TVS StaR Sport 125

The little motorcycle Bethany mentions in her post is actually a TVS StaR Sport 125. The bike is made in India and has a 124.8 cc single cylinder, 4 stroke, air cooled engine. The engine is rated at 7.56 kW of power at 7,700 rpm (just over 10 horsepower) and has a listed maximum speed of 93 kilometers per hour (almost 58 miles per hour).  

It has four gears, but they aren't set up the same as bikes in the U.S. Instead of being 1 down, 2, 3, 4 up, with neutral in between 1 and 2, this bike has neutral all the way down, and then 1, 2, 3, and 4 going up. Confusing when you coast into a stop light not knowing what gear you're in and just automatically shift all the way down to what you expect to be first gear.


The bike weighs 118 kg (260 pounds), so you can almost pick it up and carry it up steps if you need to :-) Of course, it is rated for no more than a 130 kg (286 pounds) carrying capacity. Let's see, if I weigh 175 pounds, that leaves 111 pounds for Bethany and whatever gear we're carrying.


The best feature is the fuel efficiency. It is supposed to get 85 kilometers per liter... that is 200 miles per gallon. Our 16 liter (4.2 gallon) tank should last 1,360 kilometers (840 miles). Not too shabby. I wonder if severely over-weighting the bike and then trying to ride up steep hills will effect the fuel economy?


The bike we got isn't on the TVS website (made only for select export markets), but it is supposed to be the Star City bike (http://www.tvsstarcity.com/) with a 125 cc motor. All details above come from the user manual.


I bought the bike from Sameer Hussein TVS at the base of the Kigali City Tower. It cost about $1,700 USD (1,030,000 RWF). That price came with two helmets and a quart of oil.  Since I brought some helmets from the states (and the ones included are cheap, molded plastic), I only kept one helmet and he credited me 7,500 RWF. He also has nice, expensive helmets (around $100), which Bethany might look at later. He let me pay in USD and gave me a 613 Francs per Dollar exchange rate. When I picked up the bike, he threw in a seat cover, tank cover with pocket, a vinyl document holder, and a TVS tee shirt.


Besides the bike, I needed to first get tags and a Tax Identification Number (TIN). This cost a combined 75,000 RWF and the shop was able to handle this for me, but I had to bring two passport photos and it took two days before I could pick up the bike. I paid for the bike when I picked it up from the store.  At that time I also had to get insurance. I got one year of basic insurance (covers other people only, but not our bike) for 40,000 RWF ($65). Insurance actually stays with the bike if I sell it, so if I sell it within a year the new owner would have the remainder of time on my insurance. To get new insurance (which is required by law) I can just go back to the shop where I bought it. They have two different insurance companies represented in the shop. The bike also comes with the first three tune ups (750, 2,500, and 5,500 kilometers), which are done at the warehouse / shop located near the airport. First tune up includes free oil, I have to pay for the oil at the next two (and oil filters at all three).

Almost every other bike in Kigali (95% plus) is a TVS GLX Victor 125.  Most of these are "motos", the motorcycle taxi that everybody uses. Similar engine, slightly different styling. We have a slightly larger fuel tank, the Victor has a disk brake in front (we have drum). http://www.tvsmotor.in/victor-glx.asp