[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by Gansan

The engine of the KiHo was a gem! The power plants of all subsequent scooters were from Kinetic, and useless IMO. Some years ago a friend of mine bought a kinetic scooter- I forget the model name now, it was AAHO! or something - and was fed up with the constant problems and niggles. At one point he tried to sell it, and got an offer of Rs 2000 for a two year old scooter! So he dithered for another year or so. Then he got totally vexed and tried to sell again - this time no offer even for the old amount! At one stage he was frantically looking for someone to at least take it away free to clear the space, but again no success. It is still parked at his home!

I think this same scooter is re-badged as one of the Mahindra scooters!

Originally Posted by aargee

I don't know whether to call it lemon or not, but one thing for sure is that Kinetic engineering's sole bread & butter was Kinetic Honda & none other models in scooters were that successful. Be it marvel, 4S, zoom, nova, flyte, blaze, none of them could be sold well. IMO, if Mahindra had bought out Kinetic, there could be several business reasons as well.

I too am quite peeved at the earlier, regular Kinetic launches and relaunches of dodo like models.The Xing,the Pride and so on. The Xing, a 60 cc scooterette had a glove box light and a charging point for mobiles.But the buyers became wary and stayed away from such gimmicks.
The Luna TFR sold well but with variants like Magnum and TFR Plus, some hapless buyers who wanted to carry two or more on a shoestring budget were enticed. Needless to say that a 49.77/ 53 cc engine could not be of much help to carry 120-130 Kg of passenger load.
So the fact remains that the KiHO and the TFR Plus were the only successful Kinetic launches.
Mahindra's agenda with the Kinetic buyout is not yet unveiled and its too early to comment on that except for the reality that M&M has'nt invested a penny on upgradation but for the appended Mahindra badging on these two wheelers.

[kannan666]

Congrats Indianvirus ! Can we also have a few pics of the Wego ? And a more detailed review once you cover a few more kms on it ?

[Guru_DTSi]

Having owned a Kinetic (Mahindra) Flyte for around one and a half years (Got it in Feb 2009) It was launched around December 2008 or Jan 2009 IIRC, I should say, it is not such a bad scoot as it is being made out.The first few months were spent replacing the Petrol Tank twice, since it cracked almost every two months. Haven't needed to change it after that. The engine is as refined as it was in the beginning and it has clocked over 30k Kms.
A few misconceptions I'd like to clear here. Flyte was a collaboration between Kinetic and SYM from Austria (Not Taiwan as mentioned by someone earlier). I am not too sure about the Rodeo, Specifications look similar when checking the website.
The Duro is a rebadged Nova aka AAHO (This was more visible than the actual name of the scoot).

Odo Reading : 300k+ Kms
Mileage : 40-45 Kmpl
Niggles :
Rear brake needs to be tightened frequently.
Fuel tank needed to be replaced twice in the first 6 months and since then has been fine.
Low ground clearance makes you come to a complete halt on larger speedbreakers and potholes (May be one reason for the rear brake issue)

Pros :
Front loading fuel tank saves a lot of time at petrol bunks and also avoids the "aage leo saab" statement from the bunk wallahs
This also gives a lot of underseat storage.

I have had some long distance rides on both the Flyte and the Activa.
Flyte was used to travel from Hyderabad to Srisailam (240 Kms - oneway) and there were no issues throughout the journey.
Activa used to travel from Bengaluru to Madikeri (~300 Kms - oneway) and only complaint when compared to the earlier drive was the low top speed, obviously due to the lower CCs. However, now in Hyd. Honda has a better service network than the Flyte.

Edit, Odo should read 30k not 300k

[Guru_DTSi]

Edit again :
It was bought in Feb 2008. Warranty is till Feb 2011.

[nairrk]

I too had a Flyte and the running has been good but my problem was with the petrol tank leak and bad mileage. Petrol tank was changed by the workshop free of cost but they were not able to do anything to improve the mileage. All the time I used to achieve only (30pct city+70pct highway) 30/33 kmpl. Finally, after using the scooter for almost 18months, I switched over to TVS Jive.

[indianvirus]

Originally Posted by kannan666

Congrats Indianvirus ! Can we also have a few pics of the Wego ? And a more detailed review once you cover a few more kms on it ?

Sure buddy, here you go, clicked them just after getting it home. I will provide all the feedback you need. My initial impression is good. The scooter has good fit n finish. It's too early to comment on performance or efficiency.

Regards.