Hero Xtreme Long Term Report
Unlike the previous month, the Hero Xtreme had been confined to the garage for the most part of September. Motorcycles like Hero Xtreme and Honda Unicorn don’t take this confinement very politely, as it took me a good part of 15 minutes of kicking and pulling the choke to get it back to life. Cold starts started to pose a problem after that, though the Xtreme came back to normal after two days of regular usage.
One big puzzle that we faced last month was caused by the Xtreme’s big brother, the Xtreme Sports. This premium 150cc commuter visited the BikeWale garage last month for a road test, and everyone in the team had difficulty pinning the exact reason why Hero MotorCorp continues to sell the standard Xtreme. Despite being just Rs 770 more expensive than our long termer, the Xtreme Sports offers a lot more value.
Coming back to our long termer, the foam padded seat continues to win my heart as it keeps my derrière happy during the commutes as well as long hauls. Another highlight of the Xtreme is its meaty MRF Zapper-Y tubeless tyres, which offer good grip on wet surface. And while the soft suspension had gained my favour in the initial days, I plan to tinker with the adjustable GRS suspension to find a stiffer setting. I do not expect it to radically transform the Xtreme’s handling, though I would appreciate less of bouncing around. Since I rode the Xtreme Sports, the lack of outright power has been nagging me at the back of the mind, though there is nothing I can do about that.
On the efficiency front, the Xtreme consumed 11.5 litres of fuel for the 450 kilometres it covered, translating into a fuel efficiency of 39.1kmpl. Not exactly great, you might say. But this seems acceptable given the way we generously use the throttle and the revs. The Xtreme just went through its second service and we expect the efficiency to climb slightly from here on. Despite missing the service interval by 600 kilometres, the engine continued to toil like a work horse. The chain had developed a significant slack and the switchgear had started misbehaving due to the rains, though both these problems were sorted out during the service.
