TVS Wego 110cc scooter coming January 2010.

Wego is a slightly strange name for a perfectly normal scooter. TVS is finally releasing a full-size 100+cc variomatic scooter after years of showing the potential to be really good at it with the Scooty Pep. I was at Chennai to attend the launch and got a short ride on the bike and came away impressed.

The styling talks to the customer and as seems to be the demand from the customers, it's metal bodied, not too aggressive and not too passive in style. TVS has paid attention to the practicality requirements and you get a pretty large underseat storage, a standard moulded front storage and a fuel filler cap that sits outside and behind the seat so you can fill up without getting off. The sole fly in the ointment - and it's a small one - is that the fuel filler cap and seat release with the ignition key. But instead of the all-in-one kind of designs like on the Flyte, the TVS has a ignition/handlebar lock, a separate front cubby lock and a third one on the left side panel which releases the seat and the filler cap. TVS have give the Wego an evolved Scooty Pep style headlamp, position lamps on the front apron and LED tail lamps at the rear to keep it firmly in the current mainstream full-size scooter ballpark.

Under the metal is a all-new chassis with telescopic front forks and the rear suspension is gas-charged. The engine is the 109.7cc top-end from the Jive (or you could say the Jive get's the Wego powertrain's top-end) mated to a variomatic transmission - like the Pep but much more beefy. The 8bhp, 8Nm motor feels pretty crisp to ride and the 105kg (dry) Wego feels like a fun, peppy scooter to ride. What is deeply impressive is the ride quality which heads southwards, gently, only over the very worst kinds of roads. The rest is handled very well indeed. I also liked that light handling feel of the bike and in traffic the Wego should prove fun.

Stay tuned for a comparison test of the TVS Wego in the January 2010 issue of OVERDRIVE when the Rs 42,600 (ex-Chennai) scooter goes head to head with its competition.