now and the bike has completed two services. The riding experience has been good so far and I have had only one major problem to which I will come to a bit later.

First the negatives-I have not yet seen it deliver on the mileage promise as so far it has been 65kmpl (up from around 55kmpl in first service). I was expecting something around 85 having consulted a previous owner.

I am still hoping the engine would shape up better after third service. Next the problem I faced-this had more to do with the service center-Hyderabad TVS at Nampally-never go there for a service.

Those guys just did something to the engine during my second service that the bike wouldnt just go for 10 meters without stopping...till just a day before that I never had to kick it a second time to start...now it just wouldn't start...I was devastated and went to show them and they said nothing was wrong and sent me back...then after a week's time I went back, this time firing on all cylinders warning them I would raise hell if they didn't set this right.

This finally spurred them to action and they took it in for one more day and at the end of the day gave me a bill saying the spark plug had burned out....that I refused to pay the bill and they had to cancel it was a different story.

Now to the more exciting stuff-the positives-as I said before I have never had trouble (except for that brief period) in starting up the engine neither has the bike ever stopped mid-way anywhere without reason.

The highest speed I have driven is 90kmpl but the engine should not crib when driving at around 80-85...which is pretty good for a 100cc engine.

Then the feature I like the most, the economy mode indicator- good driving of a bike requires that you dont give too much of throttle on any gear. Here there is an indicator which turns red when you give too much of throttle, just by making sure that the indicator is green all the time I have become a much better driver and my engine has tuned up very well too due to this.

The seats are comfortable, looks are the best I have seen among all the 100 ccs and even better than some of the hyped brands like splendour. It is very solid and driving is smooth, the shock-absorbers have compensated well for my failings to notice potholes so far:).

Let me get back after a few more months with more comments. Bye.