Motorcycles, Music, and Highly Enthusiastic Riders are the key ingredients to create a successful biking festival. And TVS Motor Company managed to create just that with the 2023 edition of the MotoSoul. It was in 2019 that the Chennai-based two-wheeler maker hosted the first edition of the MotoSoul. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company had to wait for nearly four years before it was ready with the second edition. Now, the biking festival has finally returned to Vagator, Goa this year, with the promise to bring in some very exciting announcements and launches.
TVS showcased 4 custom built Ronin bikes at MotoSoul 2023.
The big announcement for Day 1 was the unveiling of four new custom motorcycles built on the Ronin platform. The aim here was to showcase the customisation opportunities that the Ronin offers, for which TVS commissioned three custom bikes from three different design houses and built the fourth one in-house.
TVS Ronin Musashi, designed by Indonesia’s Smoked Garage and Agonda, built by JvB Moto from Germany.
The first one was TVS Ronin Agonda, built by JvB Moto from Germany. A scrambler-style motorcycle built to pay homage to the Agonda beach in Goa. The bike gets a custom-designed rear end along with new high-rise handlebars with bar-end indicators, along with custom headlamp casing and a fuel tank, both made out of carbon fibre. The second bike on showcase was Ronin Musashi designed by Indonesia’s Smoked Garage, as a homage to an undefeated samurai warrior by the same name. The bike gets a brat bike design with dual-purpose tyres, spoke wheels and plenty of new bodywork.
Jaipur’s Rajputana Customs designed the Wakizashi which was built in 8 days.
The third custom motorcycle was designed in India by Jaipur’s Rajputana Customs. Named after the Japanese short sword, the Wakizashi has a more café-racer inspired look with lowered handlebars and a single-person seat and a rear cowl. The bike gets spoked wheels but comes with road-biased tyres. And finally, TVS showcased the Ronin SCR, and hardcore scrambler bike built in-house by the TVS Design Team. The bike comes with knobby tyres, wire-spoke wheels, and high-mounted dual exhaust. The custom paint finishes aside, the SCR also features a revised LED headlamp, a new leather-finished single seat and tweaked ergonomics for greater control off-road.
TVS' in-house design team created a factory custom scrambler based on the Ronin.
Now, as mentioned earlier, these are essentially design exercises to show customers the customisation potential of the Ronin and the company has confirmed that there are no plans to put them into production. Having said that, the company is giving the Ronin a new identity, but in the world of motorsports.
At the 2023 MotoSoul TVS announced its entry into Flat Track Racing.
The 2023 MotoSoul also marked the entry of TVS into the world of Flat Track Racing, with Ronin-based race bikes. This is part of the brand’s commitment to encourage more customers to venture into the world of racing, and the company hopes to achieve this with the TVS Flat Track experience. And we were the first few to get a chance to sample this Ronin-based flat tracker.
We got to experience the Ronin-based flat trackers at MotoSoul 2023.
Sadly, we got very little time with the bikes, but even in that short time, the bikes did manage to impress us. Now, the bikes run the stock Ronin engine and are in the early stages of development, however, we feel these machines have enough potential to be great learning tools for anyone who wants to get into the world of flat-track racing. In fact, the company wants to start a flat-track school and a race programme called the Drift-R Cup, and we for one are eagerly awaiting the media racers edition.
TVS wants to start a flat-track school and a race programme called the Drift-R Cup.
Another major announcement on Day 2 was the launch of TVS-branded mesh intercom system SmartXConnect. TVS has become the first two-wheeler manufacturer to enter this segment in India, and the company has launched two models – S10X and S20X. The systems have been co-engineered with Harmen and come with JBL speakers, Siri & Google Voice Assistant features and much more. The intercom system can connect up to 20 devices on a straight line range of 1.2 km and it comes with IP67 dust and water resistance certification. The S10X is priced at Rs. 8,499, while the S20X is priced at Rs. 10,999.
Additionally, the company also announced the introduction of the TVS CONNECT 2.0 app for the customers of Apache Owners Group (AOG) and TVS RONIN CuLT, with many more community engagement features.
The event even had some great live music performances by Lucky Ali, Pineapple Express and Nikhil Chinappa.
Overall, there was a lot to experience at the second edition of TVS MotoSoul, and we have to say it has been bigger and more exciting than the previous edition. In addition to several activities for participants like - Dirt Race, Moto CrossFit, Obstacle Race, and Stunt Shows. Also on display at the event were TVS’ race bikes of the past and present, which gave us a glimpse of the brand’s 40 years of racing legacy. The event even had some great live music performances by Lucky Ali, Pineapple Express and Nikhil Chinappa.
