Bajaj Pulsar : Not Good. Review on Bajaj Pulsar

I own Pulsar DTSi since last 18 months I bought this while I was in final year BE, I bought this due to recommendation from close friends who were all first time bikers. Here are my opinion on this bike, till date bike has done 14,400 kms, I have used the bike in Bangalore and Chennai.

Advantages :-

1. The best for city traffic due to excellent accelleration especially in 3rd gears.

   
   




2. Good Package, one can't ask for more for the money you give (but definetly not 'value for money' read the disadvantages below)

   
   




3. Styling wise it was the best when I bought.

   
   




4. Good Mileage, in Bangalore traffic it gives me 30-35 kmpl (chennai it gives 40 kmpl) and it's ok for 150cc bike, I know the roads I drive very well, all bikes would return badly in mileage department in 'my' roads especially in Bangalore.

   
   

Disadvantages :-

1. Bad Engine in terms of Noise levels+Vibrations+Harshness. Honda Unicorn, TVS Apache, Old Hero Honda CBZ have smooth and refined engines. Pulsar Engine sucks if you compare with Hondas and TVS.

   
   




2. I was very happy that my gearbox was smooth, but at after 4th service, the gearbox gave me lots of problems. The paid services is costing me above 1000 bucks. And everytime I was not happy with the quality of service. I hate giving bikes to local mechanics as most of my friends faced grave problems. Overall Bajaj service is useless and mechanics are just nuts. Mechanics also are suggesting me to leave the bike for maintainence ever 1500 kms (as though I'm racing very often). Spark plugs are changed every 4,000/5,000 kms, I know friends who have not changed spark plug on TVS and Hero Honda bikes even after 20,000 kms. Mechanics say DTSi technology strains Spark plug a lot (- I'm unsure)

   
   




3. Maintainence costs are very high. If I look forward I think the bike will perform badly after 18,000 kms or may be 20,000 kms (couple of my friends have already gone through bad times after bike crossed 18,000 kms) and I can imagine how much money I will be spending it to maintain this bike after 20,000 kms. And those who think Bajaj service is cheap then think twice, My friend's Karizma's full paid std service with oil topping comes to just about Rs.300 (including VAT) . My Pulsar paid services are always above Rs.600 and last two services above Rs.1000 and invariably there has been parts change after 4th free service, maintainence cost of Pulsar is simply high.

   
   




4. One important disadvantage of Pulsar is it's seating position, my fists pain if I go for even 10 km drive in city traffic (Bangalore). Back pain is also another side effect I got after riding this bike. (Unicorn/Apache have better seating posture, on an old CBZ one looks sporty and comfortable).

   
   

In two months from now I'm planning to sell off Pulsar and buy the new TVS Apache/Unicorn/CBZ Xtreme.I did test rides of Apache and it's very good , India bike expert is also suggesting Apache. I don't know when the new CBZ will hit showrooms, I'm longing to test this new beast from Hero Honda stable, I respect Hero Honda for their durable and reliable bikes, even some flop models are long lasting and durable. Unicorn doesn't have alloys, but has best engine and nice gearbox. Two months is a luxury period to judge the best among my wish list. I'm also looking at the new Fazer250, I guess it will be out of my budget (I will try hard :))

I haven't recommended Pulsar in my review because of it's bad Gearbox and Engine (as a mechanical engineer I find these are most important charateristics of a bike, A bike can can be bike without looks but it would be steel & plastic frames w/o Engine & Gearbox), maintainence costs really sucks. All my freinds who recommended this bike are selling them off, one has already has bought sexy yellow Hero Honda Karizma (comes at big price) another close pal has booked his candy red (hot) TVS Apache.

Thanks for reading,

Karthik