It has been 7 months since I am driving my new bajaj caliber 115 and 5300 kms. on the tachometer. You also seem to be attracted and fascinated with children here and there shouting hoodibaba!!! as soon as they see someone riding caliber115... When I purchased it in last week of August, 2003..I did not took care of this, but now it feels too embarassing when someone shouts hoodibaba!!! at you... But the good thing is that you feel good that you have become the centre of attraction...
Now that also does not happen too often as children also have got their toungues sore shouting since the launch of the bike 1 month ago... Too much hoodibaba, that’s different viewpoints of different persons.
Before owing this bike, I had been commuting on my Bajaj Chetak scooter, so I don’t had much experiences and knowledge of bikes.. The day my dad suggested me to get bike, I got too excited.. I kept thinking day and night which bike I must purchase???
Also I wanted to get it as soon as possible as I had butterflies flying in my stomach... and due to hurry I did not gathered too much information about various bikes in the market, I took Caliber 115 in a hurry... I just asked 2-3 persons about all the bikes... This bike also had a lot of good features...but equally scores less on lot of other points... Now if I get one more chance to shift to another bike I won’t wait for that moment and would definitely choose over LML Energy, Adreno or newly launched Ambition 135 definitely...
My dear friend, first of all I would like to share one of my biggest experience and some small nags with it after sale service, which many of us forget to took care of.
1) Once in August, I had an accident for which I had to make an insurance claim for that... Bajaj Sales Servie was too bad that they did not agreed to give me bike after repair before 15 days... I had even no option, so I was helpless... I would pray to god that no one had to face this day... but one can imagine how much trouble it creates to commute without your vehicle, when you had become habitual to it, But when my patience was tested to its limit, I reached there service centre and argued them with a lot and dedicated my whole day arguing to get it repaired after 8 days...
2) The bike do comes with 40, 000 kms or 2 years warranty, whichever comes earlier...that’s good, but that’s all non-sense... I checked out rules and regulations in their service booklet regarding the warranty cover over the bike...It had 10 points and in that they had cover almost everything which is not covered in warranty...When I asked a person at the bajaj showroom, that what is covered in the warranty cover.. first he gave a thought over the tricky questions and later said that we are giving you free services in the warranty period...oh my god!!! what new had they done in it?? Every other bike of every second manufacturer do the same....Well that’s not their fault, they had a good marketing department...
3) Bajaj after-sales service has always been a poor one...their service centres always seems to be overburdened, so you always wonder that whether that guy had put engine oil back after flushing out the old one...but now with advance booking for serivicing for bikes, the situation is much better...
If talked about its looks, I must say it looks very muscular till the time, it is seen from the rear.. front looks a bit ugly.. LML Energy scores much better over this.
The bike comes equipped with 4 gears, I can took the bike to a maximum speed of 75 km/hrs, but after that I started feeling terrible shaking and I slowed down after that. God knows where the bike and rider would be at 100 kms/hr??? The bike claims to be 111.6 cc and Adreno is 100 cc... but when one ride adreno after caliber 115, it feels like heaven... Five gears in Adreno is like a slice in a cake, changing gear is so smooth, whereas in caliber 115, it feels that bike is feeling lazy and want to rest, a person who had a long time experience riding it can chage the gears smoothly.
I will write more about it in my next review.