[SlowRider]

TVS scooters are pretty good. I've had Honda and TVS scooters in the family. In fact, I've had 3 different Honda scooters (1st gen Activa > Aviator > Activa 125). They're a safe bet, but do not assume that they'll give you a superior experience to TVS. Please test ride the scooter and decide. I have a TVS Wego in the family that's been doing a mule's duty admirably for 10 years. The engine is still smooth, the ride is better than Hondas, they take curves more confidently than an Activa due to their even weight distribution, it still does cold starts without the kicker, and the headlights are good. On the other hand, the current Activa (granted, it's not the latest BS6 version with fuel injection) needs to be kicked a few times before the electric start will work if we're starting it after 3-4 days. It's idle setting is never perfect - it's either too high so that the scooter will crawl by itself at zero throttle if you release brakes, or it's too low that the engine will die if you keep it at zero throttle for more than 30 seconds. And the headlights on that thing will illuminate everything but the road, and blind oncoming drivers. Both scooters have been economical to maintain.

I'd also urge you to get a variant with disc brakes if it's available. You may think that this will only do city runs, but once in a while, you might find yourself going 60 kph on a good road, and the car ahead of you will hit the brakes hard and you'll wish you had disc brakes. Every time I've had a two-wheeler bump into the rear bumper of my car, it's been a scooter with drum brakes. Every. Single. Time.

[shabih]

Wow, I guess today is Wives' day. Starting today, I am also looking for a lightweight scooter for my wife. We live in a part of Noida which is about 15 minutes drive from the major metro stations. She is currently struggling with finding cabs and autos for this home to metro station commute, causing her a lot of frustration early morning. So we have vowed to buy a two-wheel genie and make her 'Aatmnirbhar'.

Right now even for sundry tasks which require less than a 2 km commute, I need to take my car out and I know I am killing my car's battery every day on these short rides. A scooter will be ideal for these daily chores.

I think my top contenders from online research are down to Honda Activa, TVS Zest, Jupiter and Suzuki Access. Bear in mind this will be used by a woman in her early 30s, who has never ridden a scooter in her life so 'easy (and safe) ride' is the top priority, not so concerned over speed and performance. Let me know which one out of the 4 above fit the bill.

[Romins]

Hero Pleasure. A woman who is not very strong can easily put it on centre stand and kick-start it if necessary. That was the main criteria when I bought it for my wife. Activa and its clones are heavy.

[NEMatters]

We have a Yamaha Fasino 2018 with us, around 5k driven, very reliable machine. Some of the deciding factors while selecting the scooter for ladies would be.

1. Lightweight : lower the better
2. Seat height : lower the better
3. Reliability
4. Ease of repair
5. Suspension : Softer is better


I would say for a use case of 4-5k kms per year, electric scooters would not make sense. You can go test ride, check the features, looks, color options and decide. Now a days scooters from Honda/Yamaha/Hero/TVS should not have major reliability concerns.

[Rakeshmbalaji]

Hi,

I think TVS Zest 110 would be perfect for your requirement. My wife & I have been using the vehicle for the same use case of school/grocery/ATM runs all within a 3-4km radius from my home, since past 3 years.

The vehicle is pretty light, useful for kick starts if the battery dies down due to non usage for a week or so, in rare instances. It pulls nicely till 60-65KPH with pillion, I do not cross this limit and hence cannot comment further about stability beyond 70kmph. Brakes are decent even for any panic brake situations from the usual 35-40kmph speeds in our city roads but the small wheels may tend to oversteer.

The service is generally good and quick, we average at around 2500kms per year.

The under seat storage is good enough for carrying a couple of days worth groceries or can fit a full helmet and a mobile phone kept on charging. Storage area light is a nice addition. There is also decent footwell space to hang your kids' schoolbag without intruding into the driver foot area.

Hope this helps. Happy and Safe motoring with whichever scooter you finally choose to buy!

[Chandrahas]

If you can live with the outlandish looks and the slightly higher seat height ~ 785mm, Yamaha Ray ZR 125 will be perfect. It weighs only 99 kgs but more importantly, it has petite dimensions and hence feels quite small and nimble on the move.

Also, while zeroing on the scooter, do take their throttle response in account i.e, off-late manufacturers are tuning the CVT response and fuelling in favour of fuel economy, thus making them feel jumpy/choppy and their throttle modulation difficult in stop n go traffic.

[NerdSpeaks]

While many have suggested Scooty pep, but my experience with Scooty pep has not been very good.
Although I maintain my scooty regularly, but I find its engine to be subpar with competotors.
My scooty is 4 years old, but I've seen Activas which are more than 10 years old but engine is much better.
So, please avoid it if you want to keep your vehicle for long time.

[kvsneela]

From my personnel experience I can vouch for TVS ( may be we are lucky). We had Scooty KS from 1999 to 2012. Never had any problems. Then Scooty pep+ from 2012 to 2022. Both ran for about 35000 kms , never gave any serious engine problems. Only thing was occasional carb. cleaning and retuning. ( Here I feel ASCs do better job but now a thing of past in FI era). ( Oil , air filters were DIY jobs). Once clutch changed( in pep+,). Never gave starting problems even in cold mornings. But now we purchased Activa 6G in Jan'22 but am starting to regret the decision . We went for Activa as it sells the most and wanted the famous scooter ( also the ASC is nearer to my house than TVS). The suspension sucks ( in the same roads Pep+ had no problems). 2 days after the second free service( 6 months and 2000 km) speedo cable failed. Rear wheel was pulling hard and needed bearing replacement. ( When asked the ASC about why they failed soon ,the reply was once in a while some may fail but accept it may be manufacturing defect but not willing to replace free as they are not covered under warranty). Enginewise Japanese engines are more refined but TVS is not far behind nowadays. Honda does not provide space for even a cleaning cloth leave alone bottle holder ( which is available in TVS). U cannot install side indicator buzzer in Honda, even by dealer ( they say fuse will blow)but available in TVS ( has low fuel warning, economy indicator also). Another thing is ,after the headlight rule, Honda sincerely connected headlights directly to battery ( meaning headlights will be on as soon as ignition is on) . In TVS, other than Jupiter( design is a copy of classic Activa ) , scooters like pep+, Zest and all have seperate LED panel which is on always.Please ask ur wife to test drive Pep+, Zest and Jupiter and select according her driving comfort..( Pep+ is the only scooter with less than 100 kg weight)

[AGupta]

Stick to Jupiter or Activa 6g only.
My preference is Activa due to its all rounder nature.
Scooty Pep is very prone to slip and getting injured because of ultra light weight at front.
Weight is not an issue once it's in motion , it also provides stability.

[superbad]

Originally Posted by JonSnow

Hi Team

I am looking to buy a new scooter and need your suggestions.

Usage
Primarily for dropping and picking up our kid from school (either by me when available or my wife when I'm at office) and short runs for groceries and stuff. So mileage will be low.

Requirements

• Should be light and easy to handle for ladies
• Something that's reliable and low-maintenance
• Good service and spare parts availability
• Power is not important

I was mainly considering the options from TVS stable (but open to other suggestions). While I liked Jupiter overall, I was also looking at Scooty Pep and Zest as lighter options. I couldn't get a test ride vehicle so I'm not sure how different is the riding experience across these vehicles. I would appreciate some feedback on these or other suggestions.

Since your primary usage is strictly short intra city runs, try for a pre owned scooter like an older generation Activa. This way you save significant bucks. You should find a relatively new example (3-5 years) within 50k budget as opposed to minimum 70k for a brand new. I would suggest anything from the Honda stable for their reliability & engine smoothness.

[Sudarshan42]

Originally Posted by JonSnow

Hi Team

I am looking to buy a new scooter and need your suggestions.

Usage
Primarily for dropping and picking up our kid from school (either by me when available or my wife when I'm at office) and short runs for groceries and stuff. So mileage will be low.

Requirements

• Should be light and easy to handle for ladies
• Something that's reliable and low-maintenance
• Good service and spare parts availability
• Power is not important

I was mainly considering the options from TVS stable (but open to other suggestions). While I liked Jupiter overall, I was also looking at Scooty Pep and Zest as lighter options. I couldn't get a test ride vehicle so I'm not sure how different is the riding experience across these vehicles. I would appreciate some feedback on these or other suggestions.

Wait but if you're Jon Snow, you went back to the Night's Watch. How do you even have a wife? Treason!

Kidding think the only scooters worth buying for short hauls within the city are electric. Try the iQube or the Ather, or if budget is an issue, wait for the new Hero ones. Or maybe even Okinawa.

[Samegoodkid]

I would suggest a TVS zest or a scooty pep.
Both of them are low on power but would do the job. Most importantly they are relatively lighter on the wallet.My father has a second hand scooty pep in my native and having ridden it there, I can vouch for the product.

If you are looking for electric bikes, ather is the way to go.

[shashank.6766]

We have bought an Activa 125 BS6 for the exact same purpose and had similar priorities. It has been 1.5 years and we are happy with the purchase.

1. Engine is butter smooth and has a silent starter
2. Acceleration is linear and not that aggressive. Might be useful for new rider.
3. Has idle start/stop feature which works seamlessly at signals.
4. Service experience has been good.

[rtdp]

I am in the same boat as well. I spent about 6 months waiting for Baja Chetak with booking done in March. Recently, I tried iQube and Ather as well. Here is why I decided to not go with Electric -

I want a scooter that I can keep for 8-10 years with very low running(less 10kms per day). For such a low running, the electric batteries will not degrade by KMs done, but by time duration. I tried two TVS showrooms, both locations were more interested in selling petrol variants itself and tried to convince me to go petrol instead of electric because batteries need replacement in 3 to 5 years and too low running not justifying it. I initially thought that it's just TVS showrooms which are not interested in selling EVs, but then same actually was confirmed at the Ather showroom as well.

Now coming to petrol scooters, I tried test drives of Jupiter, Activa, and Access. My wife liked the design of Jupiter and Access - so Activa was out of the race. I liked Jupier 125 overall in terms of driving, exhaust note and features offers.

So it's Jupiter 125 this Dassera for us.

[400notout]

Originally Posted by JonSnow

Hi Team
Usage
Primarily for dropping and picking up our kid from school (either by me when available or my wife when I'm at office) and short runs for groceries and stuff. So mileage will be low.

I was in the same boat as you last week. With the same requirement as yours. However I had some more points considering my wife has had trouble with her back after a Potts spine surgery in 2017.

-) Refinement and comfort
-) Aftersales service
-) Power. I believe a 125 scooter would be more comfortable than maneuvering a 110 scooter.

The daily ride would be 10kms (school drop)

I could not do any test drives myself as I have never ridden a two wheeler. So all test drives were done by my wife.

We test drove the following

Activa 110

+Best resale price
+Sales and service centre closest to our residence
+Fuss free

-Lacked features of competition
-Boring drive

Didn't try out the 125cc as I was not particularly keen on the Activa.

Suzuki Avenis

Suzuki Burgman street

Suzuki Access

Checked out all of these as they were same mechanicals on different body types.

Avenis was ruled out because of it being designed to look more sporty rather than comfort.

Wife could not get used to the Burgmans handle and separate speedo.

Access seemed to tick almost all boxes. Was smooth refined. Seating was comfortable and the top variant had a digital display with bluetooth connectivity for calls and navigation.

Showroom experience was pleasant.

TVS Jupiter 125

The Jupiter has few party tricks up its sleeve.

- Both wheels are 12 inches (competition has 12/10)

- Fuel cap in the front and huge bootspace due to fuel tank being placed on floorboard.

- Felt noisy and unrefined compared to competition. Vibrations were felt more than others.

- Worst part was Showroom experience, people were least bothered. Would have ignored if I was buying for myself. As it is for the wife it was important that the dealership be professional.

Didn't go for the Yamaha Fascino / Rayzr as I didn't get any good reviews or positive feedback about it. Test drives weren't available when we visited the showroom.

Went to the Vespa showroom and realised that I wasn't rich enough for it.

No Hero showrooms nearby or around so didnt check out the Maestro or Pleasure.

Checked out Ather and Chetak but ruled out Electric due to lack of charging infra in our high rise. Also me being on rent here it didn't make much sense investing in pulling a line and securing it.

After much consideration I finally booked the Suzuki Access 125. Would be paying in full this weekend and looking forward to having the scooter by the next week.