Zma and P180 facts. Review on Hero Honda Karizma

Hi pals,

Myself Pradeep from bangalore working in a software firm. I've been reading reviews here in MS for sometime now so thought of posting my review...

well I do own this beast and do not regret buying one, I bought one for myself by august this year. I completed my first 1000kms before 10 days of purchase and did 2000kms nearly a month after, I didnt exceed 60kmph mark before my 2nd service. It was really a tough time for me deciding between P180 and Zma but finally picked up ZMA as I was fascinated by its style and its presence on the road and also because pulsar is too common on indian roads now and I wanted to be a crowd puller so picked up this one..

Coming to the specs of Zma,

Being 223cc powered engine it churns out only 17bhp@7000rpm which is a bit low compared to other bikes in the same category... 20 bhp was what I was expecting.. It is a completely detuned, stress-free engine designed for economy. I always use speed93 or speed petrol and I get good performance, even the engine sounds smoother when I use them.. I recommend Speed93 petrol to use in it as the compression ratio of Zma is 9.0:1 and the best suitable fuel would be the petrol of octane content above 91..

I did some research work before buying and found out that the mag wheels and the crank in Zma are imported ones. The wheels are from enkei company which can tolerate upto the speeds of 200kmph and the crank has the capacity to withstand the speeds upto 185kmph.

It doesn't has any revv limiter in its carb but the new versions in Zma comes with a microcontroller programmed speed limiter which doesnt allow us to zoom past

128kmph but the older ZMA was capable of reaching nearly 136kmph. The economy mode of this bike is between 65-75kmph, subject her to the speed between this and she'll fetch u the maximum mileage possible.. The CV carburettor here is doing a good job here but not upto expectations.. The bike doesn't start with the electric starter in the morning for the first time.... I haven't faced any major problem with my Zma till now, I take great care of my bike and replace the oil once every 1500kms. My suggestion is keep her in good condition and she never lets u down. I've been geeting a mileage of 28-32kms in city conditions and bout 40-43 kms on highways, the max i've got on her is 45kmpl..

Coming to her performance,

She is great performer, she achieves 0-100kmph mark quite fast and can achieve that speed in 4th gear itself, she gets into bashing mode from 3rd gear, once u are into 3rd gear open up your throttle and u'll feel like she's desperate to pump up all her 17 horses in a beautifull manner. She is a great highway performer and never sounds tired even after she's being ripped @ 120+ speeds continously, i've had many drags with her and she can do the 0-60kmph in 4.5secs the quickest, but she fails to occupy the first place in sprinting section as the p180(dtsi V2) being lighter picks up faster than her and a good rider can give zma a competition till 70kmph mark, but once she is in 3rd gear she plunges ahead of p180 and the distance gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

Even at the speeds of 105kmph u feel like she has so much power in her to pump out. I've reached a maximum of 130kmph(speedo read). The handling is the best u can get on the indian bikes produced till now although P180 is a great handler, after 100kmph mark the P180 becomes too light and it gets difficult to handle him. Majority of my friends have P180 so I get to ride both the bikes. Even my cousin has a P180 dtsi V2 and I have tough time competing him... Phew!!!!! but finally Zma emerges as a winner after the 60kmph mark.

The last week drag I had with my friends...

Venue : outer ring road in Bangalore.

Bikes : Three P180's (v1 and v2 dtsi's), two Zma's and one RXZ

Description : Had some 5 mins warm up session before the drag started so that the engine warmth is maintained, all the bikes got assembled at the starting line and all of us are revving the engines... Waiting for a whistle blow from my friend to kick start the race.. 3, 2, 1 and There it comes and all of us are off the line with the best we can achieve on our bikes..

In 0-30kmph mark the RXZ is leading P180 V2 is just behind that and behind them are 2 Zma's with the P180 v1 just beside them

In the 0-60kmph mark, the RXZ is overtook by the P180's and Zma's with P180 v2 leading the team

In the 0-70kmph mark the P180v2 started to lag and p180v1 is just beside it and Zma is neck to neck with them

In the 0-80kmph mark Zma gets into bashing mode.. One Zma's little ahead & the other zma's just cms behind the first one, the P180v1 is next and v2 is following us with RXZ in the last position

In the 0-100kmph mark the Zma plunges ahead and creates a respectable distance ahead of P180's and RXZ

Above 100kmph mark... the gap between Zma and p180 gets even more and more big and the p180 starts to dissapear from the rear view mirror of Zma...

At the finish line(nearly 3kms from start line) Zma reached nearly 10-11secs earlier than the pulsars.. with P180 v1 reaching 3-4 secs earlier than P180 v2..

The final verdict

RXZ - 0-30kmph sprinter...

P180v2 - Quickest 0-60kmph achiever but fails after that..

P180v1 - better than P180v1 in the 70-80kmph band..

ZMA - Fastest 0-100kmph achiever and even the fastest available bike in the current indian market.

note : i advice u not to conduct races but to follow the traffic rules ;-)

Well friends, this was my experience and I suggest u P180 if your driving composes most of city driving...in highways, Zma rules...

If u want to be Zara hatke and want to be something different from others... pick up a Zma

Plz rate my review....

Comments are welcome...

Bye..

Regards..

Pradeep