The Scooter Looked Like a Warrior's Horse : Nostalgia

[dray]

Mopeds!! Cheap, fuel efficient, and used to be beaten by cycles.
TVS used to be the king of mopeds.

49cc Hero Honda Ankur, I think this thing didn't even need a number plate!!

 

[Sam Manekshaw]

Learned how to ride on Bajaj Chetak. Any one remember this one?

emotional kar diya tu.

@jbgt90 @GURU DUTT @arp2041 and others :

One greatest regret : Us waqt scooter ke piche baithne ke liye Ladkiyan nahin the....Aaj kal ki tarah!!.......

But meriwali uske papa ki scooter pe baith k jati thi

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

If you wanna ride bikes... ride a real bike not this 100- 125-150cc shits... or just get a car..

 

[takeiteasy]

I learned riding in a Lambretta back when I was in 9th...(It is not "Lamby"...but "Lambretta"..very old one). mitti ka thel was the preferred fuel for many a lambretta owners(!)

Owned my first motorcycle which is a "non-japan" Yamaha RX100(1994 make 2nd hand).if u know about RX100's, the first ones made from 89's to 92 have a 125cc(?) japanese engine:

then a 1983 Enfield Bullet Deluxe(Chrome tank), a hero honda cd100ss, CBZ TPFS(circa 2000) TVS Fiero, 180cc Pulsar DTS-i, again a 2006 RE Bullet Electra 4S and now a TVS Apache RTR 180.
--
Bajaj M80 is the moped used here in Kerala by fish sellers..now they too have shifted to motorcycles. In TN and mysore, TVS mopeds are cool. while, I hardly see mopeds in my state..except 2 decades back hero puch or rare luna's.
It's fun with the 2strokers...sadly they are extinct now. especially YEZDI and Jawa's. I hear Yamaha RX series is still manufactured in Turkey, Thailand etc..
Scootters are returning just like in the 80s. BTW, two people I know who rode Bajaj Chetak's packed their scootters and kept in their backyards. one is my neighbour. They are keeping it. not selling!

 

[thesolar65]

If you wanna ride bikes... ride a real bike not this 100- 125-150cc shits... or just get a car..

The thread is about Bikes of 80s to end of eighties and before that. Not about now. Now the starting model of Harley D is becoming common. This is about Nostalgia. Please share some of your bikes of that time.

Yamaha RD-350 - Probably our first sports bike.

RD-400 (Can anybody confirm if this baby came to India?)

And when it was introduced, the police had no bikes or jeeps which would go faster than that. So the chain, purse snatching became rampant and police thought of banning them in our city (but it did not). Then they also bought some for them to chase.

 

[Levina]

Not even cars?

Nope.I drive an automatic

 

[Indischer]

Nope.I drive an automatic

Automatic transmission always reminds me of this.....

 

[halupridol]

Nope.I drive an automatic

women

 

[Dash]

A way from the chaotic metro traffic, in a Tier-II city, as the bus I was travelling stopped at a traffic signal, I had chance to see a refurbished Bajaj scooter parked majestically on the portico of a house, with its front wheel above the ground. This cute automobile should have served its master at least for two decades now. It took me back to my days with one such scooter of my father’s.

Early in the ’80s, one had to wait for at least eight months to get one scooter and people tried even through an NRI quota to get it faster. The scooter, especially Bajaj Chetak and Super, was the king in its era. In the fag end of his career, my dad wanted to invest on a scooter through a vehicle loan. In my twenties, men of my age didn’t always like the scooter for its basic features. The trend was to put the legs over the bike and ride it unlike the scooter where one has to sneak through the opening in the front.

Reluctantly I started using it for around two years. It was the easiest way to start riding a tw0- wheeler with an easy hand gear. But it was heavy, not balanced like the bike, had smaller wheels and the weight always tilted towards one side. In plain words, I couldn’t vroom at top speed like a bike for the fear of skidding while braking. Due to the poor shock absorber, as it scans every pothole, the shock was usually absorbed by my neck and shoulders. The situation was worse when women rode pillion seated on one side. The result was cervical spondilitis. But by this time, it had become very dear to me. This made me wonder why my college professors, despite their abdomen belt, still preferred riding scooters.

I could comfortably keep a helmet in the helmet box and use the side tool box for storing small items, especially to keep slippers near temples where there were no chappal stands. The space near my legs, which first made me think the scooter was feminine, could be good enough even for a half-HP motor.

Leaving the scooter to rest on its straight stand, tilting it on one side for petrol flow and balancing it before a smooth kick, was a wonderful procedure. I could hold on to the handle bar with one hand while tilting and the whole weight was perfectly balanced on that side. Now I felt the scooter was truly masculine, sturdy and also most comfortable to travel in the worst gradient because the shaft system doesn’t loosen like the chain system while shifting gears.

As fuel prices sky-rocketed, having a scooter became economically unviable. Mechanics too didn’t know how to repair a geared scooter. I did not know what to do after getting rid of the scooter. It could fetch a very low price in exchange but the repairs that recurred were more than the value of the scooter itself. I had to give it to a friend of 18 years and that was also the end of an era of geared scooters. But the bike now didn’t suit a family man. The side hanger cannot bear much load and the modern day pillion is not comfortable for older women. Now there are scooters all over — fully automatic — no gears, have a side stand and a button start.

My flash back jerked a bit as the bus driver pressed the accelerator on a green signal. For me now, the scooter looked like a warrior’s horse, majestically standing on its hind legs with its front legs lifted and raring to go. Silently, I saluted the owner for relying on its soldier against all odds.

My View :

I know most of the members have not driven a geared scooter, ever. But those who have, can share some of their experience. I have driven Lamby, Priya, Super and Chetak and Lastly which was withdrawn from Market, Eterno. In 70s and 80s the Second Hand Bajaj Chetak was costlier than New Chetak!!

@Indischer @Dem!god @DRAY @levina @Skull and Bones @Armstrong @Peaceful Civilian (I do not know what kind of geared scooter was there in Pakistan) @halupridol @wolfschanzze @scorpionx @desert warrior @Dash @Robinhood Pandey and others

I remember, during those days, a DOCTOR and a LAWER, both need to ride scooter, with their symbols on it.
It was so suiting them Scooter was considered as a more of a gentleman's ride..

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

The thread is about Bikes of 80s to end of eighties and before that. Not about now. Now the starting model of Harley D is becoming common. This is about Nostalgia. Please share some of your bikes of that time.



And when it was introduced, the police had no bikes or jeeps which would go faster than that. So the chain, purse snatching became rampant and police thought of banning them in our city (but it did not). Then they also bought some for them to chase.

I was born in the 90s dude... although my father used to ride a Honda dirt bike during his college days... As for myself .. nah im not in biking ... i like 4X4s...

 

[thesolar65]

I was born in the 90s dude... although my father used to ride a Honda dirt bike during his college days... As for myself .. nah im not in biking ... i like 4X4s...

You are fortunate then to be born rich!!

 

[Levina]

Automatic transmission always reminds me of this.....

women

Uffff

Now imagine driving 300-350kms in one stretch at 3am in the morning with a manual gear car.
Automatic car makes long journey very comfortable.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

You are fortunate then to be born rich!!

What do you drive/ride...

 

[halupridol]

Uffff

Now imagine driving 300-350kms in one stretch at 3am in the morning with a manual gear car.
Automatic car makes long journey very comfortable.

3 am,,,,kulla rasta,,,,,no traffic,,,,,need4speed time
anyway,,,,everyone has a high opinion of female drivers

 

[thesolar65]

What do you drive/ride...

OK, you are young compared to me. You can know it from My Avatar. I drove diffrent kinds of Bajaj Scooters starting from 80-90. From 90 I drove one open willy jeep for 5 years to my business and one Padmini Car for my family. Then on e Premier 118NE (Fiat) then one Armada (Mahindra), then one Bolero (Mahindra) and now I have a Fiat Linea car and one Duster (Renault).