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This month we have a number of interesting stories from the all-new Honda Navi to a comparison between the TVS Victor and Honda Livo, plus an in-depth road test of the TVS Apache 200 and, finally, an exclusive first ride of the Yamaha MT-09. Today anyone who can ride a motorcycle half decently and read up a little bit on the Internet becomes an expert. Pell-mell recourse to the Internet can cause much damage. In order to test and evaluate a two-wheeler one needs to have a certain degree of riding skill, knowledge and the experience of having ridden a variety of motorcycles — from a commuter all the way up to a litre-plus supersport/sports tourer and adventure sport. If one has not ridden a variety of motorcycles, how is one going to pass judgement or evaluate a bike? How does one benchmark it? If you have no previous experience, anything you ride will impress you simply because you don’t know any better.

TVS have finally made a motorcycle with a four-valve engine. The one thing I noticed is that even though the 180 Apache and the 200 have the same stroke, the 200 engine is much taller since it has a longer connecting rod compared to that in the 180 which was short. A short con-rod gives rise to frictional losses and due to this the 180 felt as if it were being held back between 3,000 and 5,000 revolutions per minute. It is good to see that the 200 Apache FI come with Pirelli tyres as standard fitment. The engine feels extremely refined and vibration-free thanks to the counter-balancer shaft.

To conclude on a sad note, Indian roads and chaotic traffic have claimed another fellow biker, Veenu Paliwal. May her soul rest in peace.
Aspi Bhathena
Editor