The scooter market is shrinking. Erstwhile scooter majors such as Bajaj & LML are changing tack so as to be known at motorcycle makers rather than scooter makers. Even Kinetic is moving on to become known as a motorcycle maker rather than as the inventor of un-geared mopeds such as LUNA, and towards this end, has launched FOUR different models of motorcycles at one shot on a single day. Scooters per se are not dead or even dying. Indeed, the sale of un-geared scooters is rising. It is the genre of geared scooters that is shrinking. The shrinking started with the diminishing market for geared two stroke scooters. So scooters makers went four-stroke, mainly Bajaj with its Legend and TVS with its Spectra. Both, Legend and Spectra are now dead and the only 4-stroke geared scooter in the market till very recently was the 111.6 cc Bajaj four stroke Chetak hyped to the name of Chetak Magic.

While there is nothing magical about using the 111.6 cc pot that powered / powers a string of Bajaj bikes from Caliber / Croma / Aspire to…hoodibabaa, it is definitely magical for an el-primo company like HONDA to enter a shrinking market. The kind of research that the Japanese do, is, by Indian standards, almost like going to the moon to find out whether the moon is really made of cheese !

If any product has to succeed, it MUST have a USP==Unique Selling Proposition. Entering with a name like Eterno, it seems Honda expects this scooter’s life cycle to be Eternity. The way the old 2-stroke Bajaj Chetak went on and on and on from the seventies to the nineties, was almost eternity. Indeed, I know of many old Chetak 2-strokers still in use today which are over 20 years old, which is 33% longer than eternity, since Bharat Sarkar has defined eternity as 15 years, the one-time-tax (RTO) validity period. So, will the Eterno go on till eternity? I had to find out.

FEATURES AND DIMENSIONS

The Eterno looks SOLID. Feels solid. Moves solid. Sounds solid. Behaves solid. So, how solid is solid? For one, being a geared scooter, more solid males would opt for it than liquid females (as proved by the higher number of solid males riding the Eterno in Pune as compared to liquid females). The seat is 27 inches long and one foot wide at it’s widest with no motorcycle like cusp, making the seating area almost as big and as flat as a football field. Combined with an excellent solid pillion footrest at LHS, this seat provides the best seat for saree clad, well-endowed women sitting sideways. That’s a solid fact, though I wish they had also provided a similar footrest at RHS also (for males sitting horse-style), like the very convenient handles provided on both sides under the seat for pillions to hold, or to put the bike on main stand. Which brings me to complaining about the lack of a side stand. Also there doesn’t seem to be any provision for a side stand at all, at least at LHS, though there is a small tindu protruding from under the floor-board (more fore than aft) at RHS (see photo), whose function I have not been able to understand, unless it is for after-market fitment of side-stand at RHS, though I have yet to see any two wheeler having side stand at RHS. Also the amount of space at RH for placing pillion foot feels a bit inadequate, though it is OK, once the pillion gets used to it. Seat height from the ground is 79 cm (31 inches) with bike off-stand, rider of 62 kg on it. If I sit amidships (in the center), my crotch angle becomes so wide that I cannot place both my feet flat on the ground simultaneously, even though I am 174 cm tall (5 feet 8.5 inches). My toes however reach the ground on both sides simultaneously, which is good enough for me. Shorties will definitely have to sit fore, rather than aft. Kick-starter length is a long 10 inches, which gives excellent force magnification, enabling it to start at first kick ALWAYS. Never fails. Kicking while seated on seat is also very convenient. Ground clearance is 160 mm (6.3 inch) at the lowest extremity of the retracted main stand (bike off-stand, no rider), which is more than most other scooters (and bikes as well). Even so, for a man of 174 cm height, it is very easy to put on main stand without getting off the seat. Putting on main stand standing next to the scooter is even easier, though not stylish.

Handlebar width is 65 cm (25.5 inches), same as Activa and Nova. Excellent Rear View Mirrors (RVMs) have a 77.5 cm field of vision and a viewing area 90 sq. cm per mirror. A lot of youngsters remove these RVMs for reasons of “style and sleekness” which is dangerous, for RVMs are in effect LIFE-SAVERS. What’s the use of being sleek and stylish if you don’t live long enough to flaunt your style?

The foot long, ten inch wide and over six inch deep, under-seat lockable dicky easily holds an open face Vega helmet and more bric-a-brac in addition. There is more lockable storage space further ahead, in the form of a front dicky, which is 43 cm wide, 37 cm tall and 18 cm deep inside, though the mouth is smaller at 39 cm wide x 23 cm tall, large enough to hold a couple of sarkari sized files and much more smaller sized stuff. This front dicky is a dealer fitment costing Rs.663/- and has a separate key. No problem.

Whatever features the Eterno has, are absolutely top class. Yet there are a lot of features that are just not there. For example, there is no Engine Kill Switch (EKS). But then no Honda vehicle in India has an EKS. This appears to be company policy. So be it. Switchgear is top class but basic. Headlight on-off switch is at RHS, while hi-lo beam switch is at LHS. Choke is at LH, exactly identical to the one in Activa and placed at the same place as Activa. Blinker switch is at LH and is NOT of the press-cancel type, though I really wish it was, since quite often it gets over-cancelled (driver is busy concentrating on the road) and goes to the other side, leading to a wrong signal. I don’t know how much extra it would cost to make it press cancel, but I would be happy to pay even Rs.50/- extra to have it. The horn button (most curiously) is at RHS. I wonder what is the logic behind this? Also since there is no battery in this scooter, the horn sound is a squak, which I like very much, since loudness varies according to engine rpm, and it is great fun to raise rpm and literally scream at people to move off.

There is no fuel gauge, apparently because there is not battery, and therefore there is no self-start either. The blinkers are bright and large, though the easily visible bright tell-a-tale light on dashboard for blinker indication is a single light at RH, it gives the driver no indication whether he is turning right or left. There is also no beeper in tandem with the blinkers. The hi-beam tell-a-tale light is at LH. There is also no neutral indicator because there is no battery.

ENGINE DETAILS

Motive power is provided by a 147.7cc engine having bore x stroke of 57 x 57.9 mm, operating at a compression ratio of 9.3. Though the Owners Manual gives no figures as to its BHP and Torque, from its on-road performance I estimate its power to be about nine BHP and Torque to be about nine Nm. Strung out on a wheelbase of 1247 mm, the Eterno weighs 123 kg. (dry). Fuel tank is relatively small, with a capacity of just 4.5 litres. The CDI ignited engine uses either a Champion P-RZ9HC spark plug or an NGK spark plug model CR6HSA. Idling is to be set at 1500 rpm. Tyres are 3.50 x 10 both front and rear, and headlight power is 12volt 35Watt. A spare wheel (stepney) is apparently standard. At least my test scooter came with a spare wheel.