My First Love. Review on Hero Honda Karizma

''Dad, I want a bike''

''Hero Honda Karizma''

And thus started my love affair for bikes. That was june 2003. Since then my bike's done 32000kms. I always wanted the best there is. At that time the only competition for the Karizma was the Pulsar 180. But I didnt go for the P180 (then) because of its twin P150. The bloody bike was all over the place. Go to any college parking lot and ull have a complex seeing the amount of Pulsars.That was then.

Cut to now- Pulsars sales have doubled each year, and you can see the result on the roads. I was a culprit too.Mindset changed, I too went to the showroom and bought myself a Pulsar, though of the 180 variant, only for the city and to keep my zma company. That review for someother time.

Looks are a very subjective subject, as it is rightly said ''beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder''. To be frank I never liked the bulkyness of the zma. And hello, whats a fairing doing on a 223cc bike (commuter?) Adding to the weight and ruining aerodynamics. I've junked the heavy fairing and have put pulsar's round headlamp and meters. Put a pirelli 110/90 Sports Demon Tubeless, and a K&N Filter and there you have a monster of a bike. Hero Honda bike's reliability are known to be the best. And the trend continues. After almost 3 years of illtreating(understatement) my bike, shifting gears at the redline(sometimes clutchless), countless wheelies and stoppies, driving at 140kmph(ofcourse speedo read) for continous 30 minutes and not a murmer of protest from the strong Hero Honda.

Now you must be thinking that I'm an employee of Hero Honda who's been given the job to up the sales of HH Zma. To prove I'm not, ill try to give you a few (negative+positive) insights about the bike, gauged from driving my other bike, the Pulsar 180 DTSi V1(the older one)-

Its a Delicate bike. You cannot afford to go offroading on it. I learnt it the hard way, damaging its fairing and sidepanels.

Its slow. No not exactly slow, but gives you a feeling that its slow, look at the speedo and is wound up at way beyond 100kmph.

Does not feel like you are driving a hooligan bike.

Its a low revver, making max power at only 7000rpm.

The bike is silent.

Too much poser value.

Guys on CBZ/Pulsars/Unicorns/Bullets try to race with you, but are often left in dust.

Too many plastic parts.

Sexy Handling. After riding it pulsar feels very nervous.

Pillion seat too high. Not a problem for me though.(especially if there's a female pillion ;-)

Kick lever too high and footpeg needs to be folded before kick starting.

Fuel efficiency is 30kpl.

Cheap switchgear

Dont like the loose wires inside the fairing - looks very untidy.

Attracts a lot of attention.

5th gear is so flexible, you can take it from 40 to 140kph.

There's no delay between 80-100 and 100-120, though after that it becomes a game of patience.

120kph speeds become routine too easily.