Road Test
As I looked into the rear view mirrors (RVM) of the Ambition on my first ride on it, I read clearly written on the mirrors, "OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR". Very good warning. Reminded me of my visit to a male urinal at the University of Singapore. When you stand in front of the bowl to do your job, right in front of you on the wall at eye level is a signboard in BOLD letters which says, "Stand closer, it's shorter than you think". Humor apart, both signboards are highly effective. While the toilet signboard helps to keep the toilet clean, the writing on the Ambition mirrors helps to keep you alive. I appreciate Hero Honda's concern for rider safety.

The Ambition I have for test is fully loaded. First I got one Yellow colored one. Highly noticeable color. Great presence. But it got taken back by HH the very next day bcoz they wanted to do some fotogiri with some filmy babes. So they gave me a black one. Also with Disc brake + self start. So I am lazy. I don’t kick. I press button. The engine starts, but I don’t hear anything, nor do I feel any vibrations. I have to actually make an effort (preen my ears) to find out whether the engine has started. This bike is so silent and smooth you don’t know the engine is running until the bike starts moving. I don’t know whether this is good or bad. Personally I prefer a solid, throaty beat from the exhaust, like Bullet. What’s the point of being present if no one notices your presence?

I press toe to get into first. Eh? Press toe? Yes. This bike has a one-down-four-up Gear Shift Pattern (GSP) as opposed to the all-up pattern of the CD, Splendor & Passion. Shifting is pat.
The bike rolls off and I shift to higher and higher gears to check out. The gears are well spaced out and ratios are close to ideal. Couldn’t ask for more. The five gears give an excellent torque spread, which is probably one of the chief reasons for this bike’s fuel economy. Low End Torque (LET) is very good too. You can very well amble along at 20 kmph in fifth without any hiccups, jerking or chain snatch. Indeed, if you open throttle gradually you can even accelerate from 20 in fifth riding single. To be sure, this is no Shogun or RX100 in the pickup sweepstakes, but then this bike isn’t even making a pretense of being in the pickup sweepstakes! Its focus is something totally different. And the objective of this road test is precisely to identify that focus.

Fact is the Ambition is ahead of the 100s. The 4-stroke ones, that is. It ought to be. After all, it is NOT a 100 but a 133, having a bore x stroke of 58.5 x 49.5 mm. A thing to note here is that the stroke of 49.5 is common to Passion/Splendor, CBZ and Ambition. The swept volume increases only by having larger bores. Thus the 50 x 49.5 bore x stroke of the Splendor makes it just about square, while the 63.5 bore of the CBZ makes it highly over-square. The Ambition is a balance. Thus this bike has much better trafficability than either the 100s or the 150-180s. The need for downshifting to cope with slow traffic is not felt much, unless you are the type who has this compulsive urge to keep overtaking anybody and everybody in sight. Personally I am a relaxed driver, speeding only when I am chasing females.

Talking of females, the pillion seat of this bike is a delight to sit on. After suffering the piddly pillion seats of the big time cruisers, ALL my females prefer the Ambition seat. I personally don’t bcoz on the Ambition pillion seat they have a choice, whether to lean or not. On bikes like HH Sleek and some others, they have no choice. They have to lean. I like such bikes that give the females no choice. The comfort of the pillion seat is further augmented by the excellent suspension. I would even say that this bike has the best suspension for Indian road conditions. Even seating geometry is maha-comfortable. I whole-heartedly recommend this bike to those who complain about backache. If you get a backache on this bike, then you’ll probably get a backache even on a sofa armchair! The other thing females like about this bike is its road-holding. In spite of all my attempted histrionics on the Ambition, the females did not get nervous. They felt secure and stable. This is another thing I don’t appreciate. I like females sitting behind me on the pillion to be nervous. All men do.

Braking is excellent. The front disc does an excellent job, while the rear drum has great bite as well. Together they keep the bike arrow straight even on sudden hard braking, the fact of the 2.75 front and 3.00 rear tires being much thinner than the CBZ / Enticer tires notwithstanding. Very creditable. Very safe. Though I have mentioned that this bike is not in the pickup sweepstakes a-la Shogun and RX, among four strokers of equivalent size and more, the Ambition holds its own. I attained a top speed of 95 riding single, which I find more than adequate for 95% of Indian requirements.

The 35 watt headlight is adequate as far as it goes. My personal belief is that all two wheelers should have at least 60 watts of headlight power. All cars have it. So why not bikes? After all, a bike rider needs to see better than a car, not only bcoz he is more vulnerable, but also bcoz a bike has only one headlight to a car’s two. As far as looks go, this is no Marilyn Monroe or Pamela Anderson. Yet in performance, it is as good as Madhuri Dixit in Dhak-Dhak. Especially the yellow bike. Madhuri was wearing a yellow Saree in Dhak-Dhak, remember?