To say that the Pulsar 180 owes its existence merely to the paucity of similar motorcycles in the country would be an unforgivable injustice to the men behind the K1 and the K2 project. To be congratulated is Bajaj Auto president Rajiv Bajaj, firstly for sparking off such a project but much more importantly for having the confidence in the ability of his own in-house team to deliver the goods without the assistance of foreign partners. Having the freedom to give free rein to their individual and collective creativity, the hand- picked specialists that formed the nucleus of (viewed in retrospect) the very effective team were surely provided with ample motivation, a crucial element to the success of such a project.

Styling inputs from Tokyo R&D required the final approval of the Indian team. In most automobile applications but more so in the case of a motorcycle, the engine takes pride of place and this is where the expertise and the experience of the engineering team involved in the design and development of the Pulsar engine was given the opportunity to establish themselves capable of producing a globally comparable product.