Well, when I wanted to buy a bike sometime ago (November 2003 to be precise), I was looking for a bike with decent looks, mileage and decent power.My first bike was a Kawasaki KB 100 (my dad’s). That was a fantastic bike except for the mileage and comfort. So I had to buy a new bike. At that time, There was the caliber 115, victor, f2, wind and ambition 133.
Two of my friends had bought the Caliber 115 and f2. I took a ride in both and decided that f2 was better. I hated the victor and ambition 133 for their looks and instrumentation. So I narrowed down my preferences to f2 and the wind. Then I went to the showroom and took a test ride on the wind. It was then I decided that the wind was the bike for me.
The Pros :
The ride is fantastic. The dials are beautiful and the bike looks superb from almost all angles (okay, ..... looks are a personal opinion) . The bike has five gears and sounds great when you rev it. The build quality is good since its a world bike and bajaj service has always been upto the mark. Their people seemed more friendly than the TVS guys and they offered me many more finance options. The performance is good. Damn good acceleration.
The feature that I found on this bike which is on no other bike is that , I can ride at 30kmph in 5th gear. It is the CNBC Business motoring and Autocar India’s bike of the year 2003. You feel like speeding when you ride this bike (I’m not kidding) .... which is pretty dangerous in a way. The power is tapped more at higher rpms and you can feel the difference at higher rpms.
Cons :
It does not have a rectangular swing arm. I’m not very sure how much difference that makes. The gearing is short , meaning you’ll be changing gears quickly. It is meant to be ridden in the city only. So the top speed is 105 kmph. Thus, it feels a bit breathless on highways. The gear shift pattern is 1 down and 4 up which is good. The gearbox is not as slick as a Honda. But it is better than a Pulsar. And if you want a mileage of 60kmpl, you’ll have to ride at 40kmph in 5th gear consistently at around 3000 rpm with minimum braking.
If you speed a bit (60 to 70 kmph) regularly, the mileage drops down to 52 - 57kmpl which is pretty okay but lesser than the other 125cc competitors. Handling is good since its much lighter than a Pulsar. Futhermore, its meant to be a solo bike. With a pillion, performance drops down substantially. The 150cc bikes have more pull with a pillion. One more thing is that due to the commuter sitting position, when you reach speeds of 80+ kmph, there is a lot a wind resistance and you’ll have to crouch to reduce the drag coefficient and reach the top speed.
Verdict :
Its a good bike in this segment which boasts of both power and mileage. It has very few cons. Only thing is that its a pretty old bike. Recently, the 125cc segment has been flooded with a number of new bikes - Victor GLX, Prima 125, Fazer and Ambition 135. Amongst these, the Fazer looks and performs good. The Victor has good mileage and value but looks sick. The Prima and Ambition do not perform very well. But I suggest you ride each of these bikes and decide for yourself.
The Wind beats all these bikes easily. If I were to look aa new bike now in this segment, I would check out the Bajaj Discover as it is supposed to be damn good. But still, according to the magazine ’Overdrive’, the Wind beats the Discover in the 0-60 test. It dosen’t have 5 gears too. It may be a better machine overall. But right now, I’m more than happy with the Wind.