Sep 06, 2005 04:57 PM
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(Updated Sep 06, 2005 04:57 PM)
This review for the bike is after 1 year of riding it. I bought a yellow karizma (or zma as we call it) in Aug 2004. I also own a CBZ and have friends who own Pulsars , bullets and a gamut of other bikes. How does the ZMA fare against the other bikes???
Snob Value
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I think that the CBZ looks better than the ZMA. But the ZMA is what everyone turns to look at. And yellow rules. I am an avid tourer ... rather a bikenomad, and have gone out of the city on this bike. I remember being swamped by the locals on the way to Hampi. A friend has clicked a pic - and all you can make out of me and the bike is my head in a sea of localites.
Go with a couple of other ZMAs on city roads, and you can see everyone staring at you.
Speed
Apart from the Yamaha RD350 (which is out of production), this is the fastest indian made bike (comet is imported as a CBU not manufactured in India). Its faster than a stock Bullet500, and the spedo indicated speed of 135kmph is reachable time and time again.
Stress free
The engine is low revving. What that means is that there are lesser revolutions per minute for the top torque to be developed compared to other bikes ( apart from the bullets). This makes it feel very smooth , and you will hardly realize it when you reach 100kmph out on the highways.
Knee scraping
The handling is a beauty. I always hold the CBZ in very high esteem because of its handling on curves - the Karizma is better. I have done quite a bit of riding on curves at high speeds, and the bike is always in control. You feel like you can lean it a bit more... and a bit more... and a bit more. I was looking for a michellin tyre , but that is out of production it seems :(
City riding
The only problem with city riding is that its a bike which is long. So, squeaking between city traffic is not something which is its forte.
Mileage
A reason because of which most bike manufacturers don't want to bring higher end bikes into the indian market - the people want a mileage of 100kmpl ! This bike gives a best milage in the range of 42-54kmpl (speeds below 60kmph) and a worst case milage of around 28kmpl ( at 120kmph + continuous riding).
Cost
Expensive it sure it, though the price drop of 10k in the last year has made it more affordable.
Touring Bike
Traditionally in India the bullet has been used as a tourer. But me, and a few of my friends at Bikenomads ( https://groups.yahoo.com/group/bikenomads ) are using the Karizma for touring. The list of tours I have done are :
Pune to Hampi and back ( ~ 1300kms)
Pune to Dehradun and back ( trip was : Pune -> Hyderabad -> Nagpur -> Bhopal -> Japiur -> Delhi -> Dehradun -> Delhi -> Ajmer -> Mt Abu -> Ahmedabad -> Pune = 5300kms)
Pune to Delhi (one side trip for job change ~ 1500kms).
Till now it has not given any problems on long rides. The last 2 rides above were solo trips.
Comparison with Pulsar 180
The bike comparable to it (on paper) is the Pulsar 180. The comparison with it is :
Other niggling problems reported by friends ( https://groups.yahoo.com/group/herohondacbz ) are
Silencer problems. The allen nuts at the rear plate of the silencer keeps falling off. I also have something broken in the silencer - which the herohonda service guys are just not agreeing to.
Brake light fuses too oftern. I have changed it 4 times in 1 year.
