Bajaj to quit making scooters

[app_engine]

I remember seeing the ad 'world's largest selling scooter' during my college days (bajaj chetak). One of my classmates was so crazy about the chetak and used to tell me that one can get a chetak only if they pay in US$ (could be true as it was heavily exported those days).

Though it was totally to my dislike, it seemed that owning a chetak was one of the ambitions of many men prior to the arrival of the 100CC bikes of whom the pioneer was the silent running 'IND-SUZUKI'.

Today I read this news (though late by 25 days, nobody has discussed so far in the hub) :

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/12/10/stories/2009121053330200.htm

In a way I'm happy because I never liked scooters - especially the bajaj ones (Kinetic Honda was much better with a push button start and auto gear). The chetaks (and others by bajaj) were ugly, wide, with horrible gear-shift mechanism on hand which will make pal-koochcham on most old machines.

However, I'm not so happy to see the news that bajaj is #2 in the world in motorcycles. I used their KB100 for 10 years and if I exclude the first few months of ownership, it was a highly irritating experience in every possible way (though not too worse than the experiences of my pals who had their yamahas, hondas and suzukees made in India).

Unless they've improved from what they were during 1990-2000, their emergence as world leaders is just a sad story in the history of motorcycles!

[app_engine]

rediff's obituary on bajaj scooters :
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/dec/11/slide-show-1-auto-bajajs-illustrious-journey.htm

[app_engine]

Some of the comments on the rediff site are hilarious. LOL'ed on this :



Tilt the scooter to 45 degree and then kick.....ha hha haa.....

[Lambretta]

I remember seeing the ad 'world's largest selling scooter' during my college days (bajaj chetak). One of my classmates was so crazy about the chetak and used to tell me that one can get a chetak only if they pay in US$ (could be true as it was heavily exported those days).
Yes. it's true. Unless you were prepared to wait for as long as 7 years!! :roll: :)
This remained the case until as late as 1987!
I remember one of my parents' friends bought the very first chetak in 1977, with forex. Remember the ones that came with the "square" headlight:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/86/244335670_9dca52e769.jpg

BTW, in case you're wondering about the 'Vespa' name on the one in this pic., all Bajaj scoots were basically just renamed copies of older Vespa models! This very first Bajaj 150 that came out in the early 70s was but a photocopy of the Vespa 150 (first assembled by Bajaj.)

The chetak eventually gained favour over the older Lambretta & Vijai scooters mainly because of the greater fuel mileage factor and the fact that it was lighter than the latter.


Though it was totally to my dislike, it seemed that owning a chetak was one of the ambitions of many men prior to the arrival of the 100CC bikes of whom the pioneer was the silent running 'IND-SUZUKI'.

In a way I'm happy because I never liked scooters - especially the bajaj ones (Kinetic Honda was much better with a push button start and auto gear). The chetaks (and others by bajaj) were ugly, wide, with horrible gear-shift mechanism on hand which will make pal-koochcham on most old machines.
Agreed, Bajaj scoots never were any of my favourite too (but in my case it's a different issue because I've liked Lambrettas! :))
The gearshift I would say was ok...except that in most cases, it would feel a little too "soft", something like jelly! :P
But it was atleast not too hard on the wrist unlike the ones on the Lambretta/Vijai, which was their only bugbear (IMHO)

It did seem that Bajaj were losing interest themselves in their erstwhile flagship scooter, as the later model (late 90s onwards) chetaks were simply going bad to worse in their build quality! I owned a 2001 model, and these were pure c**p as far as their bodywork was concerned, being potential rust-buckets for one thing! And less said about the quality of the electrical components, the better! :hammer: :x

[app_engine]

Lambretta,

Nice post with some interesting information!

Well, since I started my two wheeler experience with a 100 cc motorcycle with smooth, foot operated gears (Kawasaki bajaj, Ind Suzuki and Hero Honda were even nicer here with just one direction for shift up and another for shift-down unlike Yamaha where gear 1 was push-down, gear 2 was push-up etc), I always hated the "hold-the-clutch-and-tilt-the-whole-handle-with-pal-koochcham" gear shifting of bajaj scooters, whenever I had to ride for one reason or another (I never rode a vijay or lambretta; LML Vespa was somewhat better thanks to the slightly bigger wheels but Kinetic Honda was the best among scooters for me, though I didn't like the scooter family in general).

And riding as a pillion on a chetak is the most painful, horrible experience for me among any road rides. (cycle carrier is better, I would rather walk / wait for a bus).

They have designed against all ergonomic norms. One would keep sliding backwards during the ride, with back hitting the kambi behind, causing irritable pain (may be the intention was to make the female pillion to lean / cling to the rider - but I was not a female and also the rider will be sitting "higher" than you unlike bikes which is a silly setting)

[app_engine]

You are exactly right about the poor quality of electricals of bajaj :-( It was a regular thing on my Kawasaki to keep changing bulbs, switches etc. Horror!