Honda Grazia Long Term Report: Traffic Warrior

The scooter has long been the choice of weapon when it comes to inter-city commute. The scooter means that there in a world of traffic jams and parking issues you don’t waste time. The scooter is the answer to many people’s prayer for the ultimate city commuter. Is the Honda Grazia the answer? Let’s find out.

Now the Grazia has come into our long term garage a few months ago. The bike has come to me most recently for the last one month. Now readers, let me be honest with you. You might have read my reviews on cars more than bikes. And I’m not the biggest bike enthusiast around the MotorOctane office. But let’s just say I do enjoy a certain amount of two wheeler madness. And the Grazia is different. It’s nothing like the other bikes that have been in the long term garage (and it’s to ride).

Honda Grazia Daily Use – City Riding

The Grazia has completed about 6,500 kilometers and is still surprising us every day. The bike has been nothing of cool.

I had initially thought that this bike would just be another automatic scooter to pop around town, run errands and commute. But it’s so much more. And as my story’s title says this is the ultimate ‘Traffic Warrior’. Where the Activa 5G lets go this picks up. The 125cc engine makes riding around traffic an absolute blast. All 8bhp of the HET engine are always on tap for powering through gaps and side streets with ease. In the start I did not like the way this thing handled, maybe because I was chauffeuring a pillion rider (my colleague) around. But with me alone with my machine, the Honda Grazia is truly provides explosive power in the hustle bustle of the traffic. And most importantly the brakes have not failed me yet. With an army of irrational rickshaw drivers prowling and stopping in the middle of the roads, the Grazia’s brakes has never once failed to bring the scooter to a halt in a jiffy. Yes, the brakes don’t bite as hard as say other 125cc scooters like the Ntorq and the SR125. But they have stopped me from having a several minor shunts in traffic.

The mileage has been a great bonus too. When the fuel tank is filled in less than Rs 400, it makes the car guy in me shout. The bike has a very clean design and I can report that many people have stopped me on the road asking if it’s some new variant of the Aprillia bikes or if it’s a new bike. So it is a head turner.

The one thing I did have to get used to was the seat button that is integrated with the ignition switch. Another minor problem is the eco shift lights on the instrument cluster are too bright in the night and they reflect of the helmets visor in a distracting fashion.

Other than that there is no other problems I hae faced riding this scooter in traffic till now.

Honda Grazia Performance and Riding-Highway Riding

The highway is where the Honda Grazia behaves completely differently. The bike is a proper mile-muncher in this respect. I would recommend any buyer of the Grazia to sit at 65km/hr – 75km/hr on straights. The bike is not tuned for handling and corners are something I would not advise riders to take suddenly or at high speed. Banked curves are another thing. The Honda Grazia can lean well and take those at high speed. The only thing I hoped the 12-inch tyres were was that they should have been fatter. The grip is decent but not really as confidence inspiring as the NTorq. But then again this bike is tuned for comfort and style rather than a backroad thrashing machine. Going for long 60km -70km rides to our testing and shooting locations has been a breeze.

The scooter is now returning for servicing. This is the first report for the scooter and there will be more to come. So stay tuned for more about the Honda Grazia.