I purchased my Pulsar 150 two months back. I used to ride a Hero Honda Splendor before this new bike. I used my splendor of nearly 8 years and have done more than 92000 kms in it.
Coming back to the Pulsar, its done about 1600 kms. I never took my new bike out of the city till the 1st service. I recently got a chance to take it out of the city on the brand new Bangalore – Mumbai Highway up to Tumkur to attend to a friend’s wedding. The ride was awesome. I crossed the 100 kms barrier with ease. The 65 kilometer stretch was done within 30 minutes. My close friend accompanied me and he rode his Hero Honda Karizma which he has owned for the last 2 years. I could see very little difference in performance between the bikes though a big difference in the engine.
Pulsar is a good bike and here’s my review:
Looks: Pulsar has the looks best in the category. The awesome looks are enough for any stranger on the road to turn her head round towards you.
Top Speed: 118 kms per hour and not with a complete throttle!
Technology:
The Digital Speedometer: Till now, the digital speedometer has been giving me proper reading and also looks preety good too
DTSi Fi Engine: The 149 cc double spark-plug engine helps me well in the city traffic. I need not shift gears to regain speed and I can turn the bike at 4th gear!
Auto Off Indicator: It’s a mixed bag…. It helps you not to bother to turn it off after you take a turn. But that causes a problem because, in the city traffic… you may need to take a few small turns due to traffic before the actual turn. This makes the indicators switch off before the actual turn. Also, if I need to make a right and sudden left turn, the indicators fail to turn off automatically.
Handling: Pulsar is a heavy bike for its category. Though its steady at top speeds, it becomes a bit difficult to handle in narrow, crowded streets initially but not after you get used to it.
Mileage: Initially it used to give me 43-47 kms per liter(before the 1st service), now its giving me between 55-57 kms per liter. Now… this is a great mileage(which I did not expect) for my rough driving.
Pickup: The pickup is not to its mark. I expected atleast 1 and a half times the pickup I am getting out of it.
Ergonomics: Pulsar is beautifully designed with superb ergonomics. I didn’t have any back pain even after continues 1 and a half hour ride within city limits(unlike Karizma)
Gears: This is the worst part of the bike. My 8 year old splendor had better Gears than a brand new Pulsar. Its horrible and I get tortured to shift from 2nd to 3rd gear. Also, I find it difficult to push it to the 5th gear. Bajaj could have done much better in gearing.
Shocks: Another drawback in Pulsar. Its not as smooth as shocks in Hero Honda bikes.
Overall the bike is good with a few draw backs. Pulsar is not a bike for new riders or slim, short guys.