Hardy-Boy. Review on Bajaj Chetak 1999

Bajaj Chetak- My dad's favourite vehicle which he bought 3 years back and he loves to ride it. When I tried my hand on it for the first time I was not feeling much comfortable due to one-sided engine. But it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Lets first sneek up on the features then talk about the drawbacks and advantages.

Scooter comes in great metallic colours. In front it appears to be having a broad chest and head lamp give it a look with the two signal lamps. The lights are powerful and helps in night driving. It is also endowed with dim and dip lights. The styling revolves around a stiff underframe that takes care of the suspension and engine mounting.

At the back it has a support stepny helpful when your tyre gives you a slip at some important times and below it, there are nose blinkers with composite tail lamp indicating while turning and braking respectively. Also at the back a new Chetak name plate is given. So style seems to be okay. Dual seats are incorporated. There is sufficient matting too. Comfort has been concentrated more on the seats. And the speedometer for those speed checks which has a night lamp for speed indications in the dark.

Ride and handle is the another part about to deal going on a vehicle. Ride is good but first time handlers seems to have a sort of trouble with the one sided engine to get a balance. Going on, it will become okay. Thats were the problem is. Sometimes it is not easy to balance. When you aretaking your scooter out, if you miss your balance then the vehicle slides over and it is difficult to balance at that time. So handling is a bit uncomfortable.

Then when we come to see about the engine, it runs with 2 stroke, single cylinder engine. The cooling is achieved with forced air cooling because more heat is evolved in the 2 stroke engine. But releases more power. The engine gets its life by electronic ignition. The scooter gets its momentum changing with 4 speed manually operated gear. The gear can be easily operated due to its smoothness.

With all these features what do you think about the fuel efficiency? Well, the Chetak gives a mileage of 50 kmpl. So it seems to be consistent and thats what we can expect from a 2 stroke scooter. So for superior riding comfort without any breaks during a long journey, it is equipped with tank capacity of 7.5 litres including the 1.4 litres in reserve. So fill up and hit the roads.

Ensuring safety the scooter has got a mechanical expanding shoe type front and rear brakes with front switch for smooth and sudden braking. The suspension is good too. But again one problem arises. The fuel tank cap. Its under the seats and while refueling you have to take up the seats and then fill up the petrol. The safety and protection of the scooter is achieved by steering lock with the ignition on and off provided with the steering lock.

There are two boxes, one at the front and other at the sides opposite to the engine. One at the side is used as toll box to keep tool kit and one in front of the driver to nkeep th neccessary items in it. There is a distance between the steering and seat, which gives a space for the legs to comfort while riding.

I have felt very comfort riding this scooter nowadays. Yeah , its really worthy of ones choice and I am very proud of its performance. Now we are looking for a 4-stroke one...but this one is a great performer in its field.