Pulsar - Bajaj's Definition of Value For Money!. Review on Bajaj Pulsar

Pulsar - Bajaj's Definition of Value For Money!

There was a time, when upto 2001, Bajaj only manufactured Scooters and ruled that segment. Just saying that you own a Bajaj, spoke out that you probably own a scooter. Not that theres anything bad owning one, but majority of the market today demands for Motorcycles. Scooters are for Uncles arent they ;-)

Till 2001, Bajaj had tied up with Kawasaki and in collaboration, was manufacturing motorcycles like KB100 and 4S Champion. It is then when they thought of bringing a true value for money bike and they managed to do it completely on their own without any collaboration or without borrowing any technology.

The bike was named Pulsar and came out in two variants :- 150cc and 180cc, the former bringing serious competition to the Fiero and others in the same / lower segment. The 180cc was for pure performance, out beating the CBZ, which was the most powerful Indian Bike till that time.

However, that that point of time, the Pulsar twins had flaws. Their gearbox was nowhere near the mark and gave many shifting problems. The gears were so hard that you had to almost stand on them to have it changed. Then Bajaj did what usually no other Indian company does, they called back all the Bikes with the fault and had them rectified by either having the clutch plates changed, or even the gear box as a whole!!!

I don’t think its easy for any company to afford something like that!

By the end of 2002, all the bikes which rolled out of the Showroom had these problems rectified, which is when I bought a Pulsar 180 in March 2003 (sold in mid 2004 due to personal Problems)

This bike was simply the best I had ridden. I completed the running in fast and started experiencing what the True Pulsar actually is. It has a Hair Raising pickup if you haven’t ridden anything like this before. Though I was able to attain a top speed of 125kmph, I was not too happy with high end stability then. Not that the bike posed a threat of any sort, but it didn’t give us all that confidence to ride it too fast all the time. It gave me a mileage of 36 (on all time ripping and high pickup) and Way upto 49.5kpl on sober riding, which was the best I recorded. As per my riding, I would usually get around 42kpl which is good enough for the power and Pickup and it was much better than the other bikes in competition.

The 150 on the other hand was also considered very good and gave good power with mileage upto 55kmpl.

Time passed and bikes kept selling, but Bajaj didn’t just sit there and watch, instead launched a completely NEW Pulsar with DTS-I Technology (Digital Twin Spark Ignition). Now since no bike is upto 100% mark, nor was the Pulsar, Bajaj thought why not get in something better!

So what is this new DTS-I Pulsar? It looked almost the same as the old Pulsar, but instead of a Round Headlamp, they provided it with a much better looking Fairing the Light of which was Much More Powerful then ones of the Old Pulsar.

This Bike was designed to Pump out more power with Better Mileage… so they had many components of the engine changed and Best of All, they added an additional spark plug on the other side which inturn not only helped the bike to give out more power and smoother Pickup, but also to give More Mileage. The DTS-I bikes gave in excess of 7kpl in comparison to the old Pulsar at anytime.

Bajaj also made changes to the swingarm to increase the Bike Length for Better Stability at high speeds, gave it better shock absorbers and seats too. The fact that Bajaj Kept improving their bikes made them sell in Much Higher numbers.

They still didn’t seem all that happy as they thought they could still make the bike better. So they came out with a Upgrade to the DTS-I. This upgrade included Factory Fitted Mag wheels for Looks Enhancement, a Longer Swing Arm for even more stability, Gas Shocks for more Riding Comfort and to reduce Fatigue, the Exhaustec Silencer for better pickup at Low RPM’s, and Better, wider tyres for better Road grip. I have ridden both Variants for a short distance, and Trust me, the Pickup and overall feel of the bike has really Increased. The best part being that Bajaj Never raised the prices for all these additional Goodies.

As far as accidents, I’ve had my share on mine and I must tell you that this Strong bike has taken Impacts without damaging major parts. Only in DTS-I bikes the Fairing takes a beating, after which one needs to shell out about a grand, but all besides that, the Pulsar really is strong and takes impacts without Major Damage.

Kudos to Bajaj and its efforts, that this bike is the hottest Selling bike today. I wonder when Bajaj will launch a 250cc bike!

Hope my review contained everything. Do let me know if I missed out on something. Its been a really long time I’ve written here.

For any more queries the Mumbai guys can visit https://groups.yahoo.com/group/bombaypulsars

For those outside Mumbai, you can visit https://groups.yahoo.com/group/bajajpulsar

Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading