Hero Honda Passion was my first bike.
Was on the sense that I just sold it. That story is coming up.
I bought the bike in 2002. I had checked out around 3 or 4 bikes at that time before I came to this model.
At that time there was a 100cc 4 stroke from bajaj. Didn’t know the correct model. My Uncle had a Bajaj 4s champion (he still does). It matched my financial (or my mom’s finance as I was just out of Diploma at that time and was not yet gotten a job). But there was some concerns about Bajaj’s bike for long time run and I was having second thoughts.
Then there was Suzuki Samurai – another favorite bike of that time. I would have gotten this but 2 stroke bikes were going out of market at that time and this was the last of its kind. So I decided not to go with this.
Many were using Hero Honda Splendor at that time and many of my friends were using this model and they all had only good things to tell about this model.
I too was somewhat decided in my mind that I am also going with Hero Honda Splendor. Do note that at this time Hero and Honda were together and were making bikes under this name.
On the showroom my eyes fell on the newly launched Passion and I was instantly taken back by this bike. So I simply decided to go with this model. It completely new and unproven at that time, even my school mate Jeswin who was working there at that time – told me to go with Splendor, I basically went against everyone’s advice and went with Passion (of my heart).
This was a kick start model which I later regretted a bit.
I used this bike for 23 years. That’s half my life as of now.
Hero Honda Passion – My Positives
90% of my review about this bike is just positive. It was a tireless workhorse when I used it. There was very few maintenance issues. Parts are still available from Hero even if they had broken ties with Honda. It was still running splendidly well (for its age) when I was selling it. It will still go almost on top speeds as before. It was still proving that its still worthy.
Hero Honda Passion – My Negatives
One issue with this bike is that I never got the mileage the company claimed. I was always getting less than 60km per liter. In the end it was less than 55.
The nest thing was that I choose the kick start model – not the self start version. I had a ACL reconstruction surgery on my right knee in 2001 and I initially had quite a few issues starting the bike with my right foot. Again in 2012 I had to do a revision surgery.
But I was happy with the bike. It left me stranded on the road only very few times that too mainly due to tube/tyre punctures. Those were all resolved soon. Only once I thought I was in big trouble is when I was travelling and the clutch cable broke. But that too I was lucky as there was a local repair shop nearby and he had a clutch cable with him.
So having driven over 1,13,000 kms on this bike, I never faced much major issues.
Initially I had thought about completely changing the look of the bike. Many people were getting Alloy wheels and other modifications and I too was somewhat leaning to these.
But somehow all these modifications were not done and the bike reached its first re-certification or renewal after 15 years in 2017. This could have been the best time to do the modifications and using new stickers and allow wheels to make the bike looks like the Hero Passion Plus at that time. But at this point of time I was in love with the old retro design.
So I got the bike repainted, asked them to use the old model stickers and simply go with the completely old design. This was positively received by everyone who saw the bike after recertification.
But by time my job was not allowing to use my bike that much. As some of of may know – I work in a firm called Buff Power from 2013 – which deals in inverters, solar and batteries. I was not able to use the Hero Honda Passion bike to carry around large batteries. So there was a scooter involved. The scooter was a second hand Mahindra Duro (the shittiest of all scooters as per my opinion).
By 2021, the Mahindra Duro was sold and a TVS Jupiter took its place. By 2022, the second renewal of the Hero Honda Passion was done. But by now the usage of the bike was getting much lower and the scooter usage was getting much heavier.
My mid 2025, the TVS Jupiter had crossed well over 80,000 kms and I was somewhat in the mind to change this scooter before it ran out on me by my heavy usage. But I was also very sad that I was not using my bike much and it was catching dust in the garage.
So I decided to sell this bike in exchange. I exchanged this for River Indie. Only time will tell if this scooter endures. I am still keeping the TVS Jupiter as a backup.
I was almost in tears when I sold this bike. I had even thought that was not selling this bike and keep it with me for the rest of its like or my life – as my uncle have kept his Bajaj 4S champion with him. But then again – I thought this will serve someone faithfully for few more years. Its better than it catching dust in my garage.
I am hoping that whoever got this bike makes sure that it runs well with periodic repairs. Anyone who has this Hero Honda Passion – KL08U4252 – please do comment below.
Do checkout my travels.