Karizmatic Karizma. Review on Hero Honda Karizma

A 2 wheel merc, thats what you can call this piece of art byHH(or shall I say Honda).First things first, let me tell you that I am a bikinglover and not a bike lover(so I prefer to be unbiased).karizma happens to be my6th bike with Yezdi road king being the first>yam libero>yam Rx-Z>CBZclassic>RE Electra 5s ES DB>Karizma(commonly called zma in our community).

I will not waste your time telling you how and why I fell in love with thisbeauty coz my wish list may not be yours and vice versa, and hence I will quickly list out the pros and cons of a zma.

Pros-

1.A super refined engine(using a synthetic oil in my opinion is like addingcherry to the cake, and yes a synthetic oil like motul300v, agip, etc etc can really make the gears even more smooth), the bike has a very good low, mid and high range torque making it an excellent puller no matter in which gear youare.

2.Handling is superb with its VERY LIGHTWEIGHT handle(unlike the 200s and 220 sheavy handle) and you can just go on and on with your mile munching and res tassured you don’t have a back pain at the end of the day(upright posture mainly for touring unlike 220s aggressive posture for racing mainly).While both 220 and zma's dry weight is the same(150kgs) if you ride the two you will feel azma to be lighter, which for me is a real boon as I don’t have to use my arm strength for a god damn handle .lol.

Suspension-By far the best in India(of course I am considering only Indian bikes) the gas shocks used by the Pulsar counterpart does equally good but I must be honest I liked a zma;z rear better.

3.Fuel efficiency-Is good considering the fact that its a 223cc 16.9ps engine, anactual figure on a stock zma can vary between 29-37kmpl.I get an avg of34-35kmpl in Bangalore traffic with not much of sudden throttling. Its imperative to keep the revenge between 2.5 to 5.5k if you want to see such mileage figures on your zma.

4.front console-a 3 dial console with 2 analog and one digital just adds tha to punch to the bike. The New zma-r has a yellow console which automatically glows in the dark, quite useful in the evening when its too early to switch on the bikes headlight just to see wats on the tacho(for instance)

5.A great stunting bike-karizma is a great stunting bike simply coz of its torquey engine and a great balance(thanks to the wonderful swing arm its ports), having said that I must also say that the front faring may touch the number plate if the wheelies are not executed the way it should be(that's one reason you notice the the reg number of these bikes on their windshields).

The disc brake has a great bite, some may call it a lil on the softer side(u press thebrake and feel it) but its good to have a softer brake when the tarmac is wet.trust me on that. Rolling stoppies are not all that easy though. This iswhere the 200s and 220s have a clear edge with their wide front tubeless tyres.

6.Stance-the bike is for bikers of height more than 5.5" atleast, tallerguys/gals will cherish this bike more than anybody, the pillion comfort is justexemplary, thanks to its very soft seats, after complains of sore bum with thefirst set of zmaz(the non Racer versions)

7-Stickering and paint job-Absolutely top notch, Its been more than a year onmy yellow zma-r and I have not yet found a reason to even polish it, it justdoes not fade THANKFULLY(many fear a yellow, red fading under sunlight).

8.Resale value-Do I need to mention? Its a Hero Honda folks.

CONS-

1.Rear tail light-One of the two fuses as if there is a competition between the two. I was told that a higher volt bulb(ie a 22-24volt bulb fixed can fix the prob instead of using the std 20volt) can fix this issue. Worked for me(fingers crossed)

2.Digi console resets-Out of the blue the digi console resets with the tripmeter resetting and the Clock showing 1:00 am, however the total kms run(odometer)remains unchanged(thankfully)

3.Disc Pads-how can I forget this one, well I cant really call it a neg of this bike but its worth mentioning that the disc brake pads of this machine costs an eyebrow raising 1700buks, yes 1700 buks(unicorn's for instance is 350 buks).Exorbitant(at least for me)

4.Lack of good service stations-Dont ever trust the Authorised HH mechanics asthey are least concerned about your bike(at least this is the case all across Bangalore), henceI usually get it serviced by my good old mechanic. Now is this what we willhave to rely on being the owner of a flagship bike of HHMI.

Sorry if at any point I tried to compare this machine with any other(I may have done that to make myself more clear about my views), In my view this is a great machine and I can sure tell you its worth every penny.