Hello friends, I’m sharing my experience in owning this sub quarter liter bike. It’s gonna be a very big one, so sit back and relax reading my experience.
I was not a bike freak when I first bought a bike some 4 years back when I was 29 years old. Many criticized that I didn’t even know to drive bike. I took license in my 29th year(few days before my marriage) with my new bike Discover 125cc which I bought without any idea of what a bike should be.
All I looked was to get a bike so that I can take my wife. Seriously no intention for long trips, quick rides, show off rides, etc, etc. You can check my discover 125cc review if interested Discover 125cc and Honda Activa were my bikes since these 3.5 years. But very often I started to prefer taking Honda Activa more. The reason was simple, my Activa picks up speed much faster than my 125cc and drives almost vibe less even at 85kmph(It’s top speed).
All my discover problems frustrated me so much as my wife also demanded the Activa back as she needed to drop my 2 year old son to school. It was the time that I started to feel so bad about my bike and wanted a good and best in class bike this time and i’ve wanted to choose it properly unlike my first time. So quickly gave ads in olx and quickr for my bike. Sold it quick in a week or two for 24, 000 INR, which was decent for that bike which did 24k KMs and 3.5 years old, being a bajaj product. I had the bajaj cheap image from my experience and friends pulsar bikes, esp P220. so I threw the Bajaj products to the last. My requirements: 1. Should be 200cc or more but less that 250cc 2. Budget friendly, but can spend a more for a good one 3. Should be more torquey than horses(this helps in cruising) 4. Good seat and riding position(not sporty) 5. Reasonable FE, if not excellent 6. Decent Pillion seat My Don’t care: 1. Build quality 2. Looks, paint works 3. Features\Enhancements I had always been wondering about a good bike which can drive quicker as well as give a good cruising speeds. Gone are the days 60-70Kmph were the standard in India. Roads in India are now good enough to cruise at speeds such as 100-120kmph(For bikes). However beyond that, definitely no for a bike in India, because of road quality\people. So I was not only expecting a quicker bike, but also a cruising bike which should not give the necessity to ride at higher RPM causing engine stress and tiredness to rider. Have been hunting for six months. So the bikes I have nominated were Year: 2014 Budget:1.5L 1. CBR150 2. R15v2 3. Duke200 4. TB350 5. Avenger 220 6. Pulsar 200ns There is a reason why I have left KTM Duke 390 and CBR250. Well, as I was having experience with 125cc segment, jumping to a 375cc(200%) seemed too much and an overkill even though I could afford for few more months of EMI. CBR250, I ignored because it was not having much of power difference compared to the bikes like Duke200 other than ABS, though good for long trips. Now time for dropping the candidates CBR150: A good bike for being a 150cc has good technology to let you drive faster and easier. But I hate this 150 for over priced since it was from Honda. I don’t need a CBR image. Handling is good but not close to R15. But it lacks the power and the torque I expected. So good bye R15v2: A very good bike, but lacks one basic thing, not even comfort, but I demand a seat with grab rails. Well, this is track focused, so lets leave it to track boys:-). Again another important point is, it lacks power\punch but good when you see it as 150cc segment. Duke200: No words to say. After having driven duke200, I had to throw all the bikes out of my mind, because it was a mind blowing experience that it gave in just few minutes. I felt like the power of RE and the handling of R15 all together in a better package. What best can one get. But then comes the trouble. This bike as expected was not good for long rides without spoiling your butt. That I mean in. The seats were so hard enough to break your spine on a pothole. also the pillion seats, hardly a person can sit there, and that too if ridden for 30 minutes, they have to forget their butt for a day. Well, it’s basically for one person to ride similar to R15v2. Atleast it was acceptable. And the another problem was cruising which is a must in my case. Dukes were short geared. Nothing to comment. So said good bye with tears. TB350: I ignored TB350 because it was good, but has lots of vibes post 80Kmph and then comes waiting period and it was no where quick as other bikes. I know RE bikes are a different class and not to be compared with. After riding several KMs, I got the point that RE bikes are more torquier than what one can imagine, but however that is not linear and also the vibration creeps in post 80 Kmph. Otherwise the bike was good. So said Good bye to RE Avenger: This one almost took many of my votes because of it’s cruising comfort and pillion seat with back rest which is a good to have(like RE). But what it stopped me from was it’s complaint about stability at high speeds. This bike can do 70kmph for good, but what in world are we?. Braking is very poor and it’s instability in corners due to extended wheel base. So had to drop. P220, I didn’t consider this one at all. It is not powerful for being a 220cc and then comes poor handling, build quality and crappy engine. Though I’m not a fan of build quality or cheap plastics, but the engine performance is very important. On long trips, this engine gets stressed out at high speed and is not suitable for a comfortable rides and most importantly engine was not rev-friendly. No offense to P220 owners. Times change guys Final choice: Of all these I was left with no option to look any further and the only left bike out here -> Pulsar 200ns. I was not interested much as it was from Bajaj. But I thought to take a look at. So I did a test drive of this bike. But surprisingly it looked very nice than seen in websites. But however I had a duke experience I didn’t get blow off by it’s performance. I felt each gears take a long time to reach the rev limit, which meant like it took ages to reach speed or gear limit. But I couldn’t believe that surprisingly still it was very close with the quickness of a Duke which is less than a sec slower in a 0-100kph drag. What even surprised me was the bike looked stunningly beautiful than any previous pulsars or even other vehicles as well, even duke itself. Duke is not a good eye pleasing, but looks arrogant and bold. But 200ns looked soft but at the same time tough enough to pull the sweat out of the opponent. However the back of the pulsar isn’t impressive though. Then comes the seat and pillion which were miles ahead of Duke and finally the engine performance which I ve always wanted. With the long gear ratios, the bike can easily do 60Kmph in just 4k rpm and 80kmph in 5.5K rpm, which is simply awesome for cruising. I just looked nowhere and booked Delivery: Couldn’t resist myself and finally she was in my hands one fine day morning. I chose red color and named her RedB. When I took her home with my wife and son, I learnt that this bike though has room for pillion, but still best enjoyed solo rides. My wife didn’t have trouble upto 45mins of ride. However after driving other bikes, I felt this bike suspension is stiff which sometimes hurt myself. First Impressions: It caught almost everybody on road, starring my bike and some asked what was the green thing under the tank(the coolant). the bike was stable on corners and gave me more confident on braking and turning. I was really impressed. Gearbox was good but could have been better. False-neutrals once in a while. Run-in: So I was so confident about following this as this is very must for any higher cc or performance bikes. So upto 1000Kms I followed as per the manual and then slowly changed that to next level of run-in for 1000-2000kms. I felt like begging to complete that run-in . Even that gain about 6kmph for the second run-in period did give me a relief. I started cruising~60kmph post 1500kms and I could feel the bike engine getting smoother each day as compared with the initial days. I now understand how important run-in period is for a bike\car. Post 1800Kms, I started to reach speeds about 75kmph occasionally and avoided highway or long rides. Long trips: After completing the run-in time, I started to go longer rides say 60kms and 100kms and recently 220KMs. Usually CBR250 would be a good option for long trips because of it’s tall gearing and seat comfort, etc. But I feel this pulsar 200ns is nothing less to that. Here is why Cruise comfortably at high speeds say 90\100\110kmph easily Very less vibes even at such speeds Less cost and maintenance Doesn’t need fairing and the extra weight of CBR lastly, good for commuting\long trips(off road\on road) Unless you are crazy about fairing and ABS, I couldn’t take CBR250 into picture. However, it depends on each person. What’s good: 1. Wins every single race with other bikes of it’s class except Duke. but then in city rides, one can’t really find that small performance leap in Duke 2. More comfortable rides. I cruise at 90-100kmph at 6.5RPM, can you beat that?. 3. Very less vibrations at any speeds say 60\80\100\120. I have not tried beyond 120 4. High speed stability, but I find it hard to drive >120kmph not because of the bike instability\vibrations but mainly the wind blast and Indian road conditions and people mentality 5. Good mileage return~44kmpl when driven 100kmph. 6. Flexibility around corners and flick-able in traffic 7. Good braking, but ABS is mandatory(For India at least) 8. Seat is good 9. clutter-free useful instruments panel 10. Bike takes up speed and in a blink of your eye few times, you will be doing somewhere north of 80kmph What’s bad: 1. Stiff suspension hurts the butt for long rides 2. Gearbox improvements 3. Bajaj bloody service What’s sad:~ Bajaj has currently held the units from production because of the new models on pipe. Bajaj thinks this model will stop people from buying other models such as RS200\AS200 as they all perform the same as 200NS and their looks are not even close to 200NS. Well, what they should know is 200NS is a street fighter looking motorcycle which doubles commuting and cruising. ABS feature could’ve been a boon especially when riding at 110kmph, which for India roads is a must for our safety. What’s next: As of now the bike has clocked 4K Kms. I will continue for few more years. post that I’ll be looking for a higher CC bikes, say a half-litre or slightly less than that, but definitely not from Bajaj for sure 1. Headlight: No HID\LED projector, but no other bike in 150 segment gets this amount of power\throw 60\55W. This is the same that you can find in RE bikes. I was impressed with headlights, however I have fitted HID now. 2. Switches Nothing much to complain. Has back light as in usual pulsar. Parking lamp switches are a bit hard to access. 3. Dashboard Beautiful, Analog tacho plus digital spedo combo really looks very nice. Analog style gives the feel when you raise the throttle unlike Duke which is just plain Digits. Useful clocks and other stuffs with orange backlit, visible well on any day and night 4. Suspension Monoshock is very hard and stiff, but that gives stability. Even at the lowest setting, it doesn’t give the comfort of an commuter bike 5. Tires Very good 130\70, if on MRF. No need for bigger section, as this is more than enough 6. Seats Seats are okay, but not as comfort as discover or Unicorn, pillion is even bad 7. Brakes Best in class, but rear locks more often, ABS could’ve been a boon 8. Gearbox Good, but not the best 9. Storage You can’t expect in these types of bike. You can store a cloth, papers that’s all 10. Silencer Sounds very soft and not a typical pulsar-ish type. Stands out of other pulsars 11. Fuel Tank 13 litres is enough for a bike of this type. 12. Clip-on handle bars Good, feels like a sports bike, comfortable for long distance Thanks for reading. If you like please click"useful", if you love it please select "very useful". Thanks.