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Newbie ![]() Join Date: Jul 2024 Location: Bikaner
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| TVS Raider 125 SX Review | Initial Impressions & Buying Process Introduction: - I was in the market for a new two-wheeler to commute from my stay to office after landing a new job in Bengaluru. The company provided transportation was expensive for the distance that I had to travel and the inconsistency of finding Rapido's and similar bike taxis during peak office hours only added fuel to the fire. I was only looking for a vehicle for doing duties of taking me from point A to point B, with a little bit of sporty flair added as a bonus. I did not intend to purchase a vehicle for doing highway and touring duties as I am a little sceptical in riding a two-wheeler on fast highways from a safety stand point and prefer a car over 2-wheeler for the same.As some of you might have guessed, I have recently joined TBHP officially and only used to go through the forum for any advice that I needed, be it for me or for my friends. However, I was taken aback when I was not able to find even one ownership thread or buying process thread in the forum for the segment I was looking into. And rightfully so as the majority of the intended customers of the segment just go to a brand which they trust and just select a vehicle and purchase it without much research. There were a few threads on Ola's here and there and but nothing apart from that. So here are my two cents summarising my buying decision and jot down the ownership experience and review of my purchase. TL;DR: TVS Raider 125 SX Initial Impressions I have driven the bike for over 150kms in the last 15 days since I bought it, mostly in city traffic for commute to office and visiting some friends on weekends. Here are some of the pros and cons I felt after a little bit of driving, along with some interesting observations and a little bit of deep dive into the techy instrument cluster. What I liked: -
What I disliked: -
The Instrument Cluster (Including App, Maps, Connectivity): -
![]() The ride stats page ![]() The share page for sharing any ride Buying Decision: - Initially I hunted in the used market, visited a few used bike dealers and some known dealers such as Beepkart, etc. However, I was not able to trust the used dealers especially in a new city and the offerings from Beepkart, although fresh looking, were a fair bit overpriced. So, the natural choice was to look for new bikes & scooters around the 125cc segment. I also added a few EVs in the mix as my office parking provided charge points which would essentially mean that my running costs would be free. I started researching online by visiting each brand’s website and checking the models available, their features and prices. Although I had a fair bit of idea about the current market situation and what all models are available, I just wanted to get an idea about the pricing as the road tax in Karnataka is high compared to my home state. I set my budget to around 1~1.5L. Brands such as KTM, Bajaj, RE, Yamaha, Ather, etc were automatically ruled out as their cheapest offerings were even out of budget. Finally, I narrowed down to a few bikes and scooters from TVS, Hero, Honda, Suzuki and Ola. Let me jot down the pros and cons of the few offerings that I considered and why were they eventually rejected: - Hero: -
Honda: -
Suzuki: -
Ola: -
TVS: -
Buying Experience: - A phone call from home informing me that 7th of July is an auspicious day prompted me to visit the showroom instantly. A test drive was offered almost instantly and the SAs also were very friendly and knowledgeable. I asked them for an evening delivery and they confirmed that yellow top end is available in their stockyard. They accepted credit card as a form of payment and I chose to go with that because why not. Did the payment and left. Visited at 5pm in the evening and there was a rush for deliveries due to it being an auspicious day. My vehicle was 12~13th in the queue. I used that time to match the Chassis number and visually inspect the vehicle and odo. Took delivery around 6pm as it also rained for some time in between. Offered them a box of sweets, clicked some pics and left. Overall, I would highly recommend Trijal Motors in Marathalli and SA Abhinandan. The documents, RTO, number plate everything was taken care of by them and everything worked like a clockwork.Price Breakup: - Ex-showroom - 1.09L RTO/Road Tax - 23K Insurance - 7.5K Mandatory accessories - 800 Complimentary - Helmet Total - 1.42L on road ![]() During delivery ![]() Mandatory Pooja, joined by another Apache 160 4V Last edited by SS338 : 21st July 2024 at 20:16. |
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The following 5 BHPians Thank SS338 for this useful post: | anivy, CentreOfGravity, comfortablynumb, GTO, SRISRI_90 |
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Team-BHP Support ![]() | Re: TVS Raider 125 SX Review | Initial Impressions & Buying Process Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing! |
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BHPian ![]() Join Date: Oct 2023 Location: Gurugram
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Infractions: 0/1 (7) | Re: TVS Raider 125 SX Review | Initial Impressions & Buying Process Quote:
Please dont use abbreviations outside of the Team-BHP approved list, which can be found at: https://www.team-bhp.com/abbreviations Quote:
There exists no such motorcycle called as a "Unicorn 125" ![]() | ||
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BHPian ![]() Join Date: May 2020 Location: Mumbai
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| Re: TVS Raider 125 SX Review | Initial Impressions & Buying Process |
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The following BHPian Thanks anivy for this useful post: | SS338 |
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BHPian ![]() Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: chennai
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| Re: TVS Raider 125 SX Review | Initial Impressions & Buying Process Hey, Congratulations on the TVS Raider. TVS seems to have nailed it with the positioning and the features with both Raider and Jupiter 125. I am seeing so many of them in the roads off late. 1.42L is a steep price for a 125cc motorcycle. The base variant of the RTR 160 2V might come around the same price. Not questioning your decision but I feel TVS can price it better. I do agree on your observations with the TVS dealers. Even in Pune, they were very professional and handled everything clearly. Service, though is a totally different story. Coming to the vehicle itself, my concern as you also mentioned is that TVS has tried to extract maximum power and with that kind of exhaust note, a lot of people tend to rev it hard from day one. This causes premature wear of certain parts and some doubts on the long term reliability of the engine. Whether modern engines require run-in or not is debatable but I would suggest you to take it slow and do not do any spirited runs atleast until 1 or 2 oil changes. I wouldn't be saying this on a Honda or Suzuki probably ![]() Again, congratulations and wish you many happy miles with the mini bumble bee ![]() Last edited by para_7k : 23rd July 2024 at 09:57. Reason: Quoting Price |
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The following 3 BHPians Thank para_7k for this useful post: | anivy, bathtubgerald, SS338 |
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