After five years of remote work, I now commute 40 km daily. I previously owned a Yamaha FZ-S (2012), which I’ve given to my uncle, and I currently use a Honda Dio (2012) for short trips, but the Dio gives me back pain on longer rides. My priorities are reliability, comfort, lightness, and efficiency. I’m interested in electric scooters like the TVS iQube and Bajaj Chetak, but I’m worried about back pain. Please suggest electric motorcycles (if any) or ICE bikes within a ₹2 lakh budget, with a little flexibility.

Currently, in the electric two-wheeler space, scooters are proving to be a far more convincing purchase and in the sub-2L space, we would suggest you go with any of these three options for a 40km daily commute: Ather Rizta Z 3.7, Bajaj Chetak 3502 or 3503 or the TVS iQube 3.1 / 3.5. Do take a test ride of all of these to see which one is the most comfortable for your physique.

Coming to ICE bikes, you have a litany of options under the 2L mark for your sort of usage. For good comfort, efficiency and lightness we would recommend a 160cc commuter machine like the Bajaj Pulsar N160, TVS Apache RTR 160 4V, Honda Unicorn / SP160 or the Suzuki Gixxer 150 models. Since you have used an FZ previously, you could also look at a modern model, although in our opinion, the options mentioned above give you more for your money.