I was born on 1983 and eagerly waiting for my 18th birthday to get a LLR and thereby a DL to drive my first bike, the day came and I got my LLR and was practicing with my dad’s TVS Champ almost 2 hrs daily and later on got my DL in a fine Monday morning and to my surprise, my parents gifted me a bike of my choice.
So what’s my choice of bike?
Its end of 2001, where every bike has its own unique feature which is not happening in these days (it’s my humble opinion) so as everyone lookout for bikes, I had sneak preview of all bikes in that time, finally landed up in 5 bikes from 5 brand.
- Suzuki Fiero (not the TVS Fiero) – Color Preferred: Black or Bottle Green
- Bajaj Pulsar (1st generation round headlight with solid sealed silencer) Color Preferred: Purple
- LML Energy (Love the bold petrol tank) Color Preferred: Black or Silver
- Yamaha YBX (had great look and light weight) Color: The default black with blue stickering
- Hero Honda CBZ – Color Preferred: Purple or Bottle Green
Tough Competition right?
Inspiration
Suddenly my dad and uncle was telling to go in for TVS as it is very reliable in south India especially Tamilnadu and I too thought how come I can forget TVS, since we have been using the power house TVS Champ (the blue color one, not XL) for almost 10 yrs now and still it’s in pristine condition.
So went to TVS (Suzuki) showroom again, but this time not looked at the Suzuki Fiero, saw my dream bike just launched with Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador with caption “More smiles per hour” what else they can keep for this sweet heart, it’s the all New TVS Victor, made indigenous by the TVS R&D team in Hosur and I felt almost love at first sight.
We booked in the first batch GL series in Sep 2001 2nd week and got the bike on 22nd Oct 2001 which was on Ayudha pooja, so my New bike joined the millions of other old bikes washed and decorated for the occasion.
Regrets
To be frank, I have not faced any issues with my Victor till date other than regular service and petrol filling, It has never left me in middle of the road other than some rare puncture happening.
But had some times regretted like why this Victor has not got a self start and alloy wheels/ disc brakes but has eventually came later in 2004 or 2005 as Victor Edge which is a failure, so that regret has also wiped off my mind.
Previous Bikes
My dad had a TVS Champ, so that was the only 2 wheeler I know from my family, other than that my uncle have owned RX100, I have drove both, But all the 3 bikes are good in their own way.
- TVS Champ – Good Commuter moped, best Mileage.
- Yamaha RX100 – 2 stroke, so Performance & Performance only.
- TVS Victor – 4 stroke commuter bike with both mileage and performance.
Details
We bought the victor for an on road price of 45,500/- from Chennai Motor (showroom closed later) at Virugambakkam, Victor is always known for its mileage, when it was new used to give around 65-70kmpl in city condition and gives around 80kmpl in highway (now gives average of 55-60kmpl).
The handling of Victor is always cutting the butter with a knife and it has some unique features in that point of time like the CDI centre locking, economy and power mode to choose your way of driving and the shock absorber is better than Apache I would say and it weight to height is very proportionate and suits my 6 feet structure quite ease.
Tours
What else can we do in weekends other than going around the stretches of the city and outskirts since we don’t have a car, Me along with my friends always go out in our bikes, so one is my Victor, and many friends of mine used to ride my bike and give their yucky kinetic Honda to me (just kidding) .
Me and my uncle regularly goto Thiruvannamalai, Pondicherry, Vallakottai, Thirusulam mountain, Thirupathi and many other places which my Victor takes up well and reached me home safely many times with “presatham” to my family and “more smiles per hour” to me.
Regards,
M.Balasubramanian
