Male, eh?! . Review on Bajaj Pulsar

He owns a Bajaj Pulsar 180. That is probably the highest style-statement college boys make. At least, it was so for quite some time. Sometimes I wondered what made the Pulsar such a popular motorcylce when the Bajaj Caliber, of somewhat the same appearance, did not get even half the hype. I guess it's just called marketting. But hey, let me review this.

Style and Build

Bajaj Pulsar is certainly the most robust of them all. I mean, we have had pretty looking models like Passion and purposeful looking CD100s, the sporty looking CBZs but we never had a motorcycle as street-smart as this one, you better agree. It has something of a sporty look about it. But there is something better about it's make than just that. When you look at a sporty motorcycle, you picture a lean and lanky guy, dressed in a tight suit and helmet (his face neatly hidden behind it), going around on tracks that are empty (assuming he's that good a rider). But Pulsar doesn't make you feel that way. Someone looking at the Pulsar would picture a strong and stout man, with a chest as broad as a trunk or something like that. The point is, the Pulsar is robust. However, there is a flaw in it's make which I must make mention of. This flaw is the shape of it's fuel tank. It's tall and bulging on the side which, in a manner, locks the rider in. However, if the rider has to make a sudden jerky stop (like I had to do to save my a$$ when I first rode it), the tank is a potential hazard. The rider gets slammed into the tank, giving a very hard collision on the lower torso, which is a very delicate part for males (you know what I'm talking about). So, it's a bit of an unsafe design.

Performance

Performance wise, the Bajaj Pulsar certainly is the best of the lot. It's a street-bike, certainly. Given what it's meant for, it's a real monster. I've seen it go from nought to sixty in six seconds roughly, give or take a few. So it's got power. It certainly does. Again, however, I have a flaw to mention. When I was riding this one, I was doing it on dry roads in summer. Still, while making sharper turns beyond forty, I could actually feel the rear wheel rebelling and wanting to go in a straigh line. What I mean is, that it doesn't really keep the track very effectively. It only tends to misbehave, you know. But still, it's not very bad. I mean, I've made turns at sixty and I didn't find a reason to feel insecure about it. But beyond sixty, it turns out to be something of a nightmare- keep that in mind.

Fuel Efficiency

Bajaj Pulsar hasn't been marketted as an office-goers bike or the bike of a mid-aged gentleman out on a ride with his son at all. It's made to look like a college teenagers bike who's out to take all girls he knows on a ride of their lives. The point is, these bikes need to keep in mind that their fuel might just be obtained from a pocket-money run budget. Which brings it to importance that, even if this one is a power-breathing monster, this guy better not be a hungry monster. And fortunately it's not so hungry. It might claim seventy something kilometers to a litre. But the vehicle I used before writing this was satisfied with fifty one. And so was the user. He has a Pulsar 180, which I believe will be less efficient than the smaller version. Whatever be the case, this vehicle gave me best figures of 51 kmpl and the worst figures of 48kmpl. So it's not the fill it, shut it, forget it things. But it's not the fil it, shut it, open it, fill it, shut it.... stuff either.

Safety

I've mentioned two flaws so far. 1) It has a thick tank that can blow your nu** out. This is, in my opinion, a serious flaw. Sudden jerks, sudden stops can also cause you a fair amount of pounding on the front, keeping you out of breat for a few seconds each time. On busy roads, busy un-ruly roads that we have in our country, sudden stops are more often than green signals. 2) The vehicle has a stability problem on turns. Again, this I think is serious. Because guys don't ride it like normal vehicles do they? They swerve in and out, the suddenly streak to the left, make an unpredictable right and all sorts. GIve them a lightweight, they'll wreck it in a day. Give them this one, they might slip and wreck themselves in that day! No, but over all it's not unsafe to ride. I mean, I did have to make sudden jerks (given the kind of rider I am, you'd have a dozen of them in a hundred metres). But I didn't really suffer though I did think I could have had a better time on something else. However, because of it's weight (137kilos), it's stable if driven properly. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about if you are the types who follow rules and believe in the fact that you are better of stopping than speeding.

Summing it up

The Pulsar didn't impress me so much, though it did not dissappoint me in any manner. I had expected a better handling from it, expected it to be easier to maneuver than it was. But it wasn't dissappointing for sure.

Moral of the story:

A) It's a good bike but not something really fantastic, trust me.

B) To know more, take a test ride