I know this is not the first review available for Dominar, there are 100’s of them. But this is about my experience. I am not going to write anything technical, Dual Channel ABS, Slipper clutch etc., but am going to share with you all my experience of first ride after owning the Dominar. I did test ride this, but that was in busy streets of Kondapur Hyderabad. Today I did take it from Showroom to my house. Morning, I received the follow-up call from agent. The guy who I interacted for price negotiation, was not available, but he arranged, and made sure that I was attended by one of his colleagues. I met the General Manager, and he was kind enough and friendly in price negotiation as mine was all cash deal. They quoted price of 186k, but we finally settled for 182k, not sure if this was reasonable or not. But I was satisfied. I hired the auto rickshaw, who we hire frequently, and went to the show room. Then started the pain staking task of bike inspection, there are couple of videos by experts who have told what basic stuff you need to notice. There was separate section where all Dominar’s were placed. If I remember correctly, there were 4 black, 3 red and 2 blue bikes. I did following:
Pass 1: Choice of colour. I was not insistent about colour, as my personal favourite was black, but family does not like it(I own a Black Optra though). Next was blue, but on both bikes, there were very minute issue with paint job. There was one mark on tank of one of the blue bike, and there was slight scratch on exhaust of other(think white line), though the agent told that it was chalk piece mark, but even after applying slight water and trying to rub it, it was not wiped. So, I decided to give up Blue colour, and settled for other one, that is red. So pass1 result was we shortlisted red colour.
Pass 2: I did through check of all the bikes, to the best of my ability and all were good. So, the decision was on chassis number, ending with 99(Don’t ask me why, I honestly do not know myself:). We shortlisted the bike. At this moment(again based on YouTube videos) I requested the agent that I want to start the bike. Since the bikes were at first floor exclusive Dominar zone, I was told that I cannot start the bike there. Pass3: Then I informed them to take this red one that we shortlisted a while ago, before start of documentation process I have put condition that I will start the bike and then finalize. He was ok with it. The red one was moved to garage. I went there, started the bike and checked all the switches, head, tail, turn lights. It was all LED setup(you can get tech specs on most of the bike websites). After I was happy, I given final go-ahead.
Formalities: I was asked to pay the money, which I did through net banking. This entire exercise took almost 2hrs. from the time we arrived at showroom till we paid the money.
Pre-delivery cleaning: The bike was cleaned, all the required fluids(mainly the coolant, and 1ltr of petrol) were topped up and it was ready to roar. I was advised not to cross 50 during first few days. I did not understand whether it was few days or till first service but decided anyways I will follow till first service.
Ride back to home: The bike was heavy, but once you commence your ride, you will not feel the weight. It has immense power peaking at 8k rpm and slightly high-end torque peaking at 6.5k. The weight comes handy as you throttle up it stays planted on the road. This gives you confidence in high speeds(again I did not test it though as its just day 1 of my experience). There are few videos which suggested that this is not idle for 5’4", but I disagree. I must say am comfortable riding this with shoes then with slippers. As the gear box is toe shift its convenient. It was typical Hyderabad traffic from Moosapet’Y’ Junction till Bachupally, and I did not find any difficulty whatsoever to manoeuvre this beast. I nicked named it red beast. It was nimble, agile. Off course you have to respect its weight of 182Kgs and you will feel that only during sharp U turn. One should be careful not to hard press the front disk break when doing sharp U turn. This is true for any bike and I do not think Dominar is any exception.
Overall my short ride of little over 10km from showroom to home was good. I am happy with my choice, and I will present detail review as I put up some KM’s on this beast as days goes bye. Stay Tuned, and bye till then.
First Servicing: Completed first servicing on 1st Sep 2018. The service was prompt at Talwar Bajaj’Y’ Junction, Kukatpally. Though I had some initial issues while handing over the bike, as there were lot of bikes on week-end, which offcourse expected. The initial quation was given, which we reasonable. I clocked around 410 km at time of giving servicing which was within the set range. This is because I use the bike only during week-ends. Overall the Red Beast is roaring and this red colour in perticular is eye turner. I must say initially people confuse it for pulsur, but on closure inspection they know its different breed.:)
Update as on 28 Apr 2019, I know I was away for quite few years and beck to this platform again. Thing is I sold this bike in Apr of 2019, reason is one and only. The Bajaj(hope they are listening) should treat premium bikes and service separately then that of mass affluent bikes. I had very bad service experience with Talwar Bajaj Hyderabad(near Y junction). I took a prompt decision to sell my bike as I was not getting needed separate attention.