Dec 03, 2006 09:28 AM
6917 Views
The college parking was empty at 7:00AM when I rolled into it from the main gate, the black beauty thundering along, restrained to the second gear, looking for that spot in the parking where it would be visible to most people. For a while, I kept taxying along the pavement when I noticed something. There's no need for everyone to see my black beauty. The one who mattered the most was standing at the very farthest end beside her affable Scooty Pep, looking quite neutrally at me.
Gotcha!!
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You get tired of crouching over a Pulsar 150 or 180 or Apache once you've done 80km of riding. Your back starts giving you problems, your elbows and shoulders have felt the brunt of the bumps on the road that the front suspension failed to neutralize. The engine has some good power delivery but then every Tom, <censored> and Harry has the same machine you're on. Plus, you're riding something definitely male. The proximity of the "male" vehicles fuel tank to what makes you male is making you feel awkward every time you jab at the brakes. And your left foot is tired shifting gears in the mad traffic of your city.
And then you have the league of non entity bikes- Splendor, CD100, CT100, Platina, Wind125- bikes that have no purpose in existence, no personality of their own, who think a couple of allow wheels and some 3-digit mileage figure makes them as cool as the YamahaR1. And you also have those mundane mimics- the Yamaha Enticer, or the bicycle in the shape of a cruiser bike.
There is a lot of crowd on the road, a crowd of those who are nowhere and of those who could have been somewhere but lost it. The crowd will stand apart, saluting you when you know what a bike is. The crowd will bow in respect when you know that a bike is never meant to be male, never meant to be a thrifty fuel-saver nor meant to be a street-boys toy.
The crowd will make no sense to you when you ride gallantly on your beauty. Your majestic mare, the Bajaj Avenger.
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Style and Build
Avenger is a low slung cruiser, the seat elevation from the ground being shorter than the market average, and its length being greater, much greater than the market average. The front suspension has a 179mm travel, which almost perfectly neutralizes most of the bumps on the front while the rear swing-arm suspension scoffs the bumps on the road with its silent perfection. The pilot seat is perfect crafted to give enough room for the largest biker while the pillion's seat is complete with a backrest, elevated slightly compared to the rider's seat, to provide a panoramic view of the terrain the bike is out to conquer. The gear and brake lever are positioned to give the rider an almost car-driving seat feel, relaxing most of the back muscles with the perfect handlebar shape. This is a bike that relaxes you the moment you bring its engine to life. Unless, of course, you don't know how to treat her.
Performance
From the moment you bring the engine to life till the point where you kill the engine (oh yes, the new model comes with a kill switch, so shut up critics!!), the vehicle is a perfectly obedient monster. The thunderous purr of the engine is in perfect response to your touch of the throttle. With its low-diameter broad wheels both in the front and the rear, the vehicle gives you impeccable balance. You can take those turns at faster than you thought. Let the chick sitting behind you squeal in excitement. You can tone that volume down with the winds roar as you kick up speed and dust in the follower's face. It takes hardly any time for the vehicle to hit 60km to an hour and once it gets there the only noise you can hear is the wind and, occasionally, another vehicle's horn.
Fuel Consumption
I never ask why my baby drinks so much. I love her with all my heart and I will buy her as much as she wants to drink. She loves me, she does exactly what I want her to do, exactly when I want her to do it, without complaint, without hesitation, without the slighest deviation from its maniacal thunderous cry of brave excitement. But yes, if I want to make a rough calculation of how much cash I need to pamper my sweetheart, then I divide the number of kilometers of my ride by 40 and I reckon I'll reach there with some fuel in surplus. You don't expect economy from your ride with your first and truest love. You're a sad-arse jerk if you do that. This is not the bike for you if you look at your vehicle as convenience. This is the bike for you when you treat your vehicle with your ideologies. Pick some crazy bicycle with a motorbike engine if you want mileage. People who don't take their bikes as their ideologies are like wild monkeys masturbating in the toilet.
Safety and Riding Comfort
You can count on her to remain on her line no matter how suddenly you brake her speed. She won't slip and fall if you take a sharp turn. She is stable at all speeds. Her low slung design keeps her on her two wheels when you amble out of the parking gingerly to join the mad road even when you're at just 5km/hr. It remains perfectly in balance, in fact with much greater ferocity and in perfect, untiring composure when you hurtle down the freeway at 90km/hr. The vehicle will be under you and you over it and the rest of the world struggling to keep abre@st. (I always have to censor everything out, don't I? The dictionary here thought I'm fondling boobs). The headlights will make sure that you can read what's written on the chits of paper strewn on the road, they're that bright. And you can freak out the trucker in front of you with your pass switch. He'll think its one of those unmanageably large Volvos asking for the right to overtake. The Avenger, of course, is far more respectable a reason to move out of the way than a Volvo.
Summing it up
Don't buy Avenger if you want to save money. Don't buy this if you're shuttling from home to grocer to basketball court to home. Buy this vehicle if you are those who want to be in their elements. This is vehicle for those who walk their own road. Avenger is the bike for the rebel who believes that rules are for mutual convenience and not for adherence and obedience. Aveneger is the bike for that rebel who follows the rules because he takes pity on their irrelevance. And hey, cut the crap. Go take a test ride.
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That morning, when I parked my bike next to her red scooty pep, she gave me a sweet look and locked her helmet on the strap attached to her bike. I hadn't taken my eyes off her. After some time, she looked up at me, to meet my eyes again. I don't remember saying anything. All I heard was:
"Please drive slow, I feel scared at high speeds."
What followed is not for you buggers to read. Even Avenger owners have soft corners and sweet secrets. Bugger off, mister!!
