Mahindra Mojo Review: Feel Of A Sportbike On A Cruiser

• Jan 15, 2016
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Riding The Mojo Through The City:

Riding the Mahindra Mojo in the city is pretty easy, even though it has all the weight on it, it changes direction very easily and it really surprised me with its quite small turning radius. The bike can move through tight spaces as well and cut through traffic quite easily. It was really difficult to move through all the glaring eyeballs ogling at the bike in the traffic but the bike didn’t seem to budge by anything been thrown at it. Leaving out the braking issues the bike is pretty sweet to be ridden in the city. It picks up speed quite easily compared to others to getting ahead of the pack at the signals is pretty simple and then it is a breeze until you reach the next signal.

The only thing that might worry you in the city is the bike heating up and the fan that kicks in. this might come out to be a bad nightmare in the summers, otherwise it should not be a problem for the rest of the days. Secondly the gearbox is not quite as smooth as one might expect it to be. So when you have to be shifting gears quite frequently, you actually happen to notice the real roughness in the gearbox which is really not as refined as one might have hoped for. Something Mahindra should work on for the future update of the Mojo and also for the other bikes they might come out with.

One good thing here though is the light clutch which takes near to no effort to pull and hence was a lifesaver in the bad traffic or else I might have ended up with a sore left hand. It was actually surprising since the clutch action on many other bikes has been really hard. Mahindra have done one great thing here with the clutch and I give them a big Kudos for that. The seating position is very much relaxed on the Mahindra Mojo which is not an issue at all in the city as you do not happen to spend hours riding in the city at a stretch. You do get small breaks in the traffic and the signals. Long Haul Rides On the Highways:

In the city the bike is great, but on the highways, the bike is better. And I am saying that after riding the bike for over 500 kms on the highway in a matter of 2 days. I took the bike from Pune to Nashik via Mumbai which was a total of 640 kms round trip. Over the entire journey I did not feel the bike under stress at any period of time. The engine was always calm and cruising on the highway at high speeds was never a problem. The 6th overdrive gear on the Mahindra Mojo is pretty cool and you can do good speeds at very low engine speeds which keeps the bike’s engine relaxed at all times.

You can do 70kmph at 4000 RPM and 100 kmph at 5500-6000 RPM on the 6th gear. That means low vibes, low fatigue and great ride. The only problem you will encounter is the wind blast. There near to zero protection from wind blasts, so once you cross 90 kmph the wind blast starts hitting you hard and it only keeps on increasing as the speed rises. Crouching also doesn’t really help here.

The upright seating position means you are very much relaxed through most of the journey and there almost zero strain on your back, shoulders, wrists, etc. You can go on for longer distances on this bike for prolonged periods until actual fatigue kicks in. The seat design is also such that the rider does get some support on the back as well, but the pillion will definitely get the brunt of it. The pillion seat is in no ways friendly and you cannot expect the pillion to be even a single bit comfortable on a long distance journey. The biggest advantage here is the large 21 litres fuel tank which lasts quite a lot on long distance journeys. So if you happen to be riding in areas where fillings stations are scarce, you are surely in luck having this huge a fuel tank that you will not be stuck due to low fuel levels for sure. One irritating thing on the highways is the rear view mirrors. They are amazing in terms of actual coverage of the traffic behind you and they cover more than any other bike I have ridden till date. But the actual issue about them is that they are way too loose in terms of setting and movement. It does help to adjust them on the fly in a matter of seconds, but then if you run the bike at higher speeds, past 110 kmph, the wind blasts force the RVMs to close in and this in turn results in the mirrors to lose position and that means you will have to keep adjusting them all the time when that happens.

Another issue about the RVMs faced was with the potholes. Hit one bad pothole at high speed and both the RVMs will not only lose position but they become loose and have the off chances of even coming off. When I was riding on NH3 towards Nashik, I hit a small pothole on the way and the right RVM simply got loose and lost alignment. It just would not fit properly and I had to remove it completely and spend about 20 minutes putting it back properly like the way it should fit and that was a huge time wasting thing. Night Riding:

Considering that the Mahindra Mojo has twin lamps the illumination of the road in the night should be great. But it was all a bitter disappointment because the lamps seem really good when the bike is stationary, but catch speeds of over 50 kmph on the highway and suddenly you feel like riding on a very dark road. The illumination is really not up to the mark and the road really fails to be illuminated on the highway. In the city though with the traffic and the street lights you do not even notice that the headlights are on, that’s how weak they really are.

Another big disappointment is the high beams. When on the road and especially on the highways you expect the high beams to illuminate the road further up, but actually they are so high that instead of the road ahead you get to see the trees ahead of you and all the signboards, but the road is simply nowhere to be found. This was one of the biggest disappointments that I had and I would urge Mahindra to please look into the matter and get it resolves either by adjusting the angles a bit or else by giving better illuminating bulbs.

Fuel Efficiency:

The bike returned good fuel efficiency than what I was expecting. It returned about 33 Kmpl riding on the highway and about 30-31 Kmpl in the city. The difference between the two is much so we can claim it to be a steady 32 Kmpl overall for FE figures. The relaxed engine and the high overdrive gears do help, but still when you happen to run the engine at higher RPMs overall, you are bound to get low FE figures, so that is not surprising. If you happen to be of the types to ride the bike absolutely relaxed, then you could get up to 35 Kmpl figures too.

Now that we have covered all the aspects of the bike, it is time to weigh the pros and cons of the bike. Scope For Improvement For Mahindra:
So to conclude, I would give the Mahindra Mojo a 6/10. The engine is great, the overall package to the cost is really good but there is still a lot that Mahindra needs to work on to make sure the bike is absolutely top notch to match the European and Japanese counterparts. The best part is it is a great touring bike which is exactly what Mahindra is pushing the bike as. So if you like to go long distances, it would be great to opt for this bike which is available at a very good bargain. The low seat height means small heighted riders can also ride the bike with quite some ease and as for the tall riders, they fit in properly too.

The Mahindra Mojo is available for 1,63,000/- ex-showroom Delhi; 1,65,500/- ex-showroom Mumbai and Pune and 1,68,500/- ex-showroom Bengaluru. This was the Mahindra Mojo review; in case of any specific queries do hit us below in the comments section and stay tuned to BikesIndia for more such bike review coming up.

Read More: Mahindra Mojo Review: Ride Of A War Horse

Review & Test Ride By: Pratik Patole
Photographs By: Prajakta Panse