The New Honda Activa

For ten years Honda has dominated the scooter market with its Activa –fuss free and slick, refined, frugal and quick enough to have some fun. More importantly, it’s practicality and Honda’s unisex design was a stroke of genius. The Activa success story continues unhindered into its tenth year, with customers still queuing up and being forced to await delivery. Only in recent times when the Suzuki Acess and Kinetic SYM Flyte made their advent did Honda begin to feel the pinch in context of its lead in the market share. The solution? An updated Activa…Over Drive (May ’09) takes a quick look…

The new Activa looks sleeker but is still very unisex. The front apron gets Aviator like ‘Y-fronts’ and small dummy air intakes. The trapezoidal headlamp and swept back blinkers get the clear lens treatment. The pillion foot peg is now fitted flush in the footboard. The tail lamp has a new shape and new design and the tubular grab rail is replaced by a chunky aluminum number. Under the seat is a 25-litre stowage, 10 litres more. Fit and finish as usual is immaculate as per Honda standards.

The 109cc engine is 7cc larger. Honda claims that the engine makes 1PS more and offers 15 percent better economy. But despite the *PS of power at 7500rpm and a peak torque of 8.8Nm at 5500rpm, the difference in performance isn’t evident until speeds rise. The engine feels like the old one but gets to 60kmph quicker, in 10.2 seconds. The improved top-end shows up in the top speed which is now up to 85.5kmph, against the old Activa’s 77kmph. Also during OverDrive’s (May ’09) fuel efficiency tests, the Activa returned 53.2kmpl in the city and 58.3kmpl on the highway – way better than the older Activa figures.

Honda has not fiddled with the chassis geometry and the Activa is as easy to ride. It has the same nice and firm suspension set-up though it still comes with a trailing link front suspension. Priced at Rs. 41,300, ex-showroom, Pune, the Activa remains expensive. In its new guise, the old virtues remain while enhanced performance and sleeker looks bump up its appeal. – India’s most loved scooter just got better signs off OverDrive (May ’09).