Almost seventeen years ago, when nobody had even heard of disc brakes, Enfield lonched a 2-stroke, 175 cc bike named FURY with disc brakes. At that time, Enfield belonged to the Laxman(an)+Vishwanath(an) brothers. The Fury was a very high end bike which had no low end. That is, Low-End-Tork was so low (~zero), that almost nothing happened till the engine touched 6,000 rpm, though the bike easily crossed 100 kph at the top end. The bike failed. People said it was ahead of times. WRONG! On hindsight, I say it was far behind times. Sure petrol prices then were one-fourth of what they are today, so mileage was not such a big issue. High speeds were possible bcoz roads were relatively much less krouded.

Between the late eighties and now, the number of traffic lights in Pune has gone UP by FIVE times, while average road speeds in Pune have gone DOWN by FIVE times, bcoz the number of vehicles has gone up 22 times while the road space available for movement has REDUCED by THREE times, bcoz more space is used up for parking on public roads than the extra road space created by Pune Municipal Corporation! As if this was not enuff, Mr. Ratan Tata is threatening to sell a car at JUST ONE LAKH RUPEES, which is half the price of the Kinetic COMET motorcycle! Just think, if even ten percent of bike buyers went for Mr. Ratan’s one-lakh car, where is the parking (and maybe driving) road space?? Therefore the reason I say Enfield FURY was behind times, is bcoz as time went ahead what we needed was slower bikes not faster, bcoz road speeds in our towns and cities has REDUCED rather than INCREASED! Which means, in India going slower means progress!

Now whether going slower than before, means progress for the country or not is for the govt. of voters to decide. Innovative bike manufacturers on the other hand make products that will sell in today’s road, traffic and economic conditions. And what today’s road, traffic and economic conditions need is an affordably priced bike, which smoothly moves with the slow, stop-and-go type city traffic with minimum driver effort and minimum fuel consumption. This means a bike, which has MAXIMUM Low-End-Tork. Consumes MINIMUM amount of YETROL and has the necessary driver amenities such as brilliant headlight beam quality, seating comfort, suspension and braking. If such a bike is also attraktiv looking, it would kidnap all 3-M customers, which means Madhubala, Madhuri Dixit and Mallika Sherawat combined!

ENTER THE DRAGON! I mean enter the new StaR City, not Bruce Lee. Here I am NOT talking about the original TVS Star, not Star Deluxe, not even the old StaR City. I am talking about the NEW StaR City. As the name suggests, it is a bike specially designed for city driving, and as good looking as they cum.

WHAT DOES IT HAVE THAT OTHERS DON”T HAVE? IN MY MBA Marketing CLASS at IIMM - Pune, IT IS TAUGHT as U.S.P.==Unique Selling Proposition, which means every product MUST have something unique for each buyer.

StaR City has Magnesium Alloy wheels to start with. Call them Mag-wheels or Alloy-wheels, Natthu-Singh Khairu-Singh same thing! Alloy wheels do enhance looks tremendously. Also, unlike wire-spoke wheels, they don’t bend simply bcoz they are like “Patthar-ke-Sanam”, i.e brittle, can break but cannot bend. No spokes to bend, no spokes to mend, no spokes to replace and no spokes to tighten, bcoz spokes don’t exist. Though LML were the first to offer alloy wheels on their ENTRY level bike CRD few months ago, currently LML themselves seem to be on the EXIT level, making TVS the pioneer in alloy wheels @ entry level.

Then there is the fuel gauge. Many entry level bikes don’t have it. Indeed Star did not (and still does not) have it. The OLD StaR City did not have it. HH CD Dawn does not have it. Most others in this class do not have it. But the new StaR City has it.

When you ride the StaR city at night, and switch on the light, the back-light on the round dials / meters in the dashboard comes ON. It is so attraktiv due to its unique kolor, you have to see it to believe it, like the Max-Faktor lipstick on Madhubala, Madhuri and Ash!

The headlight beam quality of StaR City is definitely the best in its klass, and hence safest at night. Indeed headlight beam quality of StaR City is best in any klass except Bajaj Avenger and Bullet. But then everyone knows how much Avenger and Bullet kost.

While rectangular section swing-arm is now being offered on an inkrizing number of models, fact is, the dimensions of the rectangle and its wall thickness in StaR City make it the best swing-arm between the Straits of Hormuzd and the Straits of Malacca!

The crowning glory of the NEW StaR City is of korse its 130 mm dia brakes, which almost nobody else is offering in this class. Indeed the old star city also had only 110 mm dia brakes. The 130 mm dia brakes of the NEW StaR City make it the safest is this class.

And the seat: Thankfully TVS have not given it the step-mother treatment by not giving a stepped-seat. I hate stepped-seats. In another XLNT bike (Edge125), they have given a stepped-seat, and I had to spend Rs.150/- to flatten it. Thankfully no such thing in StaR City, though there is a very slight hint of step, it is not too bothersome and no need to spend extra 150/- for flattening. The seat is quite generous for dubble seat, and combined with the BEST Low-End-Tork, this bike is the most comfortable and needs least driver effort for dubble seat driving in city traffic.

BASICS:

Just For the record and for quantitatively inclined people, this bike has A 99.8 cc enjin with a 51 mm bore and 48.8 mm stroke, which produces 7.5 bhp (==5.5 kw) at 7500 rpm and develops 7.5 Nm of Tork at 5000 rpm at a compression ratio of 9.3, breathing thru a Spaco AW 18 or a KEIHIN Carburetor via a dubble polyurethane foam filter. The bike tested by me has a Keihin carb. For which idling is to be set at 1400 (+ or – 50) rpm, while bikes with the Spaco carb. have to idle at 1450 (+ or – 100) rpm. Spark is provided by a Bosch UR5DC plug. Sujjested gap is 0.6 to 0.8 mm

Transmission has 4-gears in all-up configuration. Wheelbase is 1250 mm, while kerb weight (with toolkit and 90% Yetrol tank full) is 110 kg. Tyres are 2.75 x 18 frunt and 3.oo x 18 rear. Yetrol tank kapaciti is a massive 16 litres (largest in klass and larger than most others in any klass), with an ekvali (==equally) large reserve of 2.5 liters.

Brilliant elektriks are powered by a 12 volt – 60 watt magneto backed by a 12 volt – 2.5 Ah Battery. Headlight power is 12v – 35W which throws the best and hence safest halogen produced beam due to its ideally placed halogen bulb at the focal point of its Multi-Fokal-Reflektor (MFR). While tail light is a regular 5-watt affair, the brake light is a brilliant 21 watts. Blinkers are 10-watt affairs, and this bike also sports a pass-light-switch (at LH grip), a rarity in this klass.

Chassis is single down-tube with enjin as stressed member. Frunt suspension is twin fork teleskopik oil-damped, while rear suspension is a very effective 2-step adjustable affair. Rear swing-arm is rectangular cross-sexun.

ROAD MANNERS:

Road manners of this bike are impeccably city bred. The StaR City is a street-fighter which can also hold its own on the highway, though not in the same league as Bullet. I have not done any zero to sixty tests on this bike nor on any other bikes that I test, bcoz I have found that this figure varies tremendously from rider to rider and is not standard. It is 90% rider dependant and 10% bike dependent, hence not standard and hence pointless. Braking is more than adequate with the 130 dia drums and better than all other bikes which have 110 dia drums. Road holding and cornering is as good as it gets with the size of tyres used.

This is the ultimate city bike which is perfektly at home in krouded city traffic, where there is a traffic light every few metres, which is a perpetual stop-go-stop-go-stop-go process interspersed with unending spells of crawling speeds. Where any other bike would need TEN gear changings, this bike would need just two or three. Just imagine how much LESS, Effort, Tension and Stress (ETS) it means for the driver. If the Enfield FURY (mentioned at the beginning of this test) produced TEN units of ETS in the driver, the StaR City would produce hardly TWO. In human terms, what this means for the driver is lower blood pressure, better health, longer life and hence better sex. No wonder this bike is ideally suited for dubble seat. What more do you want?

FUEL CONSUMPTION:

Fuel consumption test was done on exactly same route [@ 19.5 km] on which all other bikes are tested, by me (61 kg, height 174 cm), using ordinary unleaded green Yetrol

S.No	Test conditions of TVS StaR CITY	Distance Covered (km)	Fuel Consumed (litres)	Fuel average (kmpL)
1	Speeds up to 55 kmpH. Thirteen gear changings, some to 2nd. Eleven brakings. Up-slope and down-slope	4.3	0.065	66.2
2	Almost steady 40-45 in top (4th) gear. No braking. No gear changing. Once quickly accelerated to 65 to overtake irritating truck, and back to steady 45.	2.5	0.028	89.3
3	No braking. No gear changing. Almost steady 40. Some up-slope.	2.9	0.035	82.9
4	No gear changing. No braking. Almost steady 40. Much up-slope	2.6	0.038	68.4
5	Down-slope + plain road. Seven gear changings to third. Fourteen brakings. Speeds up to 60.	7.1	0.083	85.5
6	Overall Fuel Average	19.4	0.249	77.91

KONKLOOSION:

While the above figures speak for themselves, the most notable point to note in this above table is the Test conditions in row 2, 3 and 4 above: No braking. No gear changing in all three rows, over a distance of EIGHT km (add distance covered in row 2, 3 & 4). No other bike tested on the same road under exactly same traffic conditions ever gave this kind of effortless driving like NO-BRAKING, NO-GEAR CHANGING. You can check all other fuel consumption tables of all other bikes given on this site. This is what is meant by Low-End-Tork. And the above is QUANTIFIED PROOF that StaR City has the BEST LOW-END-TORK. At Rs.40.021/- on road Pune on 19 May, 2006, with alloy wheels, 130 dia brakes, best headlight beam and best LOW-END-TORK, this bike is the best value for munny, best value for looks and best commuter in city traffic. There isn't any better yet.