Built and Not Just Bought

It all started with a little bit of history and a sketch Rahul Ghosh narrates how he revisioned the humble TVS XL and ended up rebuilding it

- Rahul Ghosh

It all started a few months back when I was caught sketching by my colleague and fellow petrol head Dipayan. Quite obviously it sure looked like a snazzier version of the humble TVS XL moped. While most people consider them to be humble means of transport, I feel they pack in a punch. Apart from a history lesson, Dipayan was also intrigued as he had recently seen the first race moped at TVS’ Motosoul event in Goa. “Why don’t you actually build it?” were the golden words. The nail had been hit hard and now I had a partner in crime as well.

One thing was pretty clear that we needed to have a two-stroker as it is versatile enough to offer numerous tuning options. Friends, family and even the odd Roman were contacted. But no one could lead us to a two-stroke XL. We even thought of resorting to ‘moped-jacking’ but still failed. Nearly a month later the phone rang with news that Dipayan had convinced his milk delivery guyto part with his XL. Minutes later I was in front of the bike which sure looked ragged. It had been hauling for years and probably was made to run on even kerosene or something. Still we just bought it!

The whole idea of this project was to ‘do it yourself’. However some tricks are best left to the experts and we are happy to report that one such expert was a chap at one of the TVS dealerships. He is hailed as a two-stroke champ and rebuilt the engine completely. He also modified some bit which unfortunately we cannot elaborate. Other than that a performance air filter and rejetting of the carb did the trick. Nevertheless the bike suddenly ran like a dream, was fast and sounded epic. Many will ask why no expansion chamber. Well, fellow petrol-heads, an expansion will be added post the run in of the newly rebuilt engine. Stage one complete.