Nov 29, 2006 04:08 PM
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The P180 as its popularly known has recently made waves by generating surprising performance figures from users galore... Although a little over rated, the overall bike is a pretty good package....
To start with, the engine... The engine of the P180 is refined and far better than its terrible twin the P150... It delivers good power and also runs smoothly even for longish distances... True, it does heat upa little too quickly but rarely have people complained of over heating problems or loss of power... One major shortfall of the engine is the extreme level of low end torque which reduces the acceleration in higher gears significantly... This is where the P180 loses out to its current competitor, the Karizma... In the 0-60 run, the P180s initial acceleration is superb but the end result is far from satisfactory...
Gearbox... The bane of the Pulsar 150(even in its new version), the gearbox of the P180 is certainly though it still leaves enough scope for improvement... And the 1 down 4 up pattern smooth with the only problem being false neutrals... Yet in spite of this, for a bike designed to be a touring bike, the gearbox quality is certainly not up to the mark....
Ride quality.... Ride quality is decent... The new gas shocks have marginally improved the ride, though the ride at the back tends to be a little stiff... One has to wait and see if the new version comes with any improvements on this front....
Control : The major drawback in the field of control is the slightly offset engine on the chassis... This is because the chassis isn't the right one for this engine and the new version could potentially cause problems because of the altered CG... Otherwise this bike makes a decent handler thought it weaves a bit at high speeds....
Electricals :Well the less said the better... The headlight beam is not powerful enough... And the starter gives problems galore, especially in the rainy season.. This is probably because of incorrect positioning of the starter(just speculation)...
Last but not the least, reliability.... And in this department it keeps up the Bajaj record - BAD... ITs not very reliable on long drives and though the problems are minor, they can bring one to a grinding halt n no time at all.... Be warned about this factor of the P180...
Overall I say the P180, though it leaves a lot of scope for improvement, is certainly a good bike.... I only wish it wasn't Bajaj producing it since they don't address customer feedback properly...
To new buyers I'd say look harder at the Karizma as a package before looking at the P180 and if you do go in for it(P180) maintain it well... I hate it when I see any bike treated poorly...
Do rate my review...
