Jul 06, 2011 04:40 PM
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I want to buy a good bike, good in all the senses. In order of importance, it could be
1- Riding comfort
2- Mileage
3- Power
4- Looks
To begin with, I tried not to have a pre-conceived notion and be open to try and test drive all the bikes, study them and their specs.
Since I have been riding a Suzuki Fiero for the last 10 yrs, and the bikes in the market have evolved since then. The front disc has become a standard fitting, and so has self start. I remember Pulsar started the trend of a huge fuel tank, that was also adopted by many later on. So while looking for a bike, I would have to test all these new things that I am not used to.
Al though I had short-listed the hunk and the Suzuki GS 150R, the test drive proved me wrong.
The hunk seemed like a good bike on paper. Excellent specs. But handling was bad. The bike is just too bulky(not heavy). The worst was the engine response in the 2nd gear. Unless you have revved up the bike in the 1st, and shifted to 2nd, there is virtually no pickup. The engine just whines for 2-3 secs and then the bike starts moving. But once that's done, it does well in the rest of the gears. The gear ratio for the 2nd is incorrect.(had the same experience with cbz extreme).
The rear disc brakes are also highly ineffective. I asked the sales guy, who said that it takes time for the disc brakes to become effective and would perform after a few days of driving. What bull?(pun) I said, how can the front brakes work just fine and the rear ones not? Are you using a used caliper and pads for the front disc? The sales guy had not answer.
After a lot of cross questioning the guy agreed that the rear brakes are ineffective and cannot be tightened. It would mean that you would need just as much force on the foot brake lever as you would for a drum brake. This also adds weight to the bike making it heavier.
(later I found the same setting for rear disc for other bikes(apache, dazzler) too).
Overall, it was not a good bike to have. Just looks good, looks big.
