During 2000, before Suzuki had parted ways with TVS motors, the duo had launched the Fiero, a 150cc power-commuter. The initial response to the bike, which had a good pick up, and an excellent engine was great and it was all set to compete with the CBZ and cater to that premium class. But Bajaj had other bigger plans and upturned the apple cart for both TVS and Hero Honda with the twin launch of their head turning, money rolling bikes... the Pulsar.
While, TVS went about their television campaign of using twins to showcase Fiero's twin advantage of mileage and power, Bajaj simply launched two real good looking variants, one catering to power with the 180cc and the other head on with the Fiero with similar engine specs.
One clear advantage where Bajaj scored over TVS and beat them black and blue were in the areas of design and the good looks of the Pulsar literally sang the Burial song for the Fiero. The Fiero was a good bike with a fantastic engine... but their designers tried to be too creative and ended with a good bike to look like one absolutely confused and dazed... with the front and back side of the bike looking like a scooty.
The whole symmetry of the bike was completely mixed up. With Pulsar then sweeping the market and with the exit of Suzuki from TVS, they were all engaged on their bid to go solo... thus ended up with their highly successful Victor which took the market apart gradually. When the Victor's market boom, reached its point of saturation and when all the excitement of their first major project ''victor's'' success died out, they turned their head back to the Fiero to improve and re-launch it to take on the Pulsars.
TVS identified the flaws and areas that needed drastic improvement for the Fiero such as the very obvious design and also the handling of the bike, which due to the strange design and pretty ordinary suspension and chassis, lacked what it took to take on the Pulsars. So out came the new and improved Fiero F2, completely dressed up and flaws fixed. The beauty about this re-launch was that TVS just did not work on fixing the existing flaws on the bike but went on to improve the already good engine and gearbox to perform better and added their engineering experience from what they learned from the Victor project on to the F2, giving everyone a fabulous bike.
Design - After Hero Honda's launch of their mini fairing built Splendour, it became an unwritten rule that bikes without a fairing won't sell... fairings became a voodoo good luck charm for every manufacturer... Though after so many years, manufacturers are still reluctant to do away with their mini fairings... when most people now are beginning to get sick and tired of it. Pulsar out of the blue put up a refreshing change by going back to the old days of rounded headlamps, took the cake and the market by their brilliance of this move... of course, the bike was also very good.
Today, if you notice all these manufacturer's bikes, you can so strongly see their dilemma of whether to put a fairing or not... some of the most funnier ones is Hero Honda's fairing for Ambition... titled the ''Royal Crest''... visibly caught in an absolute dilemma. Yamaha for decades tried to avoid fairings and finally got suckered... yup ''fairings are the ones which make the bike sell'', went on to make Libero with rather over-creative fairings and yet no positive sell outs because of that... now they are back to making the Libero without a Fairing and with a rounded headlamp... sounds as though their ad campaigns are spluttering and muttering ''fairings suck''.... either way, these dilemmas, unwritten beliefs are very obviously visible, which is the point I wanted to make... Anyway, F2 is back with fairings on the front and as has been redesigned to look rather appealing. The new design is miles better off than its ancestor and the bike looks rather pleasing and good looking.
The design is not bold like the Pulsar but take a rather conservative approach... nevertheless, a good looking bike. A 35 W halogen bulb offers a good wide and bright beam... The Instrument panels sports an rpm meter, speedos, fuel and the Economter housed from the Victor. All the dials are well designed and are easily readable at nights.
The quality of the Electricals and switches as always are extremely good... one thing seen in all TVS products is their strong electricals, which hardly ever lets you down... a point where I feel, TVS scores by a ton with any of the Bajaj products.
The new chassis and suspension are very rigid and offer superior handling and stability. TVS has further improved on the Tyres and have put up bigger new tyres, with better grip... though personally, I have my doubts on these tyres... Having seen all the nightmares which TVS tyres have given victor user's with terrible road grip where the tyres wobble, slip and slide in the most uncharacteristic manner, am not very convinced about their ability to put up good tyres that are dependable and make you feel comfortable while cornering or coming to a sudden halt. An MRF Zapper could have been ideal... but then a parent company will always stick to their siblings no matter what.
The new improved engine, which has been further, refined for absolutely smooth and effortless power delivery reaches its peak at lesser rpm's... It's engine generates 12 bhp and is easily the best in its class and their gearbox has been again further refined to again prove that the competition is still not as close to the absolute precision and brilliance of TVS engineering. A 4 speed cog seems to have disappointed many biking fans, who have been asking them for a fifth in their many feedback sessions but TVS has been stubborn to maintain that having a fifth won't facilitate easy riding especially as the bike is for city commuters... guess, their point is fair enough. On the throttle, the bike reached interesting speeds of 105 kmph (doubles), which was again impressive... smooth without any struggles.
On mileage, the bike breathes through a Mikuni carburetor and delivers around 55 kmpl on the city... decent figures for a 150cc bike... though a few people have claimed to have got 60 plus which is amazing... on an average it is around the 50's. Their new economoter, CDI ignition aids to deliver better mileage figures than its ancestor.
On specs, it seems to be a slightly better bike than the Pulsar and when it is priced slightly lower than the Pulsar, it certainly seems to be a good move to buy the F2. Performance ways, it slightly outruns the Pulsar but does not have the bold design that commands any passer by's attention... In terms of dependability, quality of spares, build quality and service, it is better than the pulsar as Bajaj has not been able to fix their nightmares of providing good quality spares... seen through many complaints by their customers on the quality of their spares as well as their service...
Though the F2 is a highly recommended buy, I personally doubt it can dislodge the iconic status which the pulsar has captured... giving credit, it is only fair to say that the Pulsar has become a Cult figure in biking, joining the ranks of the Yams, the Bullets etc.. So for TVS they need to realise it is not just about competing with specs, engines etc. and beat the Pulsar - that TVS has done with the F2, but there needs to be a little bit more excitement, a punch, the ability to draw some passion, which F2 lacks and this is sadly required to dislodge the cult figure of the Pulsar (and eventually its sales).
Does the F2 have those qualities? nope.
Nevertheless, if you are one of those who only cares of getting a good, reasonably powerful bike with a good engine, d
