Thought that since one has dreams and my dream is different from the others, why not conjugate some of the best features of what is available in the market and conjure up a dream bike.
Herein, well there are certain realities about myself I cannot wish away and hence the dream bike for India for me will need to be on the basis of what I am, what I can get and what the manufacturers are offering me. I am nearly 6 feet, 80 kilo, love sports and action, but would not want to spend more than say 75K on a bike - seems familiar to most action lovers out there. Well, not becoz of being stingy, but cos most bikes are expensive in India due to un-necessary plastic parts, stupid duties and taxes, and octroi + vat thrown in with bad roads and effed-up traffic due to poor traffic management in all metros. Bombay rates the worst in this respect.
Frugality is out though -remember it is still a dream we are talking about, and there is this hypocritical attitude that I share with all of our countrymen - Lord forgive me for this.
So here goes
Engine - Obviously Pulsar DTSi - 180 - with Exhaustec - the cheapest more efficient one that gives tremendous pull and acceleration with fuel efficiency.
Gears and Clutch- Honda - Fiero feel. The Japs are good at this.
Make and styling - I love the CBZ build, tyres and overall sporty structure, also taking into account that it is a good one for long rides and has good springs. Have ridden Fiero quite a bit, but then the springs would not last out long as I love to hit the bumps harder if I can, and I do fly quite often with a 4-wheeler too. Also love the looks of LML-Graptor and Laser from Kinetic.
Brakes- Disc breaks and alloy wheels would be needed of course. Crash guards are a must
Seating: Do not appreciate too high a seating that is given on most 100cc and other types, as a higher center of gravity can be bit dicey at quick turnings, and Indian roads do not bank at the curves, so skids are inevitable.
Tyres: Hence, thicker rear tyres are a must
Accel: 0-60 in 3-4 seconds, 0-100 in 6-8 seconds, not really concerned if it is a 4 or 5 geared bikes. The 5th gear is useful only when u are beyond deonar or borivali. I feel sorry for a co-writer who owns a Comet and written a nice review on this very site. Should be able to scale nicely with 3rd gear on 20 kph, 5th gear able to pickup from 30 kmph - 100 within 10 seconds.
Mileage: 45 kpl is okay with me - anything higher is a dream and not a engineering feasiblity.
The above can only be a dream as the all of the above are too distributed on different platforms from different makers. Pity HH never really delivered real speed vis-a-vis the competition and Yamaha (maybe it could be called zzz-amaha with its sleepy responses).
Dream Version 2: Enticer with 175 cc, at 75000 Rs. KS / 90, 000 Rs ES. Yamaha - are u listening ?. This is a Vacuum in the Indian market and one has just to look at the number of Avengers flooding the market.
And John - u too may go to sleep - this dreamer would like to take Bipasha along -nothing like carrying a good gal with her fair riding in the wind ...
After all -what good a bike without a good baiko in the rear ? ;-)
Alex