When Bajaj launched the Pulsar in November 2001, the first thing I did was sell my Shogun. I bought a shiny red Pulsar 180 in the month of Feb 2002.
The bike has been a mixed bag of sorts. At times it amazes me with its features, power, performance and also fuel economy and at times it frustrates and irritates me no end with its quirky gearbox and clutch.
I’ll start with the good points:
The bike is stacked with feature that were never seen as standard fitment in our country. It has an Electric start, a disk brake up front an electronic Rev Counter and also a 5-speed gearbox.
The tech specs say 180cc with 15 bhp. In real world it says catch me if u can .. :-) The bike takes one on a high with its pick-up and it is very nimble footed. It is very stable at speeds and also boasts of real good handling. Incase you are going faster than the roads recommends then all you have to do it squeeze the brake lever and the bike will slow down. Not with the lurch that is so common to CBZ but with a composed and confident deceleration.
Too good to be true, now here comes the negative points.
The biggest downer on this bike are its clutch and gearbox.
Bajaj has made sure that the rider finds neutral quite easily, thats why they have one after every gear. This problem was very evident in the early batches of Pulsar 180. The remedy was a replacement of Clutch plates, gear guides, springs etc. All this is of course is covered in the warranty. Though my clutch plates, guides, gear drums have been replaced twice I am still not satisfied with it. The bike still finds neutral between 1st and 2nd and the gears have again started to become hard.
And inspite of all this the bike returns a very good economy. It always gives me 41-47 per litre of unleaded. Not bad at all.
As the title says the bike is a real mixed bag of sorts. You never know, whether to be happy or sad with it.