VERDICT :
Biking at this level is all about feeling good, feeling good while polishing the bike, riding the bike and more importantly feeling good while your mates swoon over your bike. So what is your ultimate bike going to be? At the end of a gruelling 10-day test session that saw each bike log over 800 clicks on the odo, the Pulsar150 emerged as the clear hands down favourite, head and shoulders above the rest. If you haven't had time to get your eyes off the pics and actually read the comparo I shall highlight the strong points of the Pulsar. For starters the muscle bike styling gets top marks from either side of the sexual divide and sets the juices rolling for better things to come. For the biker in me, the stonking Performance, quick turn-in, extreme flickability, superb chassis balance and rigidity and excellent brakes have my vote for the best bike in the business. The fun doesn't end here as decent Fuel Efficiency ensures that you won't weep while you have fun.

Gone are the days when Bajaj bikes were bought because they were cheaper or better equipped than the competition. The Pulsar would be the winner in this shoot-out even if it were priced higher, much higher than the competition, she is that good. Thank your lucky stars then that the Pulsar is cheaper, much cheaper than her rivals, spelling affordable biking for you and I. Compared to the Pulsar, the other bikes are left wanting in one area or the other but viewed in isolation each of these bikes is brilliant in her own right. It is just the YBX125 that doesn't really cut the ice in this comparo. She is a tad dated, doesn't have the equipment levels of the others and is too run-of-the-mill to appeal to this class of buyer.
The GF125 scores highly on Performance, Fuel Efficiency and style fronts but loses out big time on refinement and more importantly due to the astronomical pricing. Personally I feel that the GF should have sported the 150cc engine (which is in the pipeline) instead of the 125cc at the same or lower price. This would have taken the fight straight to the top boys. Has Kinetic erred in this respect, only time will tell. In the mean time hope all the quality and refinement niggles are sorted out in addition to a revision on the pricing strategy.

Though in the same segment, the CBZ and Fiero appeal to two different types of buyers, each scoring where the other falls back. Take the Fiero that scores highly on the powertrain front boasting excellent Fuel Efficiency and refinement. However it loses out on account of its gawky styling, just four cogs in the gearbox, the lack of a disc brake and insipid handling. On the other hand the CBZ scores top marks for her styling and also sports a five-speed box and disc brake. The CBZ though loses out on engine refinement, Fuel Efficiency and price fronts. Ultimately both are excellent machines and will appeal to buyers with different priorities. So there you have it, The Verdict on the best bike in the country today. Mind you, all these bikes are very good, it is just that the Pulsar is simply brilliant and manages to outshine the others in almost each and every parameter. And for a totally indigenous bike, this is pure genius. Does it surprise you then that the blue bike you see on these pages has been registered in the name of a certain Sirish Chandran? So you thought the Pulsar150 was brilliant? Think again, for perfection sports an 30 extra cubic centimetres.

Okay nothing is perfect but from the Indian biking perspective, the Pulsar180 comes as close as can be. Let me elaborate: The styling is identical to the Pulsar150 except for the badging on the rear panels. That along with the wider rear tyre (100/90 profile rear compared to the 3.0 rear on the 150) sums up the visual difference. But it's what's under the skin that makes worlds of difference. The Pulsar180 gets the same all-aluminium powerplant bored out 63.5mm to displace 178.61cc. The stroke remains the same at 56.4mm. The larger unit develops 14.74bhp and 13.2Nm of torque, making the Pulsar180 the fastest bike in the country, both in terms of acceleration and top speed. The bike sprints to 60kmph in a flat five seconds while the sprint to 80kmph takes 10.2 seconds. This is a whopping 1.9 seconds quicker than next best, the Pulsar150! In terms of top speed, the Pulsar180 has everybody licked, clocking a true 120.6kmph, 11.5kmph faster than the Pulsar150, the only present day Indian motorcycle to go past the 120kmph mark. The 180 engine raises the bar insofar as throttle response, refinement, power delivery and most importantly raw grunt are concerned. In terms of flexibility too the engine scores very highly, the top gear roll-ons being far quicker than what the other bikes are capable of.

As always you lose some to win some. Consequently the Fuel Efficiency drops, the best figure registered being 48.4kmpl, falling to a worst of 35.1kmpl. This puts her at the bottom of the Fuel Efficiency stakes but with this kind of Performance on tap who in hell cares about mileage? The excellent motor is housed in a fabulous chassis that puts the peg-scraping abilities of the Pulsar a notch above all the other bikes. Plus the radical rake and trail angles ensure quick turn-in and extreme flickability. So good are the cornering abilities of the bike that Bajaj Auto thought it wise to equip both Pulsars with feeler bolts on the footpegs to let the rider know that max lean angles have been reached and to avoid any damage to the bike, either in the forms of scrapes or worse still, crashes. Straightline stability is also most impressive enhanced further by a steering-damper, again a first for India. There's more! How does Rs 58,275 OTR Pune sound? Spec-ed to the roof with everything you could want and need. This is actually cheaper than the 125cc GF, the Fiero and slightly more expensive than the CBZ. Convinced?

P.S.:Prices indicated for the bikes are as of January 2002