[heelntoe]

Well this section says new car test-drives so i dont know if this should be posted here or the motorcycle section so mods please do the appropriate if needed.

I was getting tired of my current scooter, a kinetic nova 135. The performance of the machine is just not worth all the trouble it gives. i even thought of exchanging this for a plain jane honda activa and have peace of mind. but where is the fun in that? being the performance junkie that i am i decided to go pay my local kinetic dealer a visit to see if he has any blazes(blazi?) available for test ride. and to my dissapointment there werent any. Just as i was about to leave, a truck carrying new restickered nova 135's and blazes arrived and i decided to linger around till they unload them to go for a ride.
Half-hour later i was on a black brand spanking new kinetic blaze. I thumb the starter and the engine starts up very quietely (even the nova 135 was quiet on the test ride but once home it transformed into a completely different beast, one which can give jack hammers a run for their money in terms of making noise.) and in low revs the sound is quiet subdued but when you twist the throttle the noise becomes louder but it actually sounds good, good enough for what it is, but not really harsh
Comming to the looks of the blaze the first thing that grabs your attention is the step seat that offers the driver decent lumbar support. in the looks department, the blaze definately scores over all other gearless scooters in the market, from the twin lamp headlights mounted above the front mud guard, to the wind deflector on the handle bars. it looks like a true scooter like those found in europe (really?). The console was also well designed with all the usual speedo, fuel level indicator, and tell tale lights. There is also a digital clock and a tacho which i found quite surprising because it was a gearless scooter (hey but automatic transmission cars have tachos aswell right?) i can see how you can try to keep the revs low for a better FE but sadly the one on the test scooter wasnt working.
The actual drive left me craving for more as i have never driven any two wheeler with over 135cc. so naturally i found the acceleration intoxicating but when it comes to the braking it is a completely different story, i found the brakes to be a little unresponsive and lacking in sheer stopping power which can be dangerous in a powerful (relatively) scooter like this. it is nice to know that there will be a version with a front disc brake on offer, but the salesman said that they will take a while to hit the market. the roads i have riden on were far from perfect and where my novas suspension would be rumbling and tubbline and sending all the jolts the the riders, the blaze really excels, thanks to telescopic forks up front and dual spring set-up at the rear. the suspension is not quiet by any standards but it is eons ahead of the nova 135. the 13" tyres were a welcome change from the 10 inchers found on most scooters these days. i really did not get to test the handling of it so i really cannot comment.
At the end of the test ride i got of the bike and before i could put the side stand the bike started leaning onto me and boy was it heavy, with the help of the mechs still unloading the scooters i got it back on the main stand. Overall i came away very impressed by the scooter and kinetic for launching them but i dont think i will be trading my nova any time soon.
I asked for a brochure and what i got was a piece of paper with a picture of the blaze and the name of the dealership on one side and a stupid comparison of the blaze against a bajaj pulsar 150 and a honda activa on the other side, so i dont have any tech specs of the scooter.
When i got onto the big seat with my helmet in my hand i thought this the underseat storage can swallow atleast two half face helmets so at the end of the ride
i asked to see the compartment. what resulted was a very cool mechanism to open the underseat storage area. what you do i put the key in the normal key hole in the front which you use to lock the bike and unlock it, then turn the key counter-clockwise without pushing the key in and the front part of the seat pops up. at first it looked really big but when i put my helmet, a studds bravo, in it the seat would not close, the salesman seemed a bit embarrassed and assured me that it will fit, he tried it for about ten minutes to no avail and he finally gave-up saying my helmet is too big and that the helmet they will provide will definately fit. thing is though the helmet they provide is not even isi certified and the one i got with my nova split into two pieces when i threw it in the garbage!
comming back to my helmet i was actually planning on upgrading to an agv pacifica or something like that which i believe are actually larger than my current helmet so though luck i guess.
Another interesting thing to note is that the front part of the seat swings forward to reveal the storage and after that to get to the fual tank you have to swing the rear passenger portion of the seat backward. seems nice at first but all this swinging might get a bit annoying after the repeated visits to the petrol pumps.
Speaking of petrol pumps the salesman said the company claims a 45kmpl figure and the in the real world i can expect 35kmpl. when i bought my nova 135 he said the company claims 60kmpl and i can get a real world figure of 55kmpl which is far from the 30~35kmpl figure i am currently getting, so i am expecting that hard riding will result in karizma and comet beating fuel consumption figures for this one.

for those of you that have actually read up to here, this is my first review so it is definately not very organised and my thoughts are running all over the place on this review so any tips and pointers will be appreciated.