Apr 13, 2010 12:37 PM
31008 Views
Believe me, my reviews are fair.
And are not influenced by and branding or promotion or any other media coverage, that you all might have already know if you had read my previous reviews of bikes that I had taken test ride.
I am also sorry for writing this review of 220 so late because this time I wanted to make sure that whatever I write is backed by a hard research and so what for that I had to purchase a 220 for myself, I mean I don't have and sponsors or anything who will give me the bike to write a review. Its just that I am a huge fan of bikes and love to test them, and the review that are given in new channels and other media are really not from the point of view of the end user that is we bikers who buy a bike and use them in day to day bases.
Now let me make my standards clear. As an user I want a bike which will last atleast for 3 to 4 years with me, as a user I would want a bike to survive atleast the warranty period without any major faults in engine taken the fact that the bike was taken to the service station regularly. As an user I would want a bike which is comfortable to sit on for long or short journeys. As an user I would want a bike that gives me trust that whatever is claimed for it is true and I can push the bike to its limits as shown. Now please don't tell me that you cannot get all these features
I didnt ask anything more for the money which as a customer I would pay : like if I am paying for good mileage. i should get good mileage, if I am paying for speed I should get speed and the relibilty factor has to be there or else the product is a failure in my eyes. I say whatever bike it is, it should last untill its warranty period claimed without any major faults in its components given that fact that it was well maintained and did not face any unnatural wear n tear like meet
Any accident or something. Ok lets talk about new pulsar 220 considering the above standards which as a customer I should get rember we are paying our valuable money for a bike which claims that it is the fastest indian bike lets start the review
Looks n style : well nothing changes except that it comes with black styling from the previous 220
Mileage : well its said to be a performance bike so lets not go deep in to mileage but still u can expect 35 km per liter
Handling : this I found very good much much better than pulsar 150s
Braking : yes we can say its better and do give you confidence if not the best.
Lights : Bajaj has tried to cut down the cost here they removed the halogens but still good I say.
Sitting posture : yes its sporty
Sitting comfort : well did bajaj ever cared about the confort in sitting in pulsar series I guess no ct 100 is much more confertable than any pulsars hehe ya sorry but its true, the seats of pulsar 200 are like a woods flat board and the board goes higher towards back side which results in you as a rider getting pushed into the fuel tank very very uncomfortable in long drive situation. And for the co rider well don't very try taking your mom on 220 because well there was no consideration given in this bike for co rider, you have to be selfish in driver this bike alone or with you girlfriend who likes to stick to you and sit.
Performance : in performance I would talk about three things pickup, city riding , highway riding.
Pick up : bajaj has some figures I don't even remember because as a normal user you would never ever be able to reach those claims when you ride the bike but as a normal user I would say the pick up is good. You can feel the pull with you throttle this bike but there is some huge engineering fault in 220 the ignition is not mapped in a consistent manner, it feels as if it is designed to take the engine revolutions to 4000 rpm as soon as possible, and between 2000 to 3000 rpm the mapping is not consistent, you can feel as if bike in not comfortable at these rpms
It gives you minute jerks at these 2000 to 3000 rpm, so you cannot say that its a smooth pick up......fast pickup yes but not as smooth as the karizma goes. Hey engerieers my friends I m the end user I would drive this bike on city roads so I would need a smoother ride in each band rpms okkkkk do u get my pointttttttt. I guess it has happened because engineers in bajaj are under paid or they themselves never ride on bikes in city trafic ohhh yaaaaa they might be coming to office in cars right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya its shows in the uneven mapping of the bike.
Cutting short the engin is not as refined as honds or karizmas sorryyyyyyyyy to say mr bajaj.
City riding : as I said above its not as comfortable as we can expect but ya if you ride it in forth gear you can feel a bit comfortable but still you would have to work up n down in gear shiftings becouse it wont ride smooth in middle section of the rpms.
Highway riding : well this is really interesting read it very carefully, I have taken this bike from baroda to Ahmadabad 2 times and from Baroda to Surat 1 time in last 7 months. See friends, the bike rides very smoothly at 60km/hr speed. And you wont believe that this bike give you 49 km per liter mileage on that speed, that's what I got from my first trip that I took from baroda to ahmedabad. I really took care that I did not push the bike above 60kms on first long ride.
I was very jealous when the honds and cbz's were overtaking me but still I am paying for the maintenance bills and I didn't that something goes wrong in the engin on its first ride, I mean I had only 600 km on the speedo meter.
Now on the second journey from Baroda to Ahmadabad and back I was a bit more adventurous and did take the bike upto 70 km per hour mark but not for long, lets say you wont have any problem in over taking on this bike but still the bike starts to show the bajaj colors at above 65km/hr speed heheh remember its hamara bajaj, and they are fooling us now by showing us that its flying bajaj thing in branding part hehehe. To me, its still old snail bajaj rather than flying bajaj. Ya, its true believe me. When you will hear the stories when you visit the service centers of bajaj bike I bet you will be scared of riding you bajaj bike on 60 km speed. Like I had meet one college boy who tried to ride 220 at a speed of 110 kms and he did it for like just 5 to 6 minutes but after that his bike never went to that speed again and he was shouting on the technician why it has happened. Later I found out that his bikes valves had bend and the timing chain was all gone the piston had given up poor boy had to get an engin overhauling right on its second service. What I mean to say is yaaa it will go to 100 plus speed but after that you would have to make a new engine to reach again to 100 plus speed...
Now what I want to say is that are we giving so much of money for just riding the bike once and then go to service station. I guess not right. Sorry to say mr bajaj your bike components are really really unreliable
