Recreating past success is not always as easy as it seems. Kinetic's new 4s attempts to relive history but does it succeed?

IT SEEMS TO be yesterday once more in the scooter world in India as most two-wheeler companies are trying to cash in on the goodwill of previous blockbuster models. Kinetic Engineering, which tasted heady success with its Honda Lead-based scooter in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, has now popped a four-stroke engine into the trusty old platform and rebadged the scooter the 4s.
A true forerunner of two-wheeled tech, the Kinetic Honda was the first two-wheeler in India to come with an electric-start option. The convenience of an automatic and gearshift-free ride was pleasure personified for that generation of riders who had, till then, relied only on kickstarts. But past perfect cannot always make present sense.
Once the very essence of modernism for India, this boxy design looks outdated today. The familiar all-metal body is clad in a fresh set of graphics. While paint lustre is just fine, fit and finish and attention to detail are surprisingly lower than that seen on the original scooter many years ago.
The headlight fascia is slightly altered and also seems to have lost charm, but the headlight works better and is now a clear lens affair. A fly screen protects riders from buffeting wind and the speedo remains more or less the same unit and is equipped with an easy-to-read fuel level counter, so critical in the present Rs 50-a-litre-of-petrol days.
Colossal and rider-friendly mirrors are multifunctional with reflectors on their exterior. There’s a thoughtful city light on the new scooter, but push-to- cancel indicators are not part of its gear. Grips, plastics and switches look like they could surely improve, though the 4s has nice hand brake levers, and thankfully uses a rear brake locking clamp.
Compensating for the lack of an under-seat storage bay, the 4s offers ample carrying area within its front apron, and also on its flat removable rubber mat-equipped floorboard. The scooter has its choke lever inconveniently positioned low down on the exterior of its engine panel. Alloy rims and a stepney at the rear are standard and much appreciated fare.
The new Kinetic is an emission-friendly machine. Gone is the two-stroke hum that riders will associate this scooter with. In its place purrs a healthy four-stroke, force air-cooled and twin-valve power plant as previously introduced on the SM5 version of the Nova 115 scooter.
The button-started 113.5cc engine now sounds smoother, thanks to Kinetic having spent several man-hours refining this motor. Ignition timing is electronically regulated to dual modes. It’s a more silent engine, mainly due to the boffins having done away with a one-way clutching system and its fast-wearing character. Within the small confines of its variator-regulated gearbox, the 4s counter shaft is now fitted with a more resilient ball bearing, in place of the original needle rollers that were inferior.
The 4s scooter puts out peak power of 7.2bhp at 7500rpm, and peak torque of 0.78kgm at 5000rpm, both of which are fairly decent for its class. With its 104kg kerb weight, this is a scooter with a power to weight ratio spot on for its class at 69.2bhp per tonne. Riding the 4s for a brief period, we found that it has enough grunt and stays as vibration- and glitch-free as desired.
The 4s is a comfortable scooter with its rider and pillion seated in an upright and commuter-friendly posture. The floorboard is roomy enough to easily accommodate a rider’s legs, but the handlebars hit the knees when tackling sharp slow-speed turns.
Ride quality is decent, although the suspension can get a bit bouncy when the scooter is pushed to perform, or on bad surfaces and loaded two-up with a pillion. The 4s uses a bush-mounted leading link suspension in the front, and its engine as a swinging member with a single-shock at the rear.
In a surprising move, the 4s’s battery has been shifted from low down and close to the centre of gravity, to the rear of the scooter. Our brief riding impression on the test scooter provided to us revealed that the steering lacked a precise feel and also had mediocre straight-line stability. The 4s, as it is now, is not a scooter we would enjoy attacking corners on though we will reserve further judgement until a proper road test.
With a list price at par with its direct competitors — the Honda Activa/Dio duo and Bajaj Wave —we think the 4s falls more than just a wee bit short. It’s a pity that the pioneering spirit of the original automatic scooter has not been re-born in the new four-stroke Kinetic 4s.