The Zma as its popularly known has made waves in the Indian market ever since its inception as a pseudo sports bikes... WIth a unique 223cc engine displacement, HH yet again rocked the market when the mind of the common Indian was bent upon squeezing out a mile on the last drop of petrol.... And then the story was christened "Enter the Karizma"
Easily one of the least fuel efficient bikes in the whole Indian bike market, the Karizma evoked a mixed response from people... With comments like "What a dumb bike" to "Wow!!! I’ll buy it even with its mileage!!!" the Karizma has made something of a name for itself over the years... Now the time has come where it will be slowly begin to be challenged by other manufacturers... I say begin because it will take quite some effort to offset this bike which has been positioned very well...
Before I start this review, I wuld just like to highlight the fact that I am not biased towards the Karizma or against any bike as such.... I hope to objectively give a decent review based upon mine and my friends experiences on this wonderful bike....
Lets start off....
Looks : The Zma’s looks leave little scope for comment... The front fairing gives it a nasty or cheerful albeit killer look which exudes confidence and inspires the rider to enjoy the exoerience.... The tail fairing is unique and yet could have been done up a little better... Overall the looks of this bike are good...
Engine : With a 223cc engine, the Zma currently holds the highest engine capacity in the premium sports bike range built by Indian companies... Tuned to be more of a touring bike than a racer, the engine is refined and leaves little scope for overheating even on long high speed rides... Power delivery is smooth and the words "Jet Set Go" are very well highlighted by this engine... The Zma does fall a little short of acceleration when set against the P180 but in the higher range it pulls away with ease and leaves the P180 trailing behind....
Gearbox : The Zma sports the standard 1 down 4 up gearbox like all other sports bikes... The gear shifts are as smooth as one can possibly get even when ridden badly... There is very rarely a problem of false neutrals with gears clicking into position with ease...
Handling : The Zma is a fairly heavy bike but surprisingly the handling of the bike is easy even for someone like me with a height of 5’7"... Yet, the bike does leave a little scope for criticism in this department.... The heavy front fairing causes a few niggles in an otherwise excellent bike...
Ride quality : The Zma’s ride quality can only be called excellent... One sees this when one goes on long rides at high speed... The suspension has been so set as to provide minimal backaches... And the ride for the pillion is equally comfortable as the rear suspension is generally set perfectly for the average Indian pillion
Mileage : The all important factor for the Indian market... "Oooooh... No mileage??? Bad bike... Cheh cheh I won’t buy it" is normally the response for a bike of this category... But when it comes the the Zma, people are willing to make the sacrifice... Giving a steady mileage of 35-40 when driven well, the Karizma provides decent mileage considering the technology used... I hope HH looks into making the Karizma fuel injected in which case its mileage and rideability would improve significantly....
Now, for a summary... Overall, HH has brought out a top class package with the Karizma and though the technology is a little old now, it still is far better than its competitors(currently only the P180 and the P220 to be introduced sooon)... Bajaj will really have to put in a lot of effort to equal the Zma in terms of overall quality.... Already under fire for its sub standard work on the P150 and partially on the P 180, I hope Bajaj nears the Karizma benchmark when it introduces the Pulsar 220 DTS Fi.... And news is that HH will bring out a 200cc version of its new CBZ Xtreme soon...
As of now, the Zma rocks and few people can find solid evidence to refute that...
My humble request is that people who read thus far do rate this review so I could possibly improve my reviewing abilities...