I am not much of an expert on bikes, but I like my Splendor. A Yamaha rx100 will beat it by a mile, but the Splendor’s Honda 4-stroke sound is as, if not sweeter, than an RX100’s or a Samurai (forget the Victors or Freedoms-they don’t even have a sound).
It’s Ist gear is a bit short, but the second gear sounds amd performs the best. Top speed of mine used to be almost 96-98 kph, but now after 3 yrs, it maxes 85-87.
A Pulsar is obviously faster, but Splendor feels quicker and is definately more nimble. I live in Jaipur and we don’t have many P-180s, Karizmas or Aquillas around, but Splendor can race with any other(barring the RX-100-but can you believe that 2-stroke smoke-it looks like it’s running on ’mitti-ka-tel’).
And the best part is, how much do I spend on maintanance-250 bucks every 4-6 months only.
I would say that Splendor has become for bikes what Maruti-800 is for cars-a benchmark.
A biker may have many steps ahead (right up to the Ninjas or Hayabusas), but in India, Splendor is a very good first step ahead. Way to go...