[Aditya]

TVS Motor has sold more than 1 crore XL Super. To celebrate the milestone, the company has launched a 1 Crore Special Edition of the moped. This variant will be sold through TVS dealerships in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and some parts of Karnataka.



The Special Edition comes in two new colours - Silver Grey and Titanium Grey. Additionally, it gets a 1 crore celebration sticker, different decals, a dual texture seat with stitch lines and chrome plated grab rail and silencer guard.

The Special Edition is powered by the same engine as the regular XL Super - 69.9cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, air-cooled, petrol engine developing 3.5 BHP @ 5,000 rpm and 5 Nm of torque @ 3,750 rpm.

The XL Super was launched in 1980. It has been a very successful model for TVS in the rural parts of the country.

[KartJ]

You reminded me of my TVS Eco, a 50CC, Single Cylinder, Two Stroke moped, which my father purchased for me in 1993-94 for my school commuting. It was a superb vehicle, very smart, small and cute. I never had any problem with the Eco as i was able to drive to its full speed of 60 KM/Hr with two of my friends on it. (Yes Tripple seating). It had petrol tank below the drivers seat. sometimes i used to get its silencer's cap out to give a sound of superbike. The most amazing thing was that my father and i used to de-assemble the same on routine basis. Never went to any service station, always did service by ourselves only. My school friends still remember the moped, at that time they used to call it "Petrol se chalne wali cycle".

[i74js]

That reminds me of the first worthy contender of Luna "Chal meri luna", though in terms of smartness, the TVS moped was nowhere close (no offences) yet in terms of long term reliability the TVS offering was miles ahead of others.

Few of the milk vendors in our colony switched from Rajdoot (it use to be a 3 gear motorcycle then) to TVS for its weight carrying capacity, reliability and cheaper cost of operations - practically speaking a downgrade, yet it says volumes about the machine which was sold at about 6000 - 7000 Rupees (just my hunch - I may be wrong) and was considered better than a motor cycle.

And the same machine with some increase in power is going strong after 25 years can well be called as Maruti 800 for rural and semi urban 2 wheel commuters.

Kudos to TVS.

[arnabchak]

Wow.. What a feat.

I remember my journey with the Kinetic Luna.
I have the Luna Super. The Luna TFR was the more basic one and resembled a cycle with a headlight more.

The pedal start was a breeze and I used to achieve almost 50 kmph in this convenient commuter.
Can never forget the exhilaration the first time I rode this after riding my Hero Ranger bicycle for eons.

Super convenient, frugal and petrol then was only Rs.18 per litre and invariably, within Rs. 60/- my Luna would be a "full tank".
Do I sound old already!! BTW, I am just 34 years young!!!

[msrsooraj]

Originally Posted by Aditya

The Special Edition is powered by the same engine as the regular XL Super - 69.9cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, air-cooled, petrol engine developing 3.5 BHP @ 5,000 rpm and 5 Nm of torque @ 3,750 rpm.

Ahh, Such fond memories.

When I was in college (in Coimbatore), my college was four kilometers from the nearest Bus stop. We could walk that far or we had to call an autorickshaw who would charge upto Rs. 150 for a savari. The third option was to wait until a good Samaritan would pass us by and stop to offer us a lift. For those four years, this was my major means of transportation to and from my college.

But on one certain day, it was about 10pm by the time I reached the bus stop because I left for college from home really late. I used to stay in the hostel. There were hardly any street lamp and it was completely dark. I chose to walk however and after a kilometer, I heard the sound of one of these approaching. I could only see the headlamp because it was really that dark. I asked for a lift hoping that this person would offer me the same. I could not even see that Anna's face. This Anna stopped besides me and told, "thambi, ivalo neram aachu, yerungo, drop pannalaam" (little brother, its really late, come on, I'll give you a lift). It took me a while for me to see that this person was carrying four big barrels of Milk (empty or not, I dont know) and he still offered me a lift. There was also this one time when a person was carrying a little goat on the front and still paused to offer me a lift.

3.5 Bhp is plenty sufficient amount of power. Shame on you liter class mtotorcycles.

[abhi29]

Originally Posted by Aditya

The XL Super was launched in 1980. It has been a very successful model for TVS in the rural parts of the country.

Came across a very interesting story about mopeds on IAR and by the end of it, it was TVS riding on XL Super Heavy Duty's success that had the last laugh ( and still laughing all the way to bank). Thought it will be worth sharing.

During the first half of 2000s, the sales of Mopeds saw a steep decline. Everyone thought mopeds have no future and Automatic scooters will replace them completely. Subsequently companies like Hero and Kinetic pulled off their products (including the very popular Luna)and TVS was left to enjoy the spoils. The problem was mopeds didn't die and their market continued to grow to the tune of over 8% per year.

TVS continued sweeping the market clean (sold as much as 727,000 mopeds in 2013 alone) with the ages old XL Super, a product which required no R&D or engineering investment.

The author points out that the moped market may decline as expected by others, but certainly not in near future. In any case, TVS has already milked the product platform enough and it can still go as long as the demand remains.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by abhi29

TVS continued sweeping the market clean (sold as much as 727,000 mopeds in 2013 alone) with the ages old XL Super, a product which required no R&D or engineering investment.

Originally Posted by msrsooraj

3.5 Bhp is plenty sufficient amount of power. Shame on you liter class mtotorcycles.

In many ways the TVS 50 is the Honda Cub of India - the Bajaj M80 (a Cub clone) may have given it a bit of competition for a small period in certain pockets, but the TVS continues to soldier on.

Several fond memories from school/college days revolve around trips on friends TVS 50s - I didn't have a vehicle of my own.

[KiloAlpha]

Originally Posted by Aditya

TVS Motor has sold more than 1 crore XL Super
....

The XL Super was launched in 1980. It has been a very successful model for TVS in the rural parts of the country.

Firstly, kudos to TVS!

Secondly - small correction. The TVS XL Super was not launched in 1980 - the TVS 50 moped (50cc 2-stroke centrifugal clutch) was launched in 1980. In 1991, TVS launched the Astra moped - 70cc with variomatic transmission - which was developed over time to become the XL Super.

[sidzzone]

Awesome feat! I had a TVS 50 which my dad purchased for around Rs. 11,000 in the year 2000. I used to try and hit 60 kmph with it riding solo. With a person behind me, it used to feel like a Ford Escort 1.3 petrol with A/C turned on

[mail4ajo]

Didnt know that TVS still sells these. The TVS50 is a part of rural life in Tamil Nadu so much that it was even part of dowry. It used to get passed down generation to generation. I have some experience with a modded 50 back in 1997. We had lots of fun.

They were raced extensively in Chennai. No sure if it still exists. See a pic I captured at an UCAL race in 2008. Not sure of the exact speeds. but going by my shutter speed (to get a crisp panning shot, shutter speed has to be closer to speed of moving object), its definitely near 100km/h.

[chandrda]

I had a TVS Astra Moped back in School Days and for few months in college. It was so much fun on these 50 CC moped and was a style statement for me in those days. I did impress quite a few in those days. Especially these one came with kick starter and single long seats.

We were a gang of 5 in school and we all used to squeeze on the moped with one guy sitting on the floor in the front. We had nicknamed it as Millipede as it was black color and also for the below reason.

When ever we encountered a slight up hill, the 50 CC moped was not enough to pull 5 teenagers. So we all used to put over legs out and push the moped in unison while still sitting on the moped. It was kind of orchestrated March Fast with our legs. so much fun it was..

Fast forward 20+ years. To be true I hate these moped now while driving, not because of the moped it self because of the Idiots who ride it.
It is so difficult to overtake these mopeds in the city as they have so much power with all the luggage on them and also the way people drive these.

A TVS Moped guy with some luggage gave me a scratch on the bumper yesterday near Silk Board.

Regards

[vinit.merchant]

This is probably the only 2 stroke two wheeler one can buy in India.
The thing with 2 stroke bikes is they keep going on and on regardless of whether they are maintained or not.
Remember the Bajaj scooters / Yamaha rx / Suzuki Max? These bikes just kept running, even though they were not well kept by their owners.

Same applies to this one. It will keep going and keep munching miles. No doubt a lot of delivery guys use it in my area. Our dry cleaner loads it with a huge load of clothes for delivery every morning and evening. A local bakery store uses it for delivery.

It has been aptly named "heavy duty".

PS: I still love the sound this thing makes. Quite refreshing I say.

EDIT: it was because of this "kept going even without being maintained" thing that they became notorious polluters and had to be banned by the government, unless they meet a very steep criteria.

[avingodb]

nice, for a moment I thought 1 cr was price of some TVS product !

[Maninder Anand]

Brings back old memories. The earliest models would break down any time, and some even came with an option, a push button, to convert them to a cycle, so that you can pedal down to your destination/the nearest mechanic (had to sweat real hard to do that...), if the engine refuses to oblige, while you are stuck midway...

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Maninder Anand

Brings back old memories. The earliest models would break down any time, and some even came with an option, a push button, to convert them to a cycle, so that you can pedal down to your destination/the nearest mechanic (had to sweat real hard to do that...), if the engine refuses to oblige, while you are stuck midway...

If TVS 50/XL had a strong point it was reliability - its difficult to contemplate a broken down TVS.

All mopeds could be pedalled like a cycle, although it took quite a lot of effort to do so. You normally had to use a pedal only when you ran out of gas, which was quite frequent for youngsters on a student budget.

There was no "push button" - you just held a lever that decompressed the engine/disengaged the clutch (never figured out what exactly it was in those days). This was also the normal "engine start" mode - you put it on stand, held the lever and pedalled furiously until you built up enough momentum to release the lever and start the engine. Same for most mopeds.

Later mopeds came without the pedals and with a kick start lever (Avanti Garelli, Peugeot Sportif, Arvind Benelli and a few others). The first proper moped however was probably the venerable Suvega with cycle-sized wheels. Luna/TVS made this primitive mode of transport slightly more 'cool' - the Suvega was very utilitarian. You may find a Suvega thread somewhere on this forum - I remember it being discussed.