Welcome, India's fastest pair of wheels!

June 23rd saw every other news channel broadcasting this in their 'Breaking News' section - "Bajaj launches fastest Bike in India". If you were wondering if this was the Kawasaki Ninja finally making its way to Indian shores, you will be disappointed. Although not as exciting as the Baby Ninja, this product and the entire period associated with its launch, has been an exciting wait (for this new bike) for most biking enthusiasts in the country. Everyone who ever wanted to buy a premium sport-bike offering in the country around this time of the year, waited eagerly for the launch of yet another masterpiece by Bajaj Auto, the 2009 edition of the Pulsar 220 DTS-i... Yes you read it right. The 'F' is finally out! which simply means that the latest version is no longer 'DTS-Fi'. It has been 2 long years since the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi came out, sometime in June '07, and Bajaj has been working on this DTS-i version ever since. Have a look at the pictures of the new 220.

Black styling further enhances the killer and macho looks of the P220

New chrome tank decals take styling to the next level

I've always been a fan of Bajaj and the constant upgradation processes it puts its bikes through, at least once in a year or two. Unlike Hero Honda, Honda or Yamaha who are content with calling a new stickering job as an 'Upgrade', these are really performance upgrades by Bajaj.

The Hero Honda Karizma remains how it was, when it was launched 8 years ago. I think our kids and grandkids would probably grow up with the same version of Karizma with more sticker upgrades. With a Karizma 'R' launched as an upgrade after 5 years (only the 'R' sticker added), what next? maybe the Karizma S and Karizma T (with different sticker styles and orientations). Hero Honda does have majority of the Bike market though. They have built up reputation for outstanding after-sales service, which is why you would still see roads flooded with 100cc commuter bikes, most of them being Hero Honda Splendors and Passions. The Splendor and Passion bikes have so many variants that I doubt the salesmen in the showroom themselves are able to memorize that information to explain to customers. Splendor, Splendor Plus, Super Splendor, Splendor NXG, Passion, Passion Plus,... blah.. blah.. They are so desperate to sell their bikes that they have lately started using odd color combinations too. Ever heard of bright Red-colored rear shocks?? (yuck!!) (for the HH Hunk)

Their advertisements make no sense at all. Remember that ad with the 'blind' Pankaj Kapoor approving of his son's choice of bike. The son wrings the throttle in Neutral and the bike engine revs up.. Pankaj Kapoor says "Zyaada Power Hai isme" (any bike will produce more sound when revved, more sound doesn't mean more power output... someone teach Hero Honda this!!).. LOL! And have you seen even dumber HH ads more recently with a jobless Hrithik Roshan taking revenge on some thugs by kicking slush and mud in their faces using his bike's tyres!! (referring to the Karizma ad) What a skill to develop, seriously! I wouldn't mind doing that in the rainy season to some of the traffic law-flouters and maniacs on the road who dare to cross my path ;-)

Quite frankly the japanese have disappointed here in the Indian bike scene. Honda is content with the Unicorn as its prime offering (Honda will probably keep bragging about unicorn's mono-suspension for the next 20 years while other manufacturers eat up all the sales with better bikes and features). After a lot of criticism for selling a 'primitive' and plain-jane Unicorn for nearly 4 years, they struggled long and hard just to bring out a pair of skinny tyres and black alloys for the Unicorn's first (and probably last) upgrade. They are content with just catering to the Activa and Dio customers. They brought out another bike called Shine or something similar. Whether it shone in the market is another question. I'm not sure how many people even heard of it. Then there is the CBF-Stunner. It really stunned me with its Ugliness!

Yamaha was almost dead and asleep till 2008, producing bikes like the Alba and Crux. It wasn't a sweet ride for them until they launched the YZF-R15. That is an awesome machine, and an adept track tool. It handles in a manner unmatchable by other bikes. The refinement is simply superb, technology is miles ahead, chassis is super-lightweight enabling it to literally fly, and it is able to take on competitors with much more engine displacement in the belly. But the seating position in the R15 is very, and i repeat, VERY uncomfortable for tall riders. Hardly 2 mins of riding and I begin to get backache. Not to forget, the R15 I feel is overpriced at 1.2 lacs on-the-road. In my (humble) opinion, the only reason the R15 sells so much is - it is the only Fully faired bike in India. Few people who buy the R15 actually buy it for the performance or biking aspect. They merely want to show off with a Yamaha R1 lookalike at 1/10th the price of the R1. THAT fully faired look of the R15 is its USP!

Yamaha started taking away some of the market share of the Pulsar 200 and 220 DTS-Fi (the then most powerful bikes). The FZ-16 is an awesome looker, a naked bike which started creating waves too (like its brother the R15), in the 70k segment (I am somehow not a fan of Naked bikes). However, of late Yamaha has made no changes or upgrades. All they do is take the FZ-16 / FZ-S, make absolutely no changes except for a mere front fairing, and re-christen it as the 'Fazer'. Wow, Yamaha! Way to go!! With loads and loads of racing expertise, this is what you bring over to India, well done!! (bast**ds)

Suzuki made a somewhat low-key entry into India. It launched a useless, dated bike called 'Heat'. The Heat never really heated up to the competition. Originally targeted at the rural market, it failed miserably. There was also another 125cc commuter called the 'Zeus' whose 'Gear indicator' was touted in their ads to be the 'most advanced technology'. The Zeus did manage on the volumes front, but not to Suzuki's expectations. Suzuki have just recently launched the GS-150R which seems to be a good buy in the 150cc category but as of now, sales seem very dull. Again, another japanese top-gun who is just happy selling a 125cc scooter called 'Access' (similar to Honda's strategy with the 110cc Activa / Dio scooters).

The japanese trio currently in India have launched their 1000cc+ offerings but because of the 110% government customs duty on imported vehicles, few performance bikers can actually afford them. Suzuki has the GSX-R1300 Hayabusa at 13 Lacs, the GSX-R1000 at 11.5 lacs and a cruiser called Intruder at 12.5 lacs. Honda has the CB1000R and the CBR-1000RR Fireblade at 12.5 lacs each. Yamaha offers the YZF-R1 and the 'torque monster' MT-01, both priced at 11 Lacs. So if you have the money and you are passionate about biking, you can still go for any of these! ;-)

I am not a fan of TVS so I am not going to say much about them. All I know about them is - they make some gaudy yellow and orange candy-colored bikes called the Apache, the Apache RTR160, RTR160-EFi, Apache RTR-180 and the RTR180-EFi. They may be awesome track machines but they are again, outright uncomfortable for tall riders. To be frank, all of them look the same to me and I cannot differentiate or identify any of those variants from the others. It is a bit like how the Skoda Octavia, Laura and Superb (old versions) were. All 3 looked strikingly similar but one was priced at around 14L, one at 18L and another at 24L. Where the hell was the price difference going into??!!

Anyway, back to my initial topic. The Pulsar brand name has been around since 2001 when they first came out with two models- the 150 and the 180cc offerings. UG1 (short for UpGrade) was released 2 years later with a bikini fairing and a new headlight assembly, plus most of the minor glitches of the first version were corrected. UG2 saw the 150 and the 180 getting new alloy wheels, wolf-eyed head lamps and some more problems corrected. UG3 saw the pulsars carrying around the first digital instrument clusters on Indian 2 wheelers, not to forget major swingarm changes, black styling for the 180, performance improvements, meatier tyres and new exhausts. '07 also saw the launch of the Pulsar 200 DTS-i (I was a proud owner of one :-) ) and the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi (couldn't afford it :-( ). The P220 was the king of the road back then. It was one of the first bikes to come out with a fuel injected engine, the FI system being supplied by Delphi ever since. They were the first to come out with tubeless tyres, oil cooling, self-diagnostic engine testing mechanisms, digital speedos, gearshift lights, backlit switchgear, rear disc brakes and O'Ring chains. The P200 did lack low end grunt I must admit, but the P220 was brilliant. At 94 grand on-the-road, it was definitely more value for money than what the R15 is today.

By the end of 2008, Bajaj began to slip down on the sales chart and it had to play its trump cards really well now to be able to get back on track. It was no longer in the dominating position it was in earlier, with the FZ-S and the R-15 eating up its sales. Bajaj has really played a cunning game now. They had already announced a '1 bike launch every month' policy that would see their position improving in the market. They brought out the UG4 variants of the Pulsar 150 and 180cc models and started aggressively marketing those and the XCD-135 DTS-i. Their final target for upgrades would now be the ultra-premium offerings - the P200 and P220. That Delphi Fuel injection system on the P220 that I mentioned earlier, costs around 12-13k. So what did Bajaj do? They needed volumes to get back on track. They cut the Delphi system, created a new product called the 'Pulsar 220 DTS-i' (now you know why the 'F' went out) and will sell it at 13k lesser. With a carburettor anyway doing the job of the FI system (albeit not so efficiently as that ECU brain), it is a superb bargain. In my opinion, Bajaj has not done the right thing by going back in time to an older carburettor technology, ditching the Fuel Injection system. On the brighter side, they re-tuned the engine, worked on the swingarm to enhance handling, revamped the console dials, revamped the stickering with really cool-looking 3D chrome decals, introduced black styling for the engine and alloys, put in golden colored disc brake calipers, fixed the (earlier model's) issues with the rear disc brake, added stickier soft compound MRF radials to enhance road grip and improved the clutch and gearbox to elevated refinement levels unheard of till now.

Assuming you are curious, here are the technical specs and highlights of the upgraded '09 Pulsar 220 DTS-i. Expand / Zoom into the picture to view the specs of the new bike.

Pulsar 220 Technical specifications

Apart from those miscellaneous improvements over its predecessor that I mentioned, power has been beefed up by 1PS, torque is slightly increased to 19.12 Nm as well. It uses the largest ever carburettor for 2 wheelers in India!! 0-60 kmph acceleration now comes up in under 3.8 seconds, 0-80 in under 5 seconds and 0-100 kmph comes up in under 10 seconds. It tops out at 145 kmph which is the maximum ever for an Indian bike. No wonder then that it earned the title of the 'Fastest Indian'! But then again, speed is not the only thing about this beast. It is going to be an all round performer that will quite honestly, decimate the opposition.

With such a killer product and a killer pricing (of 70,000 ex-showroom Delhi) on their hands, they (Bajaj) would have to make amends to their product line-up to avoid self-destruction of their own sales. With the P220 DTS-i priced dangerously close to the P200 DTS-i, would it make sense to retain the P200? No, it wouldn't justify those separate production lines and their costs. So out went the P200 :-( And what about its older brother- the P220 DTS-Fi?? Its fate still hangs in the balance for now :-( but for the time being, it will continue to co-exist in showrooms with the P220 DTS-i.

The P220 DTS-i launch came as a shocker. Anyway I had gone to the Bajaj Probiking showroom today morning to take a test ride of the new P220. After a long wait, I got to test ride the machine and after persuading the staff guy who accompanied me, rode it for a longer time and route than the usual test rides that the showroom gives to potential customers. I must say a lot of it has been changed and improved, not visually but internally, and it can only be felt when you ride this beast. The riding position is a little more comfortable than the previous version (which was itself near-perfect in ergonomics). The faulty rear disc brakes in the previous model are now rectified and the front provides good feedback. Acceleration is satisfactory and gearshifts are silky smooth now thanks to the improvements. The engine is quite smooth and refined compared to my old 200 DTS-i. After a delightful test ride at Khivraj Probiking, Kasturba Road, and a heavy lunch (Junk food!!) in the adjoining Mc.Donalds joint, my saturday was done!


Just in case you want to know more about the Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-i, a detailed review and road test by Zigwheels (by renowned auto journalist Adil Jal Darukhanwala) is present in this link

http://www.zigwheels.com/Reviews/Road-test-Bajaj-Pulsar-220-DTSi/Pulsar_220_20090622-1-6


The official website for the Pulsar 220 is

http://www.p220thefastestindian.com/

The new television ads of the P220 ('Fastest Indian') really don't look that good. The ad seems to focus more on some stupid bank robber for 90% of the ad's duration, with the last few seconds showing the bike and nothing being shown about its performance or power. I loved the earlier 'Pulsarmania' and other Pulsar ads for their stunts and weird ideas! :-)

See the new P220 'Fastest Indian' ad here





And here's a video of my favourite Pulsar ad till date- the Pulsarmania ad





Kudos to Bajaj for making such a brilliant machine and enabling so many performance seekers to be able to afford it! This will be the next market smasher from Bajaj and I am really sure Yamaha's sales will take a beating in the months to come. Bajaj has played a devlishly cunning scheme with this move, and it will see itself regaining lost territory in the premium segment, due to this new launch. This will send the other manufacturers scurrying for cover, and perhaps to the drawing boards to prepare plans to come out with a more competent and all-round product and manage to challenge this amazing piece of machinery by Bajaj.

From a 'small- time manufacturer of Autorickshaws and Chetak scooters' in the late 1990s, to the company which is today, spearheading technological innovation and affordable performance in sportbiking (and in India is miles ahead of the so-called 'experts' in bike and racing technology- read as Yamaha and Honda), Bajaj Auto has come a long way in the past decade or so under the leadership of Rajiv Bajaj, the young (MBA-from-Harvard) entrepreneur who knows and understands the needs of the biker youths in the country. Maybe Yamaha and Honda aren't interested in the Indian biking scene so they never bother to bring in good products (barring the R15). Either way, Bajaj Auto has managed to make all the big-names in the industry bite dust and do it continuously too, each time a Bajaj bike's UG variant is launched with more performance and visual upgrades. They are now a big and powerful name, owning stake in Austrian sportbike manufacturer KTM, and the world-renowned Ducati too! A partnership with Japanese racing legends Kawasaki could only mean that the best is yet to come from Bajaj. The next 2 years would see a lot of launches of imported products, quite a few of them being premium ones by these reputed manufacturers (excluding Ducati since that would be too pricey for the Indian market)


All in all, India's fastest Bike ever (145 kmph top speed) truly rocks!!!
That's the end of this post.


A former Bajaj-hater, (pre-2004) converted to one of their Die-hard fans
KK