The Indian motorcycle enthusiast’s lot has been a tortured one. His demands have been swamped and diluted in a swarm of 60 kpl machines and in the entire history of Indian two-wheelers, only six or seven machines are memorable on performance terms. And of them, maybe two are on sale right now. But with 124 kph showing on the orange-lit LCD speedometer of the new Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi I’m on, I really should be doing other things.
Like figuring out how to get the motorcycle to slow down for the uphill left turn that is coming up quickly. It really isn’t a concern, as the brakes are the best I’ve used. If my visor were dry and my raincoat was still in my kit bag, I’d probably be seeing closer to 135 kph on the speedo right now. On my umpteenth fast-but-not-pushing-it lap of Bajaj’s Chakan plant test-track, I’m impressed with the motorcycle and what it represents.
Since the Yamaha RD350(Yamaha RX100 and Suzuki Shogun lovers please excuse), we haven’t had this classy, this fast, this good a performance motorcycle at all.