The Econo-commuter bike segment is getting more and more crowded. There are two sub-segments here: Premium, and basic. And there also seems to be a cc war. Under 100cc and over 100cc. Every bike maker, re-bores an existing cylinder and increases cc and jacks up the price. Some bike makers plop for 110cc, others for 115cc. Still others go for 125cc or 135cc. This is just a ploy to jack up prices. Fact is, the material and manufacturing cost of a 125cc bike is NOT 25% more than the cost of making a 100cc bike, unless higher technology is employed. Sure more cc does give more power, torque, speed and pickup, but why should this COST US MORE, when it is NOT costing the maker anything more? Fact is, as Peter Druckker (the guru of all management gurus, age 90+, still alive and kick-starting) said, “If you are not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here?” And seeing the bottom lines of all bike makers, there sure is profit for them (and fun for us, maybe).

So when TVS launched the Centra, I was surprised. When everyone else is upping the cc and price, why TVS is downing the cc and price, yet upping the technology? Altruism? Hardly! Realism? Definitely! The upping of the cc and price will soon come with the new 125cc Victor, but for now they (TVS) seem to be in a mood to go whole-hog the economy way. In price, as well as fuel mileage. Let us see exactly how economic the Centra is.

POWER PLANT

To start with, the power plant is a 99.8cc engine having a bore x stroke of 51 mm x48.8 mm, which produces 5.5 kw (==7.48 PS==7.38 BHP) of power at 7500 rpm and develops 7.5 Nm of torque at 5000 rpm at a compression ratio (CR) of 9.3. Air, filtered by a double polyurethane filter element, enters a UCAL-Mikuni VM 17 SH carburettor to reach the cylinder via an inlet manifold which is quite similar to the one used in the HH Splendor and its siblings, since the engine itself is horizontally laid out like the HH bikes. Compared to the Splendor which produces max power at 8000 rpm at a CR of nine, the Engine Life Factor (ELF) of the Centra at 1.433 is 3.25% better than Splendor’s 1.388, which means Centra’s engine should last 3.25% longer. This is due to the fact that peak power in the Centra is achieved at 500 rpms less than Splendor, even though Centra CR is higher than Splendor.

TECH TALK

There is other “first-time-on-any-Indian-bike” tech stuff inside the Centra engine, which improves fuel economy. First, the cam followers in the Centra are on ball bearings, which reduces friction between cam and follower tremendously since rolling friction is just one-tenth of sliding friction. Second, the timing chain guide is now Teflon coated, further reducing friction. Third, the piston itself has anti friction coating on its outer surface. The rings too are super thin (just 0.8 mm thick), which means reduced contact area between rings and liner, which means furtherreduction in friction. Friction reduction means fuel saved.

Further fuel saving is achieved by reducing fuel wastage during the deceleration stage. In normal bikes, when we turn the throttle to zero (such as while rolling to a stop at a traffic light), the engine is still running and producing suction, due to which fuel is being sucked into the cylinder and going waste, since it is not being used to move the bike, since the bike is going to stop at the traffic light. In the Centra, there is a cut-off sensor, which senses that throttle has been closed, and opens a valve to allow air to be sucked directly into the cylinder thru air cleaner, bypassing the carb. This reduces the quantity of fuel sucked into the cylinder, making for further fuel economy.

Even more tech is the Variable Ignition Timing device. This is a microprocessor, which senses the engine requirement and varies the ignition timing to fire at the ideal moment suitable to achieve total burn for any of four riding conditions by a four-curve map, covering parameters such as cruising, accelerating, low throttle and cold starting. The temperature sensor, which activates the microprocessor to do its job, is in the crankcase oil.

The result of all this gizmo-giri, is a wide torque curve (read better Low End Torque) and reduced emission.

ON THE ROAD

First off, the Centra has an all-up gear shift pattern (like HH), totally ulta of the all-down traditional TVS pattern. On the road, the bike performed exactly as I expected. People talk about the thin 2.5 front and 2.75 rear tyres and its supposed effect of road holding and braking. Yet fact is that even the all time favourite RX100, also came with the same tyre sizes and was none the worse for it. The positive effect of thin tyres on fuel economy is a factor in its favour, since after all this is supposed to be the ultimate economy bike. So anything in that direction is taken as a positive.

Gear shifting is slick and the bike moves easily. It is not a Cheetah like the RX135, but then who the hell is in a hurry? It easily stays with the traffic and if you ARE in a hurry, it can go ahead of the traffic as well as any bike in its class. In spite of its thin tyres, road holding and braking is as good as the RX100 at similar speeds. Seating geometry is comfortable and handling too is just as good. I prefer the flat RX100 type seat so that I can slide my ass fore-and-aft on the seat as per my ass requirement, but now-a-days almost all seats are cusped, which I don’t like, but you may like. You, may like Aishwarya Rai, I may like Bipasha Basu. To each his own I suppose. Nathu Singh—Khairu Singh—same thing! I am saying this bcoz I am not mentioning anything about its looks. See the photos and decide for yourself. On the bike I tested, there was no splashguard on the front mudguard (see photo). I hope TVS fits one on it soon bcoz it is going to rain after a few months, and nobody likes to gethis clothes dirty. The same goes for the F2.

Given the rectangular swing arm, the chassis is quite flex free and cornering was a breeze to the extent I could push the bike on terrible unknown roads outside TVS’s Hosur plant whereI tested the bike. The bad roads on which I did the test were in a way good for me, since it showed how good the suspension is. The pickup is of a piece with other commuter segment bikes and so is the top speed.