Bike Reviews in India

After ruling the 150cc performance bike segment for almost four years, Yamaha YZF-R15 has finally got some competition from none other than the compatriot – Honda. The CBR150R has arrived and we are here with the first impressions of the bike that seems to be determined to dethrone the king that has ruled so far.

The first look at the CBR150R is enough to tell us that this one is almost identical to its elder brother CBR250R. However, a detailed look at the machine will bring out the differences like the two round pilot lights in the headlight cluster have a different treatment than what we see on the 250. The exhaust end can is much smaller; the front visor gets a slightly darkened tint and of course a whole new set of graphics. Look closely and you notice a whole new twin-spar frame on the motorcycle. Once in the saddle, the bike feels a little smaller and shorter than its elder brother and weighs only 138 kg as against the 161 kg (non-ABS version) CBR250R.

The first riding impressions of the bike tell us that this one needs some high revving to get going. With red line at 11,500 rpm, there is no doubt you will be twisting your right wrist harder for more fun. The bike makes 17.8 PS of peak power at 10,500 revs and 12.66 Nm of maximum torque at 8,500 revs. This, for city riding looks like a little on the negative side. However, let the horses lose on a weekend ride to the twisties, rev the engine hard and you won’t be disappointed. Aiding the performance and sporty side of the bike is its chassis and suspension that work perfectly well for hard cornering.

All in all it looks like a good machine for sport riding, touring but an average one for city. However, the final word will come once we have done the performance testing and pitted the bike against the YZF-R15. Stay tuned for further updates!

Price: 1.32 Lakh (Std, OTR Pune)

1.33 Lakh (Dlx, OTR, Pune)

 

Vespa’s twist-and-go scooter comes with dollops of classic style and modern engineering, but at a premium

It’s time you rummaged through your parents’ closet and pulled out those old 1960s Wayfarers, skin-fit denims and fancy moccasins. They’re back in fashion, in time for Vespa’s second coming to India. After more than 60 years of existence, Vespa has moved on to become a cult internationally. It’s more a style statement than a commuter. Pretty much like Volkswagen’s Beetle or the Mini Cooper among cars. Even the company prefers to position itself as a lifestyle brand than a two-wheeler maker.

This time round, the Italian company is venturing solo, owned cent per cent by parent company, Piaggio. They propose to set up 35 dealerships across the country and have introduced more brands that they own, such as the Aprilia, and who knows, even Moto Guzzi might follow.

Vespa’s first product in India is the LX 125, which was unveiled at the Auto Expo earlier this year, and it does evoke a fair amount of nostalgia with its retro design. It has the cool style quotient of an original Vespa, but now in a modern and more reliable avatar. You can’t miss the classic theme in the curvy design, chrome elements, foot-board rubber strips and three stroke alloy wheels. It is compact in size, comes in a range of adorable, bold colours like red, yellow, black and white and has a great mix of the past and present.

But if you are looking for a no-nonsense practical commuter, then you had better pick one of the run-of-the-mill products, for this Vespa never intends to be one. It’s a fashion scooter. Take the seat, for example. It is flat, wide and squab, just about enough to fit two average Indians. Even the chrome-finish pillion grab-rails are more a matter of style than practical utility. The integrated rear foot-pegs are of little use as the pillion has to keep his feet in a bow-legged position. Yes, there are practical bits like decent under-seat storage, which can contain a shopping bag or an open-face helmet. Even the plastic container can be removed to gain quick access to the engine. There’s also a lockable cubbyhole in the leg shield. The neatly designed instrument cluster has a fuel-gauge and a digital clock/calendar for your convenience.

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This twist-and-go scooter has a four-stroke 125-cc motor with three valves for better breathing, a first in this segment. No, it does not have fuel injection and sports the conventional carburettor with a claimed fuel efficiency of 60 kpl under test conditions, which would translate to about 40-45 kpl in real world. The LX 125’s large eight-litre fuel tank will make sure that your trips to the petrol pump are infrequent. The motor produces 10.06 PS of maximum power and 10.60 Nm of torque, which is a couple of notches more than other 125-cc scooters available in the country. Wrench the throttle and the Vespa surges forward smoothly and without fuss until about 40 km/h. The exhaust note is throaty, though power is not delivered that urgently and there are huffs and puffs to maintain higher speed on open roads. This seems all right for a Sunday ride. The brakes feel spongy and hesitate to bring the scooter to standstill.

The monocoque steel construction keeps Vespa’s steel body tradition alive and, at the same time, offers greater rigidity and durability. The single sided trailing arm in the front and coil spring shock-absorber in the rear are on the firmer side. You feel it over pronounced bumps, but overall the scooter is well-balanced, handles surprisingly well and even has a good turning circle. You can spend the entire day trotting around town on it comfortably.

It all boils down to the price now. The Vespa has an on-road price of Rs 74,000 on road Pune which is a fair bit of cash for a 125-cc scooter, specially with the ordinary finish and quality. But then the buying decision for a lifestyle product like this is driven more by the heart than the brain. You don’t really need it, but definitely want one.

 

Story: Sarmad Kadiri

Photography: Rommel Albuquerque

Bajaj have a crackling winner on its hands, says Saeed Akhtar, after his stint aboard the Pulsar 200NS at the company’s Chakan racetrack

 

Shift+Delete. Forget everything that you know about Pulsars. Throw all your preconceived notions about how the infusion of KTM chromosomes into the Pulsar DNA ought to turn out, out of the window. Because, and we are glad to report this, the Pulsar 200NS is a completely different breed of beast from its predecessors, and interestingly enough, even from the bike it shares its platform with, the KTM 125 and 200 Duke.

Visually, the 200NS is an arresting machine. The new tank shrouds, exposed twin-spar frame, brutish front end and relatively spartan rear end has moved the visual mass forward, endowing the bike with a proper mean streetfighter look. It also helps that the engine, gearbox (in glorious brushed gold finish), radiator, and underslung exhaust all combine to create the impression of a much fuller and grown-up bike than it really is. Fat tubeless tyres and petal discs moored to ten-spoke alloys at both ends round up the big-bike impression.

With 23.52PS of power on tap at 9500rpm and 18.3Nm of turning force at 8000rpm, the triple spark plugged, four valves SOHC, 200NS is a hoot to ride around the Bajaj test track in Chakan, near Pune. Bajaj’s ExhausTEC technology has lent a discernible edge to its low-down power and it could pull cleanly and progressively from as low as 2000rpm, all the way to the 10,000 rpm redline in 6^th gear. Oh yes, there is a sixth gear now. Barrelling down the main straight we saw an indicated 141kmph on the speedo before hitting the anchors. That’s proper fast! Bajaj claims a 0-60kmph timing of 3.61 seconds and sprint to 100 from naught in just 9.83 seconds – which we will confirm once we strap our timing gear onto it – and it certainly felt like the bike was capable of achieving it. Like in the current Pulsars, this one also has a counterbalancer, but here it makes the bike a lot smoother, which, combined with its rev-happy nature and slick transmission, makes it an exhilarating machine. Vibes are practically non-existent, even at the top of its rev range when the orange shift light is blinking madly, begging you to upshift.

Handling is another area where the Pulsar 200NS has dramatically improved. Gone are the archaic twin shock-absorbers at the rear, now replaced by a monoshock with piggyback gas canister which endows the bike with excellent stability and poise in and out of corners. A longer wheelbase and bigger 100/80 and 130/70 tubeless tyres shod on 17 inch rims are the other factors for this newfound prowess. However, as with the Pulsar 220, we still wish the rider’s footpegs were mounted a bit higher, preventing it from grounding and enabling riders to exploit its cornering abilities to the fullest on trackdays. Should not be much of a bother for normal street use though. 280mm and 230mm diameter petal discs at both front and rear does the stopping duties and they look smashing but we will reserve judgment over how efficient they really are until the full road-test next month. 

Ten years ago, the Pulsar brand came out of nowhere and transformed a nondescript ‘scooter-maker’ into the torchbearer for affordable performance biking in the country. Today, with the launch of the Pulsar 200NS, they are attempting to re-revolutionise the segment and the first impression is they they have succeeded resoundingly. Agreed, the competition is much hotter and bigger now, but we still feel that the 200NS will hold its own against everything it is pitted against. The crucial element, like always, will, however, be the pricing but that has always been Bajaj’s ace card, so there. Expect the 200NS to retail for around INR 90,000 to 95,000 (ex-showroom, Pune) when it goes on sale at the end of next month. A stylish, power-packed, feature-filled, fun-to-ride streetfighter for less than a lakh? Take a bow, Bajaj!

 

Watch the walkaround video here.

 

Read the full ride report in the March 2012 issue of BIKE India, on stands soon.

Royal Enfield’s new Desert Storm claims to be a tornado. Does it have enough force to sweep you off your feet? Let’s find out

Story: Ravi Chandnani
Photography: Sanjay Raikar

Royal Enfield launched the Classic 500 at the end of 2009. Since then it has been one of the best selling models in the company’s line-up. The bike has the right aesthetics with a nostalgic appeal that attracts customers without much effort even in these times when performance bikes seem to rule the roost. However, since evolution is inevitable, Royal Enfield have launched two new variants of the Classic with a few tweaks, claiming it to be better than ever.

This new bike, called the Desert Storm, incorporates changes to the front end and the ECU along with a new cool paint job to lend the bike a new character. Firstly, the new paint job, which I am sure every Bullet fan will appreciate. The Desert Storm comes clad in a matte-finish shade of khaki, which lends the bike a raw, rugged and minimalistic character. The Royal Enfield lettering in plain white gels well with the whole retro character.

Let’s now move on to the next big change – the ECU. Now, there was nothing wrong with the ECU of the older bike. However, Royal Enfield have re-mapped the ECU of the new Desert Storm for a smoother power delivery, though we were hardly able to notice the difference between the Classic and the Desert Storm.

Another thing that has changed is the front-end, which now has conventional forks instead of the offset forks seen on older models. But in appearance they look very much like the old forks. The front wheel has also been replaced with a 19-inch one, though the tyre profile (90/90) remains the same.  

Royal Enfield claim that the handling of the bike has improved considerably. That is not what we found. Looking back in history we can see that the older bike had a neutral handling compared to the Desert Storm/Classic range because of factors like the placement of the engine and the offset front forks. The original bike had a lower centre of gravity as compared to today’s Classic. However, when Royal Enfield decided to replace the old engine with a modern ‘unit construction engine’ (UCE), the handling of the bike suffered seriously. Today’s Royal Enfield bikes have engines mounted higher in the frame to bridge the gap between the cylinder head and the petrol tank.

Another easily evident problem is the heavy front end. Because the new bikes use the compact UCE motor, the weight becomes concentrated in the front. Besides, the front wheel has moved a little inwards because of the conventional forks, thus adding to the already heavy front. The Royal Enfield engineers have also increased the length of the swing-arm in order to fill up the gap created by the compact engine. This has resulted into a slightly increased wheelbase and also the centre of gravity and has made the front of the bike heavy. We reckon that if Royal Enfield address the aforementioned problems, the handling of these new bikes will certainly improve considerably.

Overall, the new Desert Storm, priced at Rs 1.55 lakh (OTR, Pune), is basically the same old Classic with just a new paint job and new front forks.