The legendary TVS MAX100 will be resurrected with a four stroke heart

TVS MAX100R

Eons ago, I happened to visit a bunch of villages in Tamil Nadu and the one thing I found common amongst most villages and the villagers themselves was the presence of a simple two stroke motorcycle.

The motorcycle I am talking about is the TVS Max 100, a poorer, tougher cousin of the city slicker of times gone by, the Suzuki Samurai.

This motorcycle was, till the emission norms strangulated the two strokers, TVS Motors‘ bread and motorcycle that sold by the droves in India’s hinterland.

Obviously a testimony to the simplicity, stellar reliability and tough-as-nails build of this legendary rural workhorse, the TVS MAX100 was a motorcycle that plenty of ou rural brethren leaned on when it came to transporting themselves, their livestock or sometimes even entire families and I am not talking about tiny nuclear families here. This motorcycle soldiered on gamely, offering some peppy two stroke performance and an easy maintenance schedule even as the four stroke brigade came along to usurp it’s position as one of India’s prime two wheeled rural mover.

As more four strokes started invading India’s hinterland, the MAX100s sales steadily showed a downward curve and the final nail on the coffin was the ever tightening emission norms which first tamed it and made it more docile, then strangled it by cutting off it’s breathing, and finally has now come to lay it to rest. This, in a nutshell is the old warhorse, the TVS MAX100′s story and now TVS Motors plans to resuscitate the legendary rural brand with a 110cc four stroke offering. The 110cc four strokers that TVS Motors produces are epitomes of reliability, so much so that TVS sticks it neck out and offers five years of warranty on it’s 110cc four strokes engine.

Now, if something could replace the simple, easy to maintain 98cc two stroke engine of the MAX100, the 110cc, bomb proof four stroke engine is it. And the added benefit of the four stroke engine’s much higher fuel efficiency tilt the scales completely in favor of the four strokers. Alright, I know fuel efficiency isn’t about what the two strokes are(direct injection not in the picture yet) but try telling that to a hard working farmer who tries to wring the most out of every paisa he manages to eke out, he’ll simply laugh it, and you off.

While I still feel that TVS Motors could have persisted with the two strokers by shoehorning a few plumbings that are on it’s 200cc two stroke autorickshaw with fuel injection, the TVS King, the powers to be at TVS seem to have other ideas.

So, the TVS MAX110R will feature the 110cc automatic clutch, picked up straight from the recently launched TVS Jive. The sturdy all metal body will be retained and the MAX110R’s launch will happen sometime in May, 2010 at a Value-For-Money price of about INR 35,000.

News Courtesy: Indianmotosblog

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