*Pulsar 220cc
*I have got a chance to whirl the throttle of pulsar 220cc, its quite crisp, but I am still apprehensive about its performance and looks.
Looks not very pleasing
I have seen the bike in bajaj probiking. Its look good from rear and the front but not from the side! Motorcyle designer and journalist Glyn kerr! has desinged this bike. but they could have redesigned the tank to give it a sharper look.I think there will lot of after market tank desinged for this pulsar 220.even the fairng is a sore to eye.the LED tail is futuristic but still that tank dosent flow with the line of tail.a black engine and alloy job could have done wonder to this bike
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Performance: Fuel injected dosent help much in indian condition
The performance figure what has been tested is listed below in comparison with some of other bikes what I have rode
0 to 100 kmph
Karizma - 14.8 seconds(It gets very fast and is quite stable)
RD350 - 5.8 seconds( dont have any electronic equipment to test but it holds your collars and pulls you like a rocket. I rode it for 5000 km and sold it off to one of my friend)
Pulsar 180 dtsi V3 without LCD(15+ seconds. It is quite unstable at that speed and when you drop the throttle the engine breaks a lot making the tyre to unstable, I feel the pulsar 180v2 is short geared it should have a tall 4th and 5th gear for smooth cruising and the small tyre make the gearing more short.I own this bike have riden it more than 15000 km)
Pulsar 220 cc(13.2 seconds, courtesy bike india) I dont think it is much improved than the karizma because it is only 1 second faster than Karizma.because the fuel injected version dosent help much in indian condtion. our carburetter is upto maxium optimum setting, only the highway fuel efficiency has improved not the overall city.the old Pulsar DTSI 180V2 spoke wheels was very fast faster than the karizma.So think if karizma FI will hit the market it will be faster than the pulsar 220.but it will loose the battle of fuel efficiency.This honda design engine is inherently less fuel efficient .take CBZ old.156 cc average of 30 to 40 kmpl in actual condtion. The engine revs up to 8500 to produce 20.02 BHP. I prefer a less reving engine which produces more bhp and torque in lower RPM like Karizma and RD350
Handling: I havent tested it but I can say that looking at the fron fork it will be much better than Pulsar 180V3. the front fork is 37mm very fat.the wheel base is quite long, .It will have an arrow like stability on high speed.
Overall: Ill still wait for the Karizma FI, and what I can say about bajaj that the problem area what bajaj has is gear box and clutch, they need to improve on those.the bike magazine has given 5* rating to this bike but I still dont believe them blindly because they had given to Pulsar 180V3 5* rating.It realy dont deserve 5* becasue of the gear box and clutch.Just wait for Karizma FI and hope karizma gives us atleast tubless tyres, rear disc I dont think we can get it at that prize, it will be atlest 10000 costlier than pulsar 220cc.