When Hero announced its split from long-time partner Honda, it created waves in the media. Several questions were raised at the time about whether Hero would be able to stay afloat without the technical expertise of their former partner. Even today, the company continues to pay royalty to their erstwhile partner for the technologies they continue to use in their product portfolio. However, Hero does have a plan to reduce this reliance and its first onslaught begins at a part of the two-wheeler market that has been growing steadily — the scooter segment. Hero recently launched one new scooter in the Maestro Edge and showcased the new Duet too. At the launch, what was emphasised was that both the scooters used a 110.9-cc engine developed in-house. We rode the two new products and here’s what we thought.