The Bajaj Chetak is one of India's iconic scooters and is still close to many people's hearts to this day. Production started in 1972 and ended in 2006, giving it a long-lasting name in the two-wheeler industry. Watch the full video for some interesting facts about the Bajaj Chetak.
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#BajajChetak #Chetak #TwoStroke #DriveSpark
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00:00 So when we talk about India's iconic motorcycles, iconic two wheelers, what comes to your mind?
00:28 Well, for me, it's the Bajaj Chetak.
00:31 This is one of the most iconic automobiles in the Indian automobile history.
00:37 And let's take a look why and what this scooter has that makes it so special.
00:41 Welcome to Drivespark, my name is Vedant Johari and this is the Bajaj Chetak.
00:50 Jamnalal Bajaj in 1945 founded the company Bajaj and they were mainly into importing
00:57 two wheelers and three wheelers.
00:59 For example, the Vespa, that was one of their two wheelers that they imported to the Indian
01:03 market.
01:04 And here we have the Bajaj Chetak.
01:06 This is the first Indian made two wheeler of Bajaj and it's clearly inspired by the
01:13 Vespa design.
01:14 They took all the legal rights required for it and they came up with this very unique
01:19 design.
01:20 Now, which honestly brings us back to old India and the old forms of travelling from
01:26 one place to another.
01:35 So how did Chetak get its name?
01:37 Well, it was all taken from the Rajput king Maharana Pratap, his horse, one of his favourite
01:43 horses, which was his main means of transportation and one of the warrior horses.
01:48 And the horse's name was Chetak also.
01:51 So Bajaj just took the name from there and put it on the scooter to suit the name as
01:55 it was one of the main means of transportation.
01:59 In the Indian market, before the Chetak, we had the Bullit and the Rajdhoot, but those
02:04 were too expensive for middle class families to own.
02:07 The middle class families had to rely a lot on public transport, bicycles and finding
02:12 their own means to go to wherever they had to.
02:15 But with the launch of the Bajaj Chetak, everything was so much easier for them as they had vehicles
02:21 for themselves in their price range, which was super convenient to use.
02:26 The Chetak comes with ample storage space in the front and on the side.
02:30 So keeping your personal belongings and everything was a whole lot easier than just carrying
02:35 it.
02:36 As this was a scooter for the middle class families, they had to do anything they could
02:40 to actually travel.
02:41 At the end of the day, it is a scooter, so the amount of space is restricted.
02:46 However, some Indian families could manage up to four or five people on this scooter
02:51 comfortably and for that, it was, as I said, one of the most convenient launches in the
02:58 market for the middle class families.
03:04 So the Chetak, once it was launched in the Indian market, was a huge hit.
03:08 Honestly, it redefined the Indian two-wheeler segment and that's because Bajaj focused mainly
03:13 on the build quality of the scooter, on the suspension setup, because at that time, Indian
03:18 roads were really not good.
03:20 In 2023, we see now, the roads in some places can still do with a lot of improvement and
03:26 so you can just imagine, earlier on in the days, in the early 2000s, the late 1900s,
03:33 what the conditions could have been.
03:35 But the Chetak could honestly tackle anything in its path, even the most bumpiest of surfaces.
03:41 As the Chetak was a huge hit in the industry, Hero Honda and Yamaha came up with their models
03:47 to rival the Chetak.
03:48 They came up with the, Yamaha came out with the RX100 and Hero Honda came up with the
03:54 CD100 and the CD125.
03:56 Bajaj, as they didn't have a motorcycle under their segment, what they did was release two
04:02 motorcycles to rival what Hero and Yamaha just released.
04:07 Also Bajaj teamed up with Kawasaki to release the KB100 and the KB125.
04:14 So Bajaj didn't only have a scooter in their segment, they had a scooter and a motorcycle.
04:18 Now that's what gave Bajaj a really strong point and a strong hold in the motorcycle
04:23 segment in India.
04:25 So one more super interesting story on the Bajaj Chetak.
04:33 Earlier in the days, this scooter was used as a form of dowry in Indian marriages.
04:40 As in the scooter was given to the husband's side of the family as a gift due to its convenience,
04:45 due to the practicality of the scooter.
04:47 Due to this, the waiting period of the Chetak was increased to years and years.
04:53 So Indian families would honestly prioritise the Chetak over the weddings and postpone
04:59 the weddings just so that the scooter could be given as the dowry.
05:03 Now that was the respect this scooter had in the segment and among most of the people
05:09 in India.
05:10 So now when we look at the Chetak, we see a very unique design.
05:14 Inspired by the Italian Vespa Sprint, this scooter gets the round headlamps, the flattened
05:21 body panels as you see in those scooters.
05:24 One super interesting thing, which was a huge hit in the industry back then, was the gear
05:29 lever.
05:30 So the gear lever on a scooter is not common nowadays and secondly, everything is controlled
05:35 from here.
05:36 From the clutch to selecting your gear, all you have to do is up for one and rest is all
05:41 down, first, two, three and four.
05:44 This scooter only comes with four gears and has a top speed of 90 km/hr.
05:50 It's powered by a 145cc two-stroke engine that produces around 7.5 horsepower and 10.8
05:56 Nm of torque.
05:58 So it was quite a quick thing for that time.
06:01 Also in terms of convenience, we have storage space in the front of the scooter and on the
06:06 side of the scooter.
06:07 Located where our feet will be, we also have the rear brakes over here.
06:11 On motorcycles, we have it on the footpeg but here, it's pretty much the same but on
06:16 a scooter design.
06:17 The two-stroke version of the Chetak was on sale from 1972 till 2001 and from 2002 to
06:24 2006, they sold the four-stroke version of the Chetak.
06:29 But honestly, the real feel and the uniqueness of the scooter comes from the two-stroke engines
06:35 that have been in production for almost 30 years.
06:41 So after the mid-90s, the popularity of the Chetak significantly dropped due to the fact
06:50 that various other manufacturers were launching the automatic scooters in the market.
06:55 As practicality and convenience was what people wanted, they opted for those scooters.
07:01 But nevertheless, the Chetak still stands to be one of the most traditional, iconic
07:07 and classy scooters of the Indian market and of Indian history.
07:12 So let us know in the comments section down below if you've ever got a chance to ride
07:17 this scooter or whether or what you really like about the uniqueness of the Chetak.
07:24 Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.
07:27 My name is Vedant Jahari, signing out.
07:29 [Music]
07:34 [Music]
07:37 (whooshing)