The asking price for old hero honda bikes in kerala is outrageous.
But somehow I feel that the old pre-y2k splendor has got a raw mechanical feel to it. I have ridden one nonstop from Chalakudy to Pollachi via valparai, ( 130 km ). The engine doesn't heat-up at all. It can consistently cruise at 70-80 kmph, no vibrations and returns 70 plus mileage.
Meanwhile my passion pro gets all heated up, may be due to the catcon. Max mileage it give is 65kmpl that too on strict economy speeds. If i try 70-80 kmph the mileage drops to less than 55 kmpl.
Once I was taken away by surprise when I was doing a friendly race with my friends during my college days. The scenario is like we 6 people on three bikes- my '10 passion pro, a 06' bajaj platina and a '97 splendor. The splendor was carrying the heaviest load as the pillon was 110 kg.
We are at the front line of a traffic signal on the Kochi- Coimbatore highway. First one to reach the next signal ( roughly 2 km away ) would win.
3........2..........1 and the race starts. The Platina enthusiastically Jumps ahead with a wheelie. 0-60, platina wins hands down. Post 60, the passion pro shoots ahead of the platina and the splendor also cathes the platina.
Now I was nearing the finishing line. the passion pro is doing 90 kmph, wide open throttle. The platina was already out of the league and had vanished from my RVM.
I could see the splendor was going away in the RVM. But wait ! Instead of going away, it was chasing me down. My passion pro is pinned at 90, refusing to go any further.
And at about 300 m to the finish line, the splendor gives me a nice fly-by at 105 kmph

I was like....IMPOSSIBLE !
So it makes sense to buy and restore an old splendor as it will only cost half amount of buying a new commuter bike. And I dont find a single present generation 100-110 cc bike which can easily keep up with 150cc+ bikes on the highway and still return 70+ mileage and also has a lot of character.




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