Avenger 220 was not my first preference when I first thought of buying a new bike. I was looking for a peppy ride like Pulsar. But my daily commutation that approx nearly 100 km(a mix of both highway and city traffic) bought cruiser bikes into the picture.
RE and Avenger were now viable options. The higher cost of RE and higher maintenance left me with Avenger as only practicable option. First I had a doubt regarding the bikes performance, but as soon as sat on the bike leaving all other doubts aside I made my mind to buy the bike. It was completely a different feeling from what you get while you are on any other bike and I was totally taken away by it. I booked my ride and was given the keys the next day after full payment. I remember that day I took the bike out of Bajaj showroom with my dad.
We went to petrol pump to fill up the tank and there was a child with his dad in a car, pointing finger towards my bike trying to show his dad my new bike. That was the first time I realized that the bike actually draws the attention of people. It will surely make you feel that you are driving something special and different.! I have completed 5000 kms on the bike of which includes a 600 kms journey with 289 kms stretch without any halt(engine was not turned off even for a single time during that stretch of 289 kms) .
Acceleration: My initial thoughts before I bought the bike was that it would be sluggish in terms of acceleration because of its size and cruise family characteristics. But the bike proved me wrong. All you have to do is to pull the throttle hard at the traffic lights and soon you are blazing ahead of most of the other traffic. It reaches to 60Kmph in no time. Yes the engine revs hard while you are doing so and feels strained. 100 kmph mark takes time, the acceleration starts to drop after 60kmph and after 80kmph it’s not at all zippy and feels sluggy.
Braking: Avenger is provided with disc brakes at front and rear comes with a drum. The front disc brakes are large and are powerful while the rear feel slacken. It requires practice to stop the bike effectively as the front tyre has tendency to lock up. I once had to apply sudden brakes at three digit speed and it was shuddery. I wish that it had more effective braking system with safety features as ABS.
Top Speed: The bike has a top speed of 130Kmph. I have taken the bike to 110 kmph several times but 120 or 120+ requires special efforts from the rider. You have to put more pressure at handle bars and lean forward a bit to get more traction which is very unlike cruiser style of riding. Between 90-100 one can easily cruise for a long time. But once you cross the 100 mark you can notice the vibrations in the handle bar and the rear view mirror mounted on the handle bars which makes it difficult to get an idea of vehicles coming from behind and puts strain on you wrist. After 110kmph the engine also starts to feel strained and at 120 or 120+ you can feel vibrations all over from handle bars to foot rests everything is vibrating.
Gear Shift: Bike is provided with 5 Speed gear box. Gear shift is not butter smooth, if you don’t change the gears carefully or if you are in a hurry than there is a good probability that you will be get stuck in a false neutral. People with lazy foot need to be more conscious. In beginning I also faced problem in finding the neutral, which vanished with time. Still I sometimes face problem in finding neutral, I have to check for the green N light that glows when the bike is in neutral. 6th gear in the bike would have been a boom for cruising at high speeds. I am always in search of it while I am on highway but always in vain.
Handling: It is difficult to handle the bike in city traffic especially in traffic jams. You need to put efforts to keep the handle straight and if you are not strong enough then your arms will feel strained after few minutes of driving in bumper to bumper traffic. But once you have attained the minimum speed that’s around 30-40 kmph then its the most comfortable bike to ride. At high speeds the bike feels very stable and gives the rider the confidence to ride. Bike has got tremendous road presence and keeps itself in a straight line at high speeds. The turning radius of bike is very large. While taking a U turn on tight road it feels like that I am turning a car.
Features: The bike lack on features, I wish that it had a tachometer for rpm and safety feature like ABS, tubeless tyres etc. Bajaj needs to upgrade the features in Avenger.
The bike came with first few services as free. I have got the engine oil changed twice and oil filter changed once during my 5000 kms run. Their also had been a replacement of head gasket seal which was not included in the warranty. As avenger is of 220cc it can be serviced at any of the Bajaj pro-biking service center.