ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION :
Indians tend to be dismissive of our capabilities as far as research and development is concerned. We tend to berate and to an extent underestimate our engineering skills and instead of looking ahead, keep looking over our shoulder, picking up existing products and indulging in our national pastime of reverse engineering. The TVS Victor comes as a breath of fresh air in this scenario. For now I shall focus on the two little lights in the instrument console I mentioned earlier. The idea behind those two lights is so simple that bike makers will and should tear their hair out wondering why they didn't think of it first. Activated by a throttle switch, the green lamp (for economy)glows within the first 5mm of throttle travel, while the orange lamp (for Performance) lights up after 8mm of throttle travel. Dual map digital ignition is employed to optimise the ignition curve. On part throttle the economy mapping ensures superb mileage while on full throttle the power mapping comes into play for top Performance adding to what is a brilliant idea to start off with.

The brilliant idea being, never, ever assume that everybody has or uses his/her brain (and Indians love to be spoon-fed). So instead of giving us a tachometer and going to great lengths in the owner's manual detailing the right rpm to ride in each gear for the best mileage or smattering the speedo with multi-coloured markings indicating the 'economy band', TVS has given us two little lights. One tells you that you will get great mileage, the other tells you that you are trashing the mileage stat. Simple and incredibly idiot-proof, if one wants mileage one stays in the green zone. Maybe as an after-market after-thought, TVS dealers should also fit a beeper that beeps whenever you attempt to venture out of the 'green zone'. Or better still mount a pea-shooter that peppers you with pebbles each time you commit the cardinal sin of venturing out of the holy zone. Displacing 109.2cc, the 4-stroke unit of the Victor develops 8.1bhp and 8Nm of shove. Apart from the digital ignition, the rest of the motor is fairly conventional and very refined to boot. Transmission of power is via a typically TVS-slick four-speed box with optimised gear ratios.

The Challenger is an ideal example of the national pastime I referred to earlier - reverse engineering. The 97.2cc 4-stroke to all intents and purposes is the 100cc Hero Honda mill that powers everything from the CD100SS, Joy and Splendor to the Passion. Nothing to be ashamed of though, since the Japs started by reverse engineering everything they could lay their hands on from the West and look at where they are today! It's a shame that Kinetic Engineering couldn't manage to get the refinement levels right, the vibrations emanating from the engine being on the unacceptable side of tolerable. The unit develops a max power of 7.5bhp and 7.5Nm of torque while transmission of power is via a four-speed box with bang identical gear ratios as theHero Honda bikes, though lacking in slickness. The Energy FX sports the only 3-valve head in the business and till recently was the only small capacity multi-valve motorcycle engine around. Displacement has now been upped to 109.51cc by increasing the bore by 2.5mm to 53mm. Power output has increased to 8.5bhp while torque has increased to 8.34Nm. The increase in torque results in better driveability of the engine curing the earlier need to keep working the 'box. The gearbox sports a revised shift pattern but isn't as slick and easy shifting as on the earlier bikes.

The 97.2cc unit of the Passion gets my vote for refinement and smoothness. Though the 7.4bhp of power and 7.2Nm of torque don't sound flattering, mated to the optimised gear ratios she never feels underpowered and always seems to be in the right gear to tackle any situation. The Caliber Croma carries on with the 111.6cc 4-stroke unit of the Caliber. Developing 7.6bhp of power and 8.14Nm of torque, the unit is adequately torquey and refined to not warrant any criticisms. The 105.6cc unit of the Crux-R sports a similar architecture to the YBX125 but with a smaller bore. The unit runs a very lean mixture and as such use of the choke is necessary during start-up but once on the move, the unit impresses with its seamless and refined power delivery. Impressive also is the gearbox, best in this lot by a fair margin.

Performance :
Simply put, the Challenger is the slowest bike on test here. In the acceleration stakes, the bike is the slowest to get to 40kmph, taking 5.6 seconds while she takes 19.9 seconds to get to 70kmph, a whole 2.3 seconds off the pace of the Passion (which has a power deficit of 0.1bhp). The top speed at 81.1kmph is the least of the lot. Flexibility of the engine isn't a strong point with the bench-mark 30-70kmph roll-on in top gear taking 28.8 seconds. On paper the Energy FX has an advantage over the other bikes here, if not in terms of volumetric displacement then in the better breathing enabled by an additional intake valve. On the Road this reflects in the highest top speed registered at 94.3kmph. In terms of acceleration too the Energy is the quickest taking 15 seconds to 70kmph.

The Energy develops most of her power at the top end, which reflects in the topgear roll-on figures, which at 22.9 seconds is near the bottom of the pack. The Passion put in a good showing at the test track considering all the other bikes apart from the Challenger have triple-digit engine displacements. The Passion took 5.4 seconds to get to 40kmph and 17.6 seconds to get to 70kmph, predictably placing her second from last in the drag race. Top speed registered was 82.3kmph. The top gear roll-on took 20.3 seconds reflecting the torquey nature of the engine and the optimised gear ratios.

The Caliber Croma was slightly behind the Energy FX at the test track, taking 15.8seconds to get to 70kmph. However her top speed didn't breach the 90kmph mark, the Datron data acquisition gear registering a max speed of 86.0kmph. The Crux-R was the second quickest to get to 40kmph after which she falls back and gets to 70kmph in 16.6 seconds, quicker than only the Challenger and Passion. The top speed registered was a very impressive 90.4kmph. However the 23.4 seconds taken for the top gear roll-on is better than only the Challenger in this group. Proof that the dual map digital ignition of the TVS Victor works was aptly demonstrated at the test track, the Victor firing her cylinder to come in second in the Performance stakes. Zero to 40kmph was registered in 4.9 seconds while 70kmph came up in 15.7 seconds while the top speed registered was 90.0kmph.

The Victor develops most of her power in the usable power band as reflected in the top gear roll-on that took just 14.3 seconds, much better than any of the other bikes tested here. Inspite of having road tested all these bikes before, we again took the bikes to the test track and retested them so that variables such as temperature, wind speed and the like that can and do affect the Performance of a motorbike would remain constant for all the bikes. This would benefit or handicap each bike in equal measure and thus maintain a level playing field.