Sets the new standard in the entry-level segment.

Wring the throttle on the Boss 115 for the first time and that additional horse (and a quarter) immediately makes it presence felt. This is no sluggish econo-miser, that much is evident in the first 100 metres itself as you go through the gears with an urgency that is quite alien in this segment. But while you would bang through the ’box with aforementioned urgency once, twice or maybe even thrice the fourth time will see you pick up the pace with no particular hurry.

That’s not because the motor is unwilling in any way, it’s the vibrations and harshness that spoils the party. That your feet and hands will tingle is a foregone conclusion, but the way in which the vibes manage to creep up into the family jewels is (to put it mildly) quite discomforting. And the noise while revving her pants off is what a Metallica concert would sound like if you ever have the opportunity of witnessing one.

The test figures generated by the VBOX Racelogic data logging gear confirmed our initial riding impressions. The 0-60kmph sprint took 9.29s while the quarter mile came up in 24.49s. In comparison the old Boss could only manage a 10.9s 0-60kmph sprint. The 14 per cent increase in torque is also reflected in the flexibility tests, the 30-70kmph roll-on taking 11.09s in third gear and 14.69s in fourth gear. These compare very favourably with the 13.2s and 16.1s taken by the previous model for the same tests. We managed to coax the Boss 115 to a max speed of 93kmph, the (under-reading) speedo registering 90kmph at this mark.

These figures make the Boss 115 the Performance champion of the entry level segment, bettering both the reigning king of the segment the Bajaj Boxer K-Tec as well as the Hero Honda CD Dawn in terms of acceleration as well as roll-on timings.

For all the increase in Performance, the downturn in braking Performance left us all scratching our heads. The Boss 115 makes do with the industry standard 130mm drums front and rear, however her retardation figures are well below the industry standard. The bike took 31.47 metres (and 3.5s) to come to a halt when the brakes were hauled in at 60kmph. This is way above the 25.5 metres (and 3.1s) taken by the Boss of old. To go with the poor figures, feel and overall control was sorely lacking and made us very uncomfortable pushing the Boss to any decent speeds.