[Edited review on 20 Sept 2005]: I’ve been wanting to add this for a while now. One thing that did impress me was that the folks at Bajaj Auto seem to be monitoring this site. A few days after I wrote the review, I got a call from someone at Bajaj Auto regarding this review. The other day when I went to the Bajaj Auto showroom, the manager there also commented that he had read my review. They wanted to clarify that they do provide a on-road test ride on the Avenger. While that was not my personal experience, I see no reason to doubt their claim. However, what I do think is a Very Good Thing (tm) is the fact that a company like Bajaj is listening for customer feedback and reacting to it. I think that it is important that we acknowledge Bajaj’s actions and continue giving constructive feedback.
Incidentally, it’s time to send the bike in for the first service in a day or two and I will let you all know how that goes!
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[Edited review on 24 Aug 2005, 10pm]: I figured out the rear view mirrors are adjustable slightly. The swivel joint is incredibly tight but I have set the mirrors just right. Have updated ’’cons’’ accordingly.
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I bought a Bajaj Avenger yesterday (Aug 23, 2005) and here are my first impressions.
First of all, there is surprisingly very little information about the Bajaj Avenger on the web/printed material. I guess that’s because it’s new and also there aren’t too many people buying it.
I fell in love with the bike when I saw it. FYI, I am not a ’’pro’’ biker -- in fact, I haven’t ridden a two-wheeler in 6 years and prior to that it was primarily scooters. The Royal Enfield Bullets were a little too large for comfort and I wasn’t planning to spend every weekend on maintaining the bike. The 100-125cc commuter bikes were too plain-Jane for my taste and I didn’t see myself crouched over trying to beat Pune traffic on those bikes. A ’’cruiser’’ fitted right into my requirements. Non-Indian readers of this article should note that a ’’cruiser’’ bike n India is very different from a cruiser bike in the US or elsewhere. The engines are much smaller. But then the roads are much narrower and driving conditions are way less than ideal so it all fits together.
I went to the Bajaj showroom in Pune to test drive the bike. Their marketing approach is based on trying to generate an aura of exclusivity. It’s not too successful and sounds quite fake. E.g. I am told that the bikes are not available off-the-shelf but are ’’made to order’’ after I pay the money because each bike is ’’custom made’’ ’’exclusively’’ for me. However, if I pay by cash rather than by cheque then he can try to ’’expedite’’ delivery by routing another unit of the same color to me! I wonder how that is exclusive!
Anyway the above is a minor gripe. The major one is that they do not have a unit to test drive on the road. What they have in Pune is a dynamometer setup where the bike is bolted down onto a dynamometer. You start the bike and engage gears and the rear wheel spins on a roller. It’s a fairly useless setup from a buyer perspective because I want to know how it feels on the road. You can’t get a feel for the suspension, handling, steering, etc. They have pathetic mocked up wall display to display current speed (read of the rear wheel which is the only one spinning), engine rpm (which can’t be read off the bike in real life since there is no tachometer), etc. I was really disappointed with that part.
Anyway, I went last evening to pick up the bike. I called to confirm if I can pick it up and was asked to come at a given time. I go there only to find that they don’t have the bike. They had me sign the acceptance checklist and all that (’’Sir, the bike is being brought down as we speak!’’) and then they find out the bike is not there. Everyone yells at each other and finally an hour later they get the bike from wherever they stock it. Complete lack of coordination and communication. The staff and the infrastructure is not setup to match the marketing hype or the image of the bike.
The bike itself is good so far. The suspension is very decent and the potholed Pune roads don’t seem to bother it much. It handles very well and the transmission is very smooth on mine. The throttle is very responsive. The clutch requires more effort than I what I seem to recollect driving my friends’ 100cc bikes.
The headlight is AWESOME. I drove around unlit roads last night and it beautifully illuminated the road. It is probably India’s brightest two-wheeler headlight (60W/55W).
The side panel that covers the battery and the toolkit compartment does not seem to fit very flush and it flexes quite a bit. The panel seems to have two tabs with slots that look like they are intended to latch onto matching hooks. However there are no hooks or anything that these tabs can be hooked onto. Looks like a design goof-up. Thankfully this is not visible from outside. The panel does not seem to rattle or vibrate either. Time will tell!
The seating is comfortable. I also noticed something that might also be due to my unfamiliarity with cruiser bikes. I am 6ft tall and when I sit on the bike, I tend to park my rear-end on the sloping transition between the pillion and the front of the seat. That seems to be the most comfortable position to start with. However, within 1-2 minutes of driving, I have slid forward a little! I haven’t had a chance to test the pillion yet -- yet to take my wife out on a drive :-)
The rear view mirrors suck. They are not positioned wide enough. I see more of my shirt sleeves than the road. As yet I can’t seem to adjust the mirrors any way. They are either not adjustable or have some hidden mechanism that I haven’t figured out yet.
Coming to the last gripe: there are no accessories or add-ons available from Bajaj. No fancy mirrors, saddlebags, helmet boxes, decals, etc. I dread going after-market for these since I don’t know any good shops for those in Pune yet and don’t want hacked-on jobs on my bike. The dealer claims that Bajaj is going to bring out accessories in the ’’very near future’’(tm).
Actually I have one more gripe and that is not related to Bajaj. The competition sucks BIG TIME. I tried evaluating options and there were none. Honda has a 150cc Unicorn but the dealer wouldn’t even give me the time of the day.I wanted to check out the Kinetic GF 170 (170cc bike) but they couldn’t find a unit for me to test drive -- they didn’t have a display unit. The dealer I visited even tried to see if he could get someone else’s unit that had come in for servicing for me to test drive. Business ethics aside, they couldn’t even get that! I filled in the feedback form on the Kinetic web site and there is no response.
That’s it for now.