Today I tried out the new Pulsar 150 with the new 149.1 cc engine and the LED-based tail lights and the digital speedo. The bike looks terrific from all angles, but otherwise there were problems.
The electric start worked well at first: the engine came to life at the first push on the button. I put the bike in gear and the engine note began to waver as if it wasn’t getting enough fuel. I reached down and turned the fuel valve from the ON position to RESERVE and the engine picked up again, but it stopped before I could get into third gear. After that the engine died. The sales person tried to convince me that it was a small problem, saying he would get me another bike to ride.
I didn’t try another test ride but discovered that the new 150 cc bike seems to have some of the features of the new 220 DTS Fi (like the speedo and the tail lamps). I think Bajaj are testing out some of these features on it’s more popular models. But the price is steep: almost Rs 3000 more than the CBZ Xtreme and almost Rs 5000 more than the TVS Apache.
One small detail that might help Bajaj dealers get more business is simply this: they should have dedicated demo bikes. At the Hero Honda outlet there was a demo bike but at the Bajaj outlet I was given a bike that had been sold to someone. I was to ride it with the speedo cable disconnected so that the new owner wouldn’t know that his bike had been taken round town by a complete stranger. I would think twice before buying a bike from these guys because I wouldn’t know who rode the bike for how long before I got delivery.