Help!. Review on Kinetic Zing

Kinetic Zing

Our Kinetic Zing is only a few days old but neither me nor my teenage daughter for whom we have bought the machine have been able to ride it. It has starting problems. Our decision to buy the Zing was partly decided by the price and the reviews on Mouthshut.

I think I got a defective piece. What else can be the reason for this starting problem?

My husband brought home the Zing one night. The next morning I

donned a brand new shining black helmet, and went down stairs and got on this beautiful Zing. I saw neighbours watching from the balcony, with a mixture or envy and amusement ( I am not exactly a youngster). I started it. It started and I went about a hundred yards in the colony at around 20 kames and it stopped. I wasn’t worried. Must be something to do with my riding style. I must have let go the accelerator or something. I started it and again went at a medium speed. This time it stopped after 50 yards. I tried re-starting but it wouldn’t start. Flushing with embarrassment, and quite sure I couldn’t ride a scooter, I asked one of the drivers hanging around the colony to start it. He tried for several minutes but to no avail. Feeling more confidence in my driving ability I pushed the scooter back into our building. We called the mechanic from the dealer in Thane – Kamal Kinetic. He was awfully prompt and came within the hour.

He cleaned the machine, the spark plug and something else and then squarely blamed the starting problem on us. We should never never use premixed petrol he said. We had got the petrol from a HP petrol pump. We said okay, sorry. We had to use normal petrol and add a 30 ml sachet of oil. We had no idea the Kinetic was such a delicate thing.

Anyway, we got the petrol in a can and the sachets were put into the scooter. It refused to start. We tried for 15 minutes. This was not only a very delicate scooter, it appeared to us that even the oil was too strong for the Zing to digest.

We again called the mechanic. He came within half an hour. It didn’t start immediately. But he fiddled around with the accelerator and let flow some petrol and it started. I asked him why doesn’t it start without pushing the throttle so hard and without fiddling around with the pipe? It was not as if the petrol had overflowed. It was only half tank. He had no answer.

I called my husband home from the office and he tried to start it, with the mechanic present. It didn’t start for 3-4 tries but finally it started. He rode it. At a high speed it was okay, at lower speeds it was stalling.

The second time he tried to start it didn’t start. Again it was left to the mechanic to fiddle around and then it started. At times the starter button seemed dead.

This morning the machine again refused to start. We haven’t filled in any pre-mixed petrol or in fact any petrol. It's still half tank.

We wondered whether only mechanics are supposed to buy Kinetic Zings? Or whether Zing is a very delicate machine?

Today the mechanic is coming to take it to the garage. He is not admitting that anything is wrong with it but said they would check the whole machine. It's upsetting. After paying a whopping Rs 30,000/- plus and have not been able to ride it out of the colony gates!

I guess only new owners will understand the depression we are feeling right now.

Even if the mechanic fixes it, how long before the Zing again starts to give trouble? Should we ask for another piece? Should we write to Kinetic? We are totally confused.

The only thing I was clear about was that I had to write about it on Mouthshut.