Honda Wave At. Anyone Got One? What Do You Think?

[MaiChai]

I walked past one of these the other day and I thought, wow, an auto Wave. It comes with Hondas fuel injection, has a chain as normal, plus a chain guard, 110 cc engine, which is one of Hondas latest designs being super economical. The auto transmission has been miniaturized and squeezed into the main engine block. Thus you get all the benefits and hardiness of a Wave, large 17" wheels, fuel injection, but with an auto transmission. I notice with the pricing its one of the most expensive Waves.

Personally myself I am put off the autos as they have small wheels, and are generally quite small bikes; if I was going to get one, it would be a Nouvo, but the carb puts me off.

Thus wondered if anyone has one, what they think of it, and how does it compare to a Nouvo/Click/Mio?

Edited February 9, 2011 by MaiChai

[justaphase]

Auto with a chain...? Euuuuurgh, that would be dreadful. Im gonna go down the showroom to see...

Interestingly, i went to get an automatic a few years ago, and the dealer, a friend of my landladys, said the gearbox will probably go wrong before I'd paid the 36 installments...

[MaiChai]

haha.

I found this review: http://www.motorcycle.in.th/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=1760

I think ultimately you need to take if for a spin and see if it meets your expectations. The pros are its a Wave while I supposed the cons are that its boring (but incredibly sensible?). I have been very impressed with small Suzukis, so the Hayate Fi may be a better alternative?

[Tatsujin]

We just recently got a Yamaha Mio 125cc GTX which I think is brilliant . . . wouldn't have anything else . . . about 47k all in.

[CMX]

Up here in Chiang Mai, they are asking 52K for the Hayate Fi. Large storage more on the order of the Elegance in size too. As with the Elegance, getting alloys is more, but tubeless tires seem to have no factory support.

And yes, the Wave Fi At has to be very efficient; that transmission is not only small but cooled in a way, as I recall, to allow better power transfer. The final chain drive would put some of us automatic fans off, since freedom from chain maintenance is another advantage, as we see it. Unless I was worried about dealerships or resale due to brand name, I'd get the Hayate, though the less speedy Wave AT is likely to have better mileage - maybe the best automatic around, now, in that way.

'Zuki just went through a national distributor change, though, and while it promises improvement, you might find that you have to special order the Hayate. Our local dealers seem convinced that Jelato, Shogun, and Skyblade are the models to show, whereas I might have thought that the Hayate should be the flagship in that class.

I've tried several times to find out what mileage owners are getting with the AT, but have never had a response except distance and baht, without reference to the price or type of fuel used at that time - nothing with kms/L. Posters will ask what's the difference, of course, but gasahol is not at 60baht/liter - yet.

Edited February 10, 2011 by CMX