PART1:IntroducinG ThE BajaJ CalibeR 115-HoodibabaA. Review on Bajaj Caliber 115

If u want to read my latest rvu on caliber 115 i.e. how its performing check it out under the title of BAJAJ CALIBER-Sharing my Xperience of HOODIBABAA

Hello my friends and fellow commuters I am going to talk to you about HOODIBABA aka CALIBER 115. Well I bought this bike about two months ago and I m writing a review on this bike. This is my first review on mouthshut so please bear with me if I have made some mistakes.

The major competitors in the 100 cc segment are Yamaha Libero, TVS Victor, Hero Honda Splendor and Passion, Bajaj Caliber 115, LML Freedom and Wind 125-the latest offering from the Kawasaki stables.

Well all the research for about 20 days and of course mouthshut.com refined my choices quite a bit. I saw the differences in power, pickup, mileage, top speed etc. which lowered my choices to three bikes WIND 125, VICTOR, CALIBER 115. But u have my word it’s a pretty tough choice to make between Victor and Caliber115.

I wanted to go for Wind 125 at first but this bike is particularly new in the market and its costs near about 50 thousand so then pulsar would be a better choice. But one thing I really liked about this bike is the universal gear shift pattern (1down, 4 up). The pick up is better then both CALIBER 115 as well as the Victor. But the mileage is about 55 on road. So I didn’t go for it.

Now enough of side talks lets talk about Caliber 115.

Caliber 115 is the latest offering of the Bajaj of the legendary Caliber family. It’s the same old Caliber engine with much of technical and cosmetic homework done on it. Let us analyze every segment of this bike:

LOOKS: You all might have seen this bike on road and you won’t deny if I say that this bike looks cool compared to any other bike in this segment. Compare it to Victor and Splendor and u’ll see the difference. Victor has the ugly head light and cheap stickers while splendor is too common. So by far this bike is the best in its looks. Even the Wind looks hazzy compared to this bike. Its shows great aggressive character by its looks!!! So Bajaj can be given full marks for making this bike look aggressive yet sexy!!! The stickers look cool and the word KAWASAKI embossed chemically on the exhaust (silencer) looks pretty amazing. The aluminum die cast at the back looks a perfect fitting-actually it has become now a standard accessory for all bikes.It comes in 6 colors.

ENGINE & TRANSMISSION: You might be thinking that CALIBER 115 might be 115 cc but its not. It’s the same old All Aluminum SOHC engine of the legendary Caliber. But hold on. There is a difference. The old caliber was 111.6 cc 7.5 Bhp engine but this baby is 111.6 cc 9.5 Bhp (7Kw) power bike. So u see Bajaj engineers have made this bike more torquey and powerful and yet fuel efficient-I’ll describe about the fuel efficiency later. This was achieved because they have used a new combustion chamber similar to that in pulsar and also a new efficient carburettor. They have also given this bike a new retuned intake manifold with double insulators to prevent the possibility of vapour lock and revised exhaust system.

This bike has Dual Map Ignition which is shown to us as TRICS (Throttle Responsive Ignition Control System).VICTOR also has the same ignition system as far as I know. So in all a good change in the engine as been made and it has been made more delivering than the victor as well. Victor’s max power is 8.1Bhp@7250 rpm while Caliber 115 is 9.5@8000rpm so u can see the difference in pick up as well in both bikes.

The Transmission is 4 speed all gears shift down as in all Bajaj Bikes (except WIND 125). The gears are well spaced so u don’t find any problems in gear shifting. One thing I found different than the old caliber and 115 is that they have improved Clutch so it’s much easier to switch gears. The bike is slight vibrant while switching from first to second gear sometimes(this might be happening coz I might not be properly providing correct amount of throttle required during the gear shifting) but when it switches to third and Fourth it just cruises; its damn smooth and the engine also is too silent. Take a test ride and u’ll agree with me. U can easily move in at lower speeds on the 3 and 4th gear. Well I have driven on 15 k speed in the third gear and it rides without any chain noise or engine knocking!!!!

PERFORMANCE: This is the bike’s one major criterion where it out-performed every competitor in its class and one of the most important criteria which lead me to select this bike. The on road performance of this bike is mind blowing. This baby sprints from 0-60 in 7.99 sec flat. and 0-80 in 14.11sec which is also good. The top speed of this bike is 100 kmphwhich I don’t think any bike in the 100cc segment might be offering. Victor has a top whack of 91 kmph and the others like Passion, Libero and Freedom all have the top speeds around the 85-86 kmph mark.This bike seems cruising from 50 km to rite upto the 85 mark. I mean its smooth without any vibrations even above 65 kmph u won’t face any problems going to such a high speed. Although u r advised not to go above 40-45 at all if u have any new bike until u cross about 1000).

MILEAGE: (The most important criteria I guess!!!) Bajaj officials say this bike provides 90 km/lit. oh yes I forgot (UNDER STANDARD TEST CONDITIONS i.e. u ride at 40 kmph with 130 kg payload). Although I haven’t heard any 1 giving a mileage more than 80 for this bike but yes I am sure that u will achieve mileage in the range of 65-70 definately. My bike gives me a consistent mileage of about 60-65 kms/lit so I am saying it. Even if u give this bike a rough ride it would give u about 59-60 kms/lit. So u see u r getting power and mileage both with a mirch masala of good looks too!!

LIGHTS: Caliber 115 has a cool aggressive looking head lamp which the other bikes envy. The head lamp is a 35 watt/12v bulb which lights the road like anything. U can see the road upto 50 meters with the head lamp on. It has the most powerful head lamp then any bike in this segment and it looks cool to compared to the jumbo head lamp of Victor!!

SUSPENSION: The HDS suspension proves to be very good. The front shock absorbers are Telescopic type while the rear is Trailing arm with co-axial shock absorber and coil springs. Whats more the rear one is an adjustable shock absorber so u can change in the positions of the rear shock abs to make the back rider more comfortable. The suspension is not at all stiff.

INSTRUMENTATION: The bike comes with three dials on the panel meter- 140 kmph Speedometer with odometer and trip meter(useful to calculate mileage, distances. U might have seen it used in rickshaws; the person resets it to zero by moving a knob), Fuel meter and the Tachometer which has a maximum limit of 12,000 rpm. I specially like the tachometer coz it has color changing LED’s (Optimum Riding Indicator). The tachometer has a green coloured mark on the meter at 3000-4500 rpm. When the indicator comes in this region it becomes green coloured and elsewhere it’s red in colour. So at night’s u see three colours on the meter the first is the amber which lights the whole meter and next two are the red and green on the tacho in which the green denotes the best riding to get max fuel efficiency.