Evo Fleet: Aprilia SR 150
To be very honest, I am not fond of scooters. I only use mom’s scooter to go to the grocer’s. That too, once in blue moon. I don’t relish the idea of doing the 50km home-office-home commute on a scooter. So I can’t say I was happy when I got the keys to the Aprilia SR 150. I own a Suzuki Gixxer for crying out loud and that is superb at commuting. How could a scooter live up to my expectations? The very next day, the scooter blew my unfair presumptions to smithereens.
” Very often we bikers tend to forget just how convenient scooters are, and just how good that feels when cutting through traffic.”
The SR 150’s 150cc air-cooled single makes around 10bhp and over 11Nm. Sure that’s not as powerful as the Suzuki but thanks to the CVT instead of the bike’s manual, you just need to twist to go. And given how linear the delivery is, life on the road rolls by smoothly on the SR 150. No searching for neutral. No need to use all hands and legs. Just the hands are enough. All you need to do is twist the right wrist to get going and use the fingers of both hands to stop. Incredibly easy. Taught me a valuable lesson. Very often we bikers tend to forget just how convenient scooters are, and just how good that feels when cutting through traffic.
The other thing, I realised is that the Aprilia makes you look good. People turn and look. Hmm, that never happened on mom’s scooter did it? It’s stylish and given that it is the only proper moto scooter in a sea of boredom, the Aprilia is a helpful tool to have if you like being looked at. Thanks to the larger wheels (the SR gets 14-inchers) the largest for any scooter in India, and the long 1365mm wheelbase, it doesn’t feel as flickable as my mom’s scooter which has smaller wheels and a shorter wheelbase. But on the three sweeping bends on my way to work, she surprised me with her mid-corner stability and confidence inspiring handling. Unfortunately, it’s a fair bit stiff, and by the time I got to work my body was still feeling the after effects of the road shocks. Wouldn’t be bad if things could be softened up just a bit. The Gixxer is certainly better on this count.
“The Aprilia makes you look good. Hmm, that never happened on mom’s scooter”
But the scooter saves me the trouble of carrying my day’s load on my back. Instead I just plonk my 4kg backpack (sorry, I can’t travel light) on the floorboard and zoom around. And the underseat stowage comes in handy too for a few more knick knacks. Why you rolling your eyes? Didn’t I just tell you I can’t pack light? Thank god for scooters!
Date acquired: November 2016
Duration of test: 16 months
Total mileage: 8354km
Mileage this month: 349km
Overall kmpl: 38kmpl
Costs this month: Nil
