I have studied all bike magazines(some car magazines too) praising and making lop-sided reviews in favour of Pulsars and Apaches since long time. The truth is out and the fact is these companies’tip-off’ magazines for a favourable reviews on an yearly basis. Even the most respected journalists are hand in glove in making lop-sided reviews in favour of bribing companies. Some magazines that were releaving truth also have fallen prey to big money are are acting in favour of these companies.
The bike market is big from the perspective of’new’ and’first-time’ buyers, these buyers normally rely on
magazine reviews and comparos(urban middle class). Many magazines rate Apache and Pulsar as best bikes even today over other betteroff bikes. They also intelligently distort facts and also avoid getting noticed, for instance recently a bike magazine reported 34kmpl for Stunner PGMFi and in the next column it also reported 54kmpl, for Flame125cc. Flip to another magazine a short review says PGMFi Stunner returns 59 kmpl. In another instance a magazine says Unicorn has the best engine but Pulsar is latest in technology!?. The TVS Jive is big flop with multiple complaints, but some magazines have reported that it will hit Honda scooter market in big way.
My friend bought Apache Fi after reading 59kmpl FE in a magazine, but the bike is giving him just 31kmpl. Pulsars are found to be very high on maintainence and can put some cars to shame in terms of maintainence cost per 1000kms.
Believe it or not the companies not only pay money but also lure these journos in other ways like giving holiday hampers, free stay in company guest houses and also gives expensive gifts. Recently BIKE magazine editor got away with a swiss watch worth 6-7 lakhs, Nikon Camera and accessories worth Rs. 90K etc etc.
Bajaj and TVS companies have choosen cheapest and best method to push their products which costs a fraction of ad. costs of their rivals like Hero Honda and HMSI. Another modus operandi of TVS and Bajaj is to offer’manipulated’ bike for test drives, these bikes are specifically tunes and retuned and manipulated to give "SUPER" test drive effect on customers. But the actual product is far true from the test drive bikes. Many Pulsar 135 sales were due to this concept but talk to any P135 owner he would agree with me.
So how long can these gimmicks be succesful, honestly as long as journos love getting their palm greased with dirt money and as far as company feels "People can be cheated easliy". These companies keep their sales up by bringing in new bikes every quarter with many promises only to sack it few months later.
The most vulnerable section of 2W buyers are the people who trust magazines and manipulated test drive offered at the dealership.
Some one has to stand-up against the corporate greed as innocent people have been robbed off hard earned money. I hope some sense prevails among bike journos too, hope they get better with time and earn thier livelihood by hard and honest work.
Here is the list of bikes recommended .(not ranked)
100cc: Splendor/Passion/Alba/CD delux
125cc: Shine / Super splendor / Stunner / Zeus / Gladiator; Glamour
150cc: GSR150/Unicorn/Xtreme/Hunk(multi use) FZ/R15(sports)
150cc+: Only Karizma and ZMR are good buys. Bullets if you have natural love for them.
Avoid Pulsars and Apaches, they are good for first few months, they never perform consistently they never reach top speed as promised and more importantly reliability and quality are not good.
Happy Biking!