TVS Motors launches a rotary gearbox equipped commuter, the Jive
It's been a while, come to think of it, since I tested a motorcycle that truly changed the game. Or at least had the potential to. Question is, is the TVS Jive that motorcycle? I don't know for sure. I do know that it's going where no motorcycle has gone before.
It's the gearbox that makes the Jive so different. If you remember the Hero Honda Street stepthrough, it came with a rotary gearbox. That means you can shift from neutral up sequentially into top and then continue into neutral with one shift without having to return downwards. There's a safety device, of course, the prevents you from blowing up the engine when you do this at an inappropriate time, like when approaching top speed. The Jive is similar.
The TVS Jive builds on the manufacturer's experience from making stepthroughs in the Indonesia market with this kind of gearbox and their Indian motorcycle expertise. What you have is a powertrain that has a well-tuned 8.4bhp (at 7500rpm) 109.7cc regular four-stroke single cylinder engine but with a four-speed gearbox with rotary shift capability and two clutches. One of the two is a normal multiplate job while the other one is a automatic centrifugal clutch that prevents the engine from stalling when you're in gear but off the throttle. This is the core of the motorcycle, so I'll quickly dispense with the rest of the bike and then return to it.
In styling terms, the electric-start equipped Jive is good looking but not unusual. There's hints of the Star in the lines and on the short ride I got on it, it felt comfortable though I noticed that the seat felt exceptionally soft. TVS say the bike's meant for people making multiple short trips and in that capacity the seat will definitely work. But on a longer ride, I've a feeling that you might end up intimate with the seatpan. Something to look out for in the road test, then. The 105kg (dry) motorcycle handles in the typically agile fashion that most TVS bikes tend to, and I ran over every bump I could find to discover that it rides well too. In short, it's a likeable, commuter motorcycle. Now to the juicy bits.
The gearbox takes a bit of getting used to. The torque in first gear is almost too much and of my three launches (in first, second and third gears), I found second to be the smoothest way to do it. It does pull well (uphill!) in third and first is a bit jerky only because the bike seems to produce appreciable amounts of torque at low revs. Once you're rolling, you shift down to select the next higher gear and TVS say that while the right side pod of the twin-pod instruments are taken over by the gear indicator, there's no real need to shift either into neutral or even into first at traffic lights. I found this claim to be disconcerting, but true. The shifts themselves, I must add, are a bit odd initially. You see, the first half of the shifter travel actuates the clutch and the second half actually selects the gear. Which gives the shift a rubbery-springy feel initially, followed by the lighter-notchier feel of a regular shifter. Once you get used to this, of course, you look past it. Because in traffic, the whole combination does really work nicely. You more or less roll on the throttle as a response to all acceleration needs, and the bike takes care of it in practically every gear. That's need. I did find my hand flapping about trying to engage a non-existent clutch lever but that was the sole adjustment I needed to make.
And then I pulled a u-turn. Normally, we modulate the engine using the clutch to pull smooth feet-up u-turns. My first one saw the bike nearly run away with the torque in first gear, then freewheel when I closed the throttle and then run off again... and then I was told that the trick was to shift up into second or third for u-turns which made them a cinch. You see, the auto-centrigual clutch takes up the slack and once it does, it's like a idling Kinetic - engine runs, but no power is transmitted. And like the Kinetic, when you roll on the throttle, the clutch engages and starts delivering power.
The point is, TVS are claiming that the Jive is the most convenient of the commuters. It was designed to be that and I can see their point. It's a quiet, refined, torquey powertrain and I've no doubt that had this been mated to a normal gearbox, the Jive would have lined up as another strong contender in a line-up of excellent commuters. What remains to be seen is this. The Jive takes a bit of acclimatisation. You won't climb on and instantly realise how good the idea is. When it goes in sale mid-December for Rs 41,000 ex-showroom Mumbai, the challenge for TVS will be to get the customers to see in the typically short test rides features that will make sense after four days of riding regularly. Automatic for the people? Potentially yes, but we'll see.
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