Bajaj XCD 125cc Fuel Economy Test

15.04.08

Frugal Frolics

Testing the fuel economy of a 125 is always going to be a boring job. 2Wheels realized this and therefore gave the task to Bill. Instead of riding around the block, like most people do, he decided to test them flat out around a banked oval racetrack. The idea being, how uneconomical are they, or maybe not.

The digital speedometer was showing a constant 90km/h, my neck and back was in total agony, the constant race crouch was beginning to take its toll. All I wanted to do was sit up, regain circulation through my lower limbs and end this silly test that I’d devised. But in the name of science this physical sacrifice had to continue. Nearly 40km had ticked over and never in my entire life had I wished for a bike to run out of fuel. Please give me that familiar splutter as the petrol tank runs dry, was all that was running through my mind. What bike am I talking about here? Well it isn’t a Honda Fireblade that’s for sure; it was a miniscule 125 Bajaj all the way from India!

So now I bet that you’re beginning to wonder what the hell was I doing lying prone on such a machine for so long. Believe it or not it’s the 2Wheels magazine version of an economy test.

At the moment, and without harping on about it, because we all know, fuel prices are heading towards the clouds. This is due to greedy ‘excessively rich’ oil producers from the Middle East, an insatiable demand for the sticky stuff from a country below Canada and petrol company directors wanting a bigger house, jet, car, with no regard for the rest of the world’s inhabitants. And I hope all of the people mentioned in the previous sentence catch itchy diseases, and there’s a shortage of medicinal cream to cure it.

But we can get back at them by running a small-engined motorcycle that’ll use a fraction of the petrol that any car will use. In particular a four-stroke, single cylinder, air-cooled 125, possibly the most recognized engine configuration in the history of motorcycling. So with a few calls I managed to get my hands on three bikes with this historical, or should that be hysterical, engine. They were a Yamaha YBR125, Honda CB125 e-Storm and a Bajaj XCD 125 DTS-Si. First thing’s first, how much do they cost? The Yamaha is R14,040, Honda R10,500 and the Bajaj will relieve you of just R10,999. Or in effect, all three are about the same price as a fancy race exhaust for your 1,000cc superbike.

So let’s run over them quickly, and I mean quickly as I’m sure you’d rather get onto the test.

The Yamaha YBR 125 has been around for years, has a single OHC engine with two-valves and makes 10hp, and weighs the least at 106kg.

The 124kg Honda CB125 e-Storm is a new bike with an engine from the seventies, has a single OHC engine, and like the other two bikes, it’s not made in Japan. And also makes a claimed 10hp.

The Bajaj has a weird single OHC engine, again with a 10hp figure, but the engine is by far the most technologically advanced unit here, believe it or not. On the scales it comes in at 112kg.

All three bikes have cast alloy wheels and a bikini fairing. We didn’t bother to run them on the dyno as Natalie had just made the tea, and they all claim 10hp anyway. But the thing that they have most in common is that all the manufactures brag about the incredible fuel savings if you decide to buy one.

Right then, let’s test that theory by taking them to our favourite test facility, Gerotek near to Pretoria. They have a three kilometer banked oval designed specifically for high speed testing, so that’s the place for these three then. Due to my geriatric torso I decided to bring along some help. Wayne Barrington Smith was the mechanic for the day, as he’s worked with national race teams around the world and he can change all four wheels on a skateboard in less than a week. Dr. Phil came to, as he’s from France and used to going round in circles. Plus two massive men, but more of that later.

Wayne drained all the tanks and using his mothers measuring jug he accurately filled them all with half a litre of petrol. The idea was to see how far each bike would go, flat out, while in a racing crouch wearing a slippery leather race suit, on one litre of fuel. But you did read correctly, we only used half a litre and then multiplied the figure by two. Why, because we only had two hours track time, I had no idea how far they’d travel, and I still had to hang my washing out?

Obviously the figures had to be accurate so our Racelogic system was again used so that we could acquire acceleration figures, top speeds and distance traveled.

So after the normal frivolity in the pits the Honda was fueled and ready to go. Dr. Phil reset the computer and I was off. Bloody hell this thing feels slow, I thought, as I went through all five-gears and got behind the little fairing. In a nutshell the Honda has the best clocks by far, it’s comfortable and looks so cool in its retro CBR paint scheme, and thanks to Johnny Shand from Edenvale Honda for giving us a new one to play with.

Now, flat out in top gear riding is going to drastically effect the consumption compared to the urban stroll and Honda claim 48km per litre in ‘normal’ conditions, which this isn’t. After just over three laps the Honda died and after grabbing the figures from the Racelogic it equated to 21km per liter, not bad at all. Other interesting figures were 93.3km/h top speed, 0-60 in 9.7 seconds and a quarter mile of 24.4s at 79.8 km/h, wow! Don’t forget though that this engine design is over 30 years old, it’ll last forever and possibly get to Pluto and back without using any oil.

I was recovered by the van and returned to the pits where the Yamaha was warm and ready to go. As I set off it became apparent that the Yamaha is the fastest bike here with the best comfort and the most efficient fairing, a great first impression. Then after half a lap the bike ran out of fuel. What the ****, that was quick! I limped back swinging the bike left to right to get anything back into the carb and justifiably shouted at Wayne for not filling it correctly. I soon owed him an apology though as after a quick debate we realized that the fuel tank has an inherent fault as the fuel tap sits above the lowest level of the tank, nice and not allowing the YBR to run on half a litre. So I’m afraid the Yamaha never finished the economy test, shame man. But it did record 100.8km/h, 0-60 in 8.4 seconds and a quarter mile of 23.0s at 89.1km/h.

Full of dismay I straddled the Bajaj. If you didn’t know, a Bajaj is from India and they claim to have the world’s most economical bikes, and manage to make them look pleasantly sporty in the process. But they have some top engineers working on these engines to make them so frugal. The DTS-Si stands for Digital Twin Spark Swirl induction, which means the inlet ports are offset to cause the mixture to ‘swirl’ and burn more evenly, also helped by the twin spark plugs. On top of that the ignition has a microprocessor in it to alter the timing according to load demands. All this technology allows the Bajaj to run on an unfeasibly lean mixture that would melt most engines if they ran this lean. You see in India the ‘poor’ demand economy so that they can put more meat in their curries, which is fair. Just go and type in Bajaj on your google thingy, you’ll be amazed how impressive their web site is.

So the Bajaj is the smallest bike here, it doesn’t have a front disc brake, has only four gears, the suspension isn’t particularly good, and it’s the slowest, just. The figures for the Bajaj are 0-60 in 11.0 seconds, quarter mile 25.3 at 80.1km/h and a top speed of 93.1, 0.2km/h slower than the Honda.

But sit down and listen to this? Let’s go back to beginning of this story and as you’ll remember this bike did nearly 39km on half a litre or 77.5km per litre. Incredible, and so much better than anything else on the market. Bajaj say the bike has a 10 litre tank, so if you take your time this thing will go to nearly 1,000km for R50, beat that!

But what if we really loaded the bikes and did the same thing? I had previously met two of South Africa’s most respected officers. Chris Lessing a detective captain was one, who let us use his turbo Hayabusa a few issues ago. He looks like he belongs in the national rugby team and has a very large black and ‘used’ gun, respect. Chris brought along his partner, ‘Ollie’ Olivier who’s a detective inspector. Apparently the ‘Ollie’ bit is short for elephant and I can see the resemblance as one rips up trees and crushes cars, the other is a member of the big five. Their combined weight, 267kg! And they both thought they were going to ride big fast 300km/h sports bikes, ha.

After the initial amazement the ‘giant cops’ were blackmailed, (free subscription), to get on the Honda. From behind it must have resembled a Hippo sitting sideways on a garden fence, and the poor back tyre looked like a pita bread with the rim only two millimeters from the floor. They set off and it seemed to take an hour before they disappeared out of view. I went after them on the Yamaha and while I was gaining on them I couldn’t actually see the bike from behind, poor little Honda. When the fuel expired the Honda had done 18km per litre and the performance figures had dropped to 76.5km/h top speed with a quarter mile time of 30.9 at 65.6km/h. Impressive, as theoretically the bike shouldn’t be moving at all.

I did feel sorry for the cramped dynamic duo and didn’t have the heart to send them out for 40k on the Bajaj, so Wayne decided to put in 250ml instead and multiply the distance by four, and this is what we did.

I thought that they dwarfed the Honda but not compared to the Bajaj. Imagine a bulldog sitting on a cell phone and you’ll get the idea. The whole of the 2Wheels team giggled like helium filled kids as the Bajaj soldiered on lap after lap sipping away at the petrol inside the tank. Eventually when it expired there was much jollity from the riders who looked grateful to be relieved of duty. Again the figures were predictably affected with a top speed of 79.1km/h, and with a quarter of a ton of flesh on board, 0-60 came in 29.7 seconds and a quarter mile of 40.1 at 68.3 km/h. But the fuel figures were unbelievable, 65km per litre with 267kg of policeman precariously balanced on the micro saddle.

Within a minute of disembarkation they both packed up and left asking never to be invited to anything like this again, well not really, as they said it’s one of the funniest things they’ve ever done, bless ‘em both and thanks for taking time away from catching homicidal maniacs.

After Wayne showed us all how to wheelie a bike with less power than an asthmatic moth we packed away the bikes and brought them home, not one had any mechanical failures and this proves how durable these little four-strokes are. And it shows how much fun one can have on any type of motorcycle if the conditions are right.

If you want any form of conclusion, the Honda is a beautiful little tool for everyday use with cool retro styling. The Yamaha is the king of performance here, so if you want to blow off all the 125 four-stroke singles this is the one, but don’t stay on reserve for too long. On the other hand the Bajaj has set new and impassable parameters in fuel economy. There is nothing on the market that will go further on a litre of gas and the bike looks surprisingly sporty. 780km flat out in top gear on ten litres of petrol sounds mightily impressive to us. So Mr. Rich Pig oil baron, stick that up your refinery and smoke it.