Apache is a bike that everyone sees and not many knows. This bike, at first, I won’t say a crap, but not the one to die for. The engine is not that reliable. Each TVS employee know it better than others. I saw many apache fans are talking about TVS winning the races. It sounds as India winning the SAARC sports gold medals. Indian motor racing is not that serious stuff to be given a glance at, let alone a proper look. Bajaj, Hero-Honda, Honda motors, Sujuki etc. do not participate in these kind of racings.
The need to be a part of the 150 segment rather than generating the vehicle for that segment was the driving force for Apache’s development. Ask any insider (TVS employee), even the project was considered to be an upgraded one rather than a new. An upgradation over the old dying Fierro. So to be very frank don’t expect much from the vehicle. It will, like every new vehicle, surely give you a joy while riding, but won’t be that reliabile.
Next, while comparing it with Pulsar, better ask any TVS employee (one at a time; thats too alone in isolation). Pulsar got developed during a time when everyone thought that segment does not exist. It is to much of one’s astonishment when they made a segment by itself. There are more than a hundred problems (technical snag) in Apache. The TVS R&D might be knowing it. Every vehicle has got some problem. But this one has got too many to simply list them all. To me, the look is bit sluggish. One may quote "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder" to defend his Choice/Mistake (if he has already had the vehicle). There is no philosophy behind the ID (industrial design, say Styling or Fit and Finish what ever it may) point of view. In TVS, they wanted to make it somewhat different than Pulsar. Nothing else.
Don’t buy the technical reports of indian automobile magazines. They are as truthful like a vixen. Any one can buy them. Regarding the bike of the year award (Apache, 2006). One may look at the date of awarding such stuff. How come one can award before the year 2006 is over?
To be very frank, this is an absolute crap with no outlook. One must buy it at his own risk.