Picked up TVS Raider 125 SX for office commute: 5 Pros and 5 Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons I felt after a little bit of driving, along with some interesting observations and a little bit of deep dive into the techy instrument cluster.

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Introduction: –

I was in the market for a new two-wheeler to commute from my stay to office after landing a new job in Bengaluru. The company provided transportation was expensive for the distance that I had to travel and the inconsistency of finding Rapido’s and similar bike taxis during peak office hours only added fuel to the fire. I was only looking for a vehicle for doing duties of taking me from point A to point B, with a little bit of sporty flair added as a bonus. I did not intend to purchase a vehicle for doing highway and touring duties as I am a little sceptical in riding a two-wheeler on fast highways from a safety stand point and prefer a car over 2-wheeler for the same.

As some of you might have guessed, I have recently joined TBHP officially and only used to go through the forum for any advice that I needed, be it for me or for my friends. However, I was taken aback when I was not able to find even one ownership thread or buying process thread in the forum for the segment I was looking into. And rightfully so as the majority of the intended customers of the segment just go to a brand which they trust and just select a vehicle and purchase it without much research. There were a few threads on Ola’s here and there and but nothing apart from that. So here are my two cents summarising my buying decision and jot down the ownership experience and review of my purchase.

TL;DR: TVS Raider 125 SX Initial Impressions

I have driven the bike for over 150kms in the last 15 days since I bought it, mostly in city traffic for commute to office and visiting some friends on weekends. Here are some of the pros and cons I felt after a little bit of driving, along with some interesting observations and a little bit of deep dive into the techy instrument cluster.

What I liked: –

• The sound of the motor and the exhaust. It has a deep bass to it and it might easily be one of the best sounding 125cc bikes out there.
• The top end performance is good and the engine pulls very linearly upwards from 4K RPM. This is a stark contrast to other commuters which focus mainly on bottom end.
• The gearing is short and it helps in moving cleanly from a standstill. Even though it doesn’t sport TVS’s GTT officially, the bike does move in 1st gear without any throttle input.
• The horn is loud and headlamp is bright, all necessary for the urban jungle. Whereas the headlamp is focussed nearer to the vehicle in my Jupiter, the Raider has a long throw especially in the high beam, which is sufficient for speeds up to 70~80.
• The integrated ISG is a cool addition and silently starts the vehicle. It is nowadays getting common with more brands using the same tech, but still a thoughtful addition nonetheless.

What I disliked: –

• It is a high compression engine, but still I was surprised when I noticed some heat dissipation near my legs when in a stop-go traffic environment for more than 5-10 mins. It is not uncomfortable in any shape or form though.
• The absence of low-end torque makes it presence felt especially when carrying a pillion. The bike has a tendency to stall and does not move cleanly from a stand still when carrying a pillion.
• The centre stand is a company fitted accessory but it reduces the ground clearance by a good margin. You have to have clear the speed breakers in 1st gear at absolute walking pace when carrying a pillion, otherwise they scrape through. Need to get the rear suspension adjusted to its tightest setting and see if it helps.
• There is no way to disable the auto start stop in Eco mode, which is an inconvenience in traffic conditions. You can mitigate the same by switching to power mode, but this changes the low-end throttle map and makes pulling from standstill even more challenging.
• The rear brake bite is poor, although the CBS ensures that the front brake is engaged as soon as you press hard enough on the rear brake pedal. And once the front disk engages, the braking performance is spectacular.

The Instrument Cluster (Including App, Maps, Connectivity): –

• The instrument cluster is very bright and has ambient light sensor which it uses to automatically switch to a dark theme at nights, so as to not blind the rider. I keep it on the 4th brightness step out of total 5 which works well in Bengaluru daylight.
• The TVS connect app is buggy, no doubts there. It does not auto connect to the cluster, even though the manual says so. You have to manually connect it by pressing the connect button in the app and the animation it plays every time it gets connected takes its own sweet time to get over. However, once connected the connection is rock solid.
• The app records the live engine RPM and speed through the bike’s cluster and the location through mobile’s GPS, which is presented in a shareable form at the end of the ride.
• The cluster stays on for a few seconds even after you turn off the key/bike. It displays the ride statistics in that time such as distance travelled, average speed, fuel consumed, time taken etc.
• The turn-by-turn navigation works good enough. It is smart enough to dynamically adjust the distance to next action (turn/U-turn) depending on the speed. If you are moving slow, it goes as low as showing to take a turn in the next 5 metres. On the other hand, if you are travelling fast, it just goes down into intervals of 50 metres for examples.

The ride stats page

The share page for sharing any ride

Buying Decision: –

Initially I hunted in the used market, visited a few used bike dealers and some known dealers such as Beepkart, etc. However, I was not able to trust the used dealers especially in a new city and the offerings from Beepkart, although fresh looking, were a fair bit overpriced.

So, the natural choice was to look for new bikes & scooters around the 125cc segment. I also added a few EVs in the mix as my office parking provided charge points which would essentially mean that my running costs would be free. I started researching online by visiting each brand’s website and checking the models available, their features and prices. Although I had a fair bit of idea about the current market situation and what all models are available, I just wanted to get an idea about the pricing as the road tax in Karnataka is high compared to my home state. I set my budget to around 1~1.5L. Brands such as KTM, Bajaj, RE, Yamaha, Ather, etc were automatically ruled out as their cheapest offerings were even out of budget. Finally, I narrowed down to a few bikes and scooters from TVS, Hero, Honda, Suzuki and Ola.

Let me jot down the pros and cons of the few offerings that I considered and why were they eventually rejected: –

Hero: –

1. Xtreme 125R – A new (6 months old) offering from Hero with a styling that did appeal to a young person like me. However, I visited 2 dealers and both of them said that there is a waiting period of 2-3 months if you order it now. Seriously, waiting period on a 125cc from Hero?? The showroom experience was also nothing to write home about. The staff was busy in their own work and they were also not keen to providing a test drive for their other 160cc models.
2. Super Splendor/Glamour – We already have a Super Splendor at home. But personally, I do not like the designs of both the bikes as they now getting a little bit out of fashion.
3. Xoom/Vida – Xoom is slightly less powerful than what I would have liked and Vida is overpriced for the range & features it offers. TCO according to my running was coming a fair bit higher for Vida compared to Ola let’s say.

Honda: –

1. Shine/SP125 – Both of their design is also getting old at this point similar to commuter designs from Hero.
2. Unicorn 125 – Unicorn did offered ABS, however front ABS in a 125cc is a bit overkill and nowadays almost all of them come with CBS which further reduces the importance of ABS. The price was also expensive compared to the feature list it offered, such as analog dash, etc.
3. Activa -They are literally everywhere on the road and personally I do not like their driving dynamics and front heavy feel. Also, the feature set is rather paltry.

Suzuki:-

1. Burgman/Avenis – Personally, I don’t like how Suzuki’s scooters look with their smaller rear wheel. No doubt burgman is a handsome looking machine, and so is its price, very expensive compared to what it offers.

Ola: –

1. S1 Air – I had my eyes set out on this, as amongst all the EVs this is the most value of money. And as a result, it naturally leads to a large number of sales from bike taxis to delivery riders everybody using this particular model from Ola. This was very apparent on my showroom visit. The showroom was stinking, there were only 2 people managing the whole floor and the service area was crowded with many people waiting to get their vehicles repaired. There were many vehicles standing outside as well waiting for their turn to get repaired. They didn’t have any test drive vehicle; the manager offered me a test drive of S1 pro from one of his colleagues. The instant acceleration in hyper mode was very impressive however the I found the throttle map to be a bit inconsistent and the scooter was getting confused in what to do in slow crawling traffic and on an incline in front of the showroom, where it refused to move even with more than half of the throttle open.

TVS: –

1. Ntorq – It’s an impressive scooter with a likeable sound that it makes. Having driven it extensively in the past, the riding dynamics are spot on, I knew. However, the top model didn’t offer the best engine tune, which is only offered on the 2nd best model, and the top model’s price is very similar to that of its cousin Raider.
2. Jupiter – Already own one at home and it is a very sorted scooter with very decent riding manners and a bright headlight, silent start, etc. Though I feel the design is slightly catered towards a little bit of more mature audience.
3. Raider -Personally, I am a fan of gizmos and the big connected screen instantly appealed to me. The sound that it makes is even better than Ntorq and I liked the top end performance it offered when I test rode it. Although the top model only offered a screen with navigation for INR 10K extra, which could easily be achieved by a 200Rs mobile holder, but still I chose to go with the top model. Such is the human mind, I guess!!

Buying Experience: –

A phone call from home informing me that 7th of July is an auspicious day prompted me to visit the showroom instantly. A test drive was offered almost instantly and the SAs also were very friendly and knowledgeable. I asked them for an evening delivery and they confirmed that yellow top end is available in their stockyard. They accepted credit card as a form of payment and I chose to go with that because why not. Did the payment and left. Visited at 5pm in the evening and there was a rush for deliveries due to it being an auspicious day. My vehicle was 12~13th in the queue. I used that time to match the Chassis number and visually inspect the vehicle and odo. Took delivery around 6pm as it also rained for some time in between. Offered them a box of sweets, clicked some pics and left. Overall, I would highly recommend Trijal Motors in Marathalli and SA Abhinandan. The documents, RTO, number plate everything was taken care of by them and everything worked like a clockwork.

Price Breakup: –

• Ex-showroom – 1.09L
• RTO/Road Tax – 23K
• Insurance – 7.5K
• Mandatory accessories – 800
• Complimentary – Helmet
• Total – 1.42L on road

During delivery

Mandatory Pooja, joined by another Apache 160 4V

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