TVS JERK!. Review on TVS Jive

I took a test ride of a TVS jive (or should I say TVS Jerk!) this afternoon for want of anything better to do on a lazy saturday afternoon. I was plesantly surprised by the bike, though I have been less than charitable wtih the title. the ride comfort and controls, engine sound and smoothness, all were excellent. It reminded me of the TVS samurai which I used for 5 years from 1993-1997, as its tank, handlebars, and other features are very similar. however, though the samurai left much to be desired especially with regard to suspension etc as TVS had just broken off from Suzuki then, now however, the TVs appears to have matured and feels like a proper bike.

Coming to the very 'raison de etre' of the Jive, the automatic clutch is a unit lifted off their step thru bike from Indonesia (which is however not doing well there as the competition from honda and suzuki is very strong). It is a unit which has a clutch built in to the gear change mechanicsm itself, and not on the handle, hence one must take care to compresss the lever a little bit before actually changing gears, this gives time to the clutch to engage properly, as I had read this somewhere earlier, I got it in a jiffy much to the surprise of the guy from the dealership. However, the gear lever has a very heavy action, and requires conscious and consistent pressure to be applied, unlike other geared bikes where the gear change comes as a 'tap' and becomes instinctive. Though there is no pressure on the hands, it might tax the ankles of the rider on a long ride! and that bugbear of automatic clutches, -if you change down when you are driving faster than the appropriate gear, it will jerk, no matter what. the trick is to change down only when the bike slows down real well.

It is however an excellent bike for those fed up with constant 'half clutch' action so essential on our potholed, overcrowded, signal and death defying rides to and from work everyday. On average Ii change gears about 300 times on my 22 km ride to work one way each day(Lucky me, I ride fast on the relatively uncrowded velachery-adyar-santhome-beach sector of Chennai). Imagine the wear on the wrists and finger bones for most riders over a 20 year period! Id rather the clutch wore out than my fingers. Infact whenever the clutch is a bit tight, my fingers ache until I loosen the same again, I had that problem frequently with my 2001 original Pulsar.

This should help those with carpal syndrome and those with not so nifty fingers. The gears and double clutch also enable 'scooting' along in higher gears and stopping and moving off in second and third gears without going to neutral. I guess it should be treated as a scooter with bike wheels. Very novel and interesting. I dunno whether to recommend it as a buy however, it depends on what you want from a bike and whether clutchless driving really offers you any benefits. Being a Indonesian unit however it should be reasonably reliable.

However, at this early stage, it will take a brave man to go out and buy such a product. The Indian scene already has enough and more lemons out there. Ride on mates, Regards from twincam.