1) Date a guy who has ridden across the length and breadth of the Country. He’s the best storyteller you will ever meet.
2) Date a guy who will jump on his motorcycle and ride off in any direction, only to realign himself with this World once again. Respect him for this, because every time he is upset about something, he’ll make sure it doesn’t spill-over at work/home.And when he comes back, he’ll be more sorted than he was earlier.
3) Date a guy who knows how to fix a punctured tube. Or broken gear box.Chances are, he’ll be able to sort out a lot of problems in his own life as well as yours, if you’re close to him. Without taking external help. You can rely on him for most of your problems.Unless they’re medical in nature.In that case ,visit a doctor.(he ll take you to the doc on his motorcycle.)
4) Date a guy who is as comfortable spending a night at a gas station in the middle of nowhere as he is in the plush comfort of his house. Adaptability is something we as humans are kind of running short on these days.
5) Date a guy who will always , without fail, stop to help when he sees another one of his kind broken down on the road, For that matter , even if he sees car drivers. He understands what you’re going through at that moment.
6) Date a guy who gets excited at the mention of hitting the highway and riding off to the hills. The curves on those roads teach him how volatile life can be .In addition to that, he knows how to respect curves. of all kinds.( you know what i mean đ ).
7) Date a guy who can actually break each bone in another mans body who is looking for unnecessary trouble with him, with just a wrench. But he wont because he knows its not worth it and its not the solution to any problem. Yes , he respects everybody’s opinions. He wont force his on you. just make sure no one pushes him around too much.
8) Date a guy who will ride 300 km just to have that awesome breakfast that the road-side dinner offers in the town next to the one you’re in. If this isn’t adventurous enough for a mundane day, what else do you think is?
9) Date a guy who will get so excited before each ride that he wont be able to sleep for a minute, even though he has done this a million times. He knows how to keep things fresh. Always.
10) Date a guy who makes sure he packs in everything that he might and most probably will need on a long motorcycle ride. He pays attention to detail. Chances are he’ll be sorted in most of the things in his life.
11) Date a guy who never ever ride his machine without wearing a helmet. He knows his life is not just his own.
12) Date a guy who will pause and skip a few heartbeats every time he sees the Sun ride over the horizon, or comes across a waterfall at the next turn in the hills, or lays his eyes on the first snow-capped peaks in the ranges. He admires nature. The same nature you have chosen to ignore sitting in your cubicles.
13) Date a guy who will ride just for the heck of it, because it makes him feel free and liberated. Honestly he is more free than anyone else, because he turns that throttle, puts the bike in gears and grabs that freedom.
14) Date a guy who would rather be sitting on his motorcycle thinking about God, and not sit in a temple and think of his bike. He has his priorities in place.
15) Date a guy who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and has survived. He’ll give you tips and lessons you didn’t even know existed.
16) Date a guy who will go to any lengths to spend some quality time with his ”brothers”, even when there is no obvious blood connection. He understands brotherhood much more deeply.
17) Date a guy who can go wild on his motorcycle trips and can make everyone have a great time. with his music and his stories. What’s there not to like about this?
18) Date a guy who will look back at his life’s achievements and mistakes while riding his motorcycle. He will chuckle a bit, smile a lot, sometimes shed a tear or two. And that’s what builds character.
19) Date a guy who has crash and burns marks on his self. Warrior aren’t pretty. Barbie dolls are.
20) Date a guy who can keep his motorcycle like any other man would treat his wife. He’ll treat his wife like a queen……
So, here I am in Jamshedpur, as my sister had broken her knee and needed to be operated on. During the course of helping out around the town, one of the requirements was to take her to the hospital and back. As the wound were still fresh, it meant that I had to drive the car very slowly. As per my knowledge I used to switch on the hazard lights to indicate the same so that I donât hold up traffic unnecessarily. Here starts the dilemma.
Ever since I started using it, I found that either people had no idea why I was using it, or like in some cases people came up and even told me, âbhai sab, apka sara blinker ON haiâ. I found it weird and surprising. What blew my top was when I saw someone else zip straight through a crossing with the hazard lights on. I was confused now. I came across my neighbour who had the explanation that you should use the âstraightâ lights to indicate that you are going straight in a crossing. The explanation hit me flat on my face and I started wondering why someone would use the hazard light in this manner. I was trying to figure where they got this information from? It definitely wasnât the motor training school. I soon found that most of them learnt the same by seeing others use it. This also highlighted the fact the most people who drive cars are actually not licensed legally. They get touts to get them their licensesâ without any training or tests. I canât really blame them that they donât know the basic rules. The administration, namely the traffic police are to blame.
Iâm not sure if this issue is there in any other cities. I havenât seen any in the metros but not really sure about the smaller cities. I wonder how one can get this awareness among people regarding basic road rules and vehicle usage.
I realized that not much could be done from my end and resorted to putting up print outs declaring that stated, âPatient On Boardâ.
Just to be sure of what is the actual use of the Hazard Lights, I dug up some information from a leading automotive lighting manufacturer. It stated the following:
Hazard flashers
Also called “hazards”, “hazard warning flashers”, “hazard warning lights”, “4-way flashers”, or simply “flashers”. International regulations require vehicles to be equipped with a control which, when activated, flashes the left and right directional signals, front and rear, all at the same time and in phase. This function is meant to indicate a hazard such as a vehicle stopped in or near moving traffic, a disabled vehicle, a vehicle moving substantially slower than the flow of traffic such as a truck climbing a steep grade, or the presence of stopped or slow traffic ahead on a high speed road. Sometimes, they are used in severe fog conditions. Operation of the hazard flashers must be from a control independent of the turn signal control, and an audiovisual tell-tale must be provided to the driver. In vehicles with a separate left and right green turn signal tell-tale on the dashboard, both left and right indicators may flash to provide visual indication of the hazard flashers’ operation. In vehicles with a single green turn signal tell-tale on the dashboard, a separate red tell-tale must be provided for hazard flasher indication. Because the hazard flasher function operates the vehicle’s left and right turn signals, a left or a right turn signal function cannot be provided while the hazard flashers are operating.
Bumblebee! Thatâs the first name that pops up in my head the moment I see the golden-yellow Pulsar 200 NS. The resemblance doesn’t end with the colour. If you look at the bike head on, the headlight looks very similar to the face of the Transformerâs character by the same name.
I had been itching to test this offering from the Bajaj Auto team since itâs been launched. So, I pounced at the opportunity the moment my friend Talha, requested me to get his Pulsar 200 NS from Calcutta to Jamshedpur. His bike, which he christened as Zaira, had clocked around 3000 kms and just out of routine servicing when it got dropped at my end two days before the trip. I wanted to ride it around town to get used to the riding posture and also check the bike for any issues before the trip.
I have had a Pulsar 180 Classic, round head lights, steel rims, and the first model. I loved that bike a lot; however I was very disappointed with what Bajaj Auto had to offer all these years. When Bajaj launched the Pulsar 200 NS, I liked the fresh look and feel, however wasnât really sure if the engine had much changes. On further probing found a lot of similarities between the 200 KTM Duke and the 200 NS. Even though the company officials might give you a twisted answer, we all could see where the lineage comes from. This link got me interested, had the Bajaj Auto guys managed to find a way to offer the 200 Duke package in a cost-effective way. There is a difference of a little over 50K INR between the prices of the two.
Coming back on track, the first thing you would notice apart from the striking looks is the height of the bike. The rider seat is pretty high and I, at 5.8 feet, had just managed to keep both my feet on the ground while sitting on the bike. The seat is very comfy, both for the pillion and the rider. High seating is very similar to that of the Duke and also provides a good view of whatâs ahead, especially in stop and go traffic. Really helps finding gaps to squeeze through. That brings me to the point of control. The upright seating and ergonomics make the bike very flick-able and cutting through traffic is a breeze. The bike is light weight at just 145 kgs, which is evident from a lot of fibre and plastics used for the cosmetics of the bike. It would also make it cheaper to replace in case of accidents.
Riding around Calcutta traffic was fun with good amount of torque at the twist of the throttle. Initially though I made the engine knock at low speeds, I noticed that the low-end torque was less compared to my regular bike. After some trial and error I found that the power delivery is evident post 4K on the RPM. So, the trick was to keep the engine running above that to avoid knocks. The gear shifts are smooth, short and sweet. The clank and false neutrals of the primitive range of Pulsarsâ are nowhere to be seen. Due to the traffic I really didnât get the opportunity to open the throttle to get a feel of how fast it could go. That had to wait, till I hit the highways. I was still trying to figure where the 23.52 PS were hidden.
The digital meter console had the usual tell-tale lights and also a clock additionally. I found this a very useful feature. The âlow fuelâ indicator is on the face scaring you to fill the tank with around 2 litres left in the tank. All the switch gears are highlighted with blue backlight, which makes it visible, even in the day. Apart from being functional, it sure is eye candy.
Till now the bike had kept me interested, with only a couple of things nagging me. The rear view mirrors are useless. Itâs small, cumbersome to adjust for adequate rear view. In fact you can see everything, except the rear of the bike. The way itâs positioned, itâs honestly of no use. You have to adjust your head to get a hang of whatâs behind you. The tires … Bajaj Auto, Iâm disappointed. I really wish you guys had given the MRF Revz at least. Sure, the tires are beefy at 100/80 -17 & 130/70 -17 at the front and the rear respectively. But it sure lacks the chipkoo feel of the Revz which come standard on the R15s. Itâs like you have given the massive breaks to stop the bike, but whatâs the use if you donât have the tires to complement. ABS would have been a plus point in such cases though. I hope they at least add it as an option soon.
So, the next day I gear up and leave Calcutta at 4 AM. Itâs dark and the head light is good, not great, mind you. It was good but not good enough. You canât blame me when Bajaj has spoilt us with the projectors on the 220. I wonder why they chose to keep away from projectors on this offering.
The roads till Kharagpur (NH6) are amazing, part of the Golden Quadrilateral. I was trying to do this stretch of 130kms at the earliest to compensate on time that would be lost in the bad stretches beyond Kharagpur. The Pulsar 200 NS DID NOT let me down at all. It is a beast beyond 6K on the rpm. Cruising at 120kmph on the 6th gear, yes you read that right, this baby packs six gears to transfer all that power on to the wheels; So, cruising at 120kmph and you feel like overtaking something, there is no need to downshift, just twist the throttle and the surge you feel is exhilarating. I could now figure what they did with the triple spark plugs squeezed in the head of this engine. Each of them kicks in only when required. That, I believe, would also make it overall a more efficient engine. I obviously did not have any instruments to test the theory but the surge in power is evident at 4K & 6-7K on the RPM. It seems like the 2nd and the 3rd spark plugs kick in at these RPMs respectively. I had already touched 150kmph and it still felt like there is more to go. This beast is a hooligan and I was grinning all the way inside my helmet.
But Mother Nature had other plans, just 50kms away from Kharagpur and around 35 minutes from the starting point, I encountered heavy fog, speeds dropped to a mere 50kmph and by the time I was 35kmph from Kharagpur the fog was so thick that I had to stop. It was 5AM already, so waiting for the sun to rise was the best option.
For people who know the route, the New Kolaghat Twin Bridge has been opened and now we no longer need to wait for the traffic jams to clear at the old bottle neck, the old rickety Kolaghat Bridge.
By 6AM I had crossed Kharagpur and left the Golden Quadrilateral heading to Baharagora, the border town between West Bengal & Jharkhand States. Now, it was time to test the Pulsar 200 NSâs competency on bad roads. The ground clearance was more than needed, at the only other time I have felt this comfy, on this stretch, on any other Indian bike is on a Bullet Classic 350. In that case it was a heavy bike and spring seats. Here, it was however a different story altogether. The suspension which felt adequately firm for high-speed cornering was doing an amazing job cushioning the potholes and the uneven roads. That combined with the comfy seats gave a combination which was soothing to my bums. I soon realised that I could actually manage good speeds even when there were practically no roads and I was happily going off-road to negotiate the pot holes. The standard MRF Eurogrip was great on loose gravel and I will surely add that slides & drifts were fun. I sure missed ABS a lot; I hope they will soon add it as an optional offer. In less than an hour I was across the border in Baharagora.
I surprisingly didnât feel any fatigue, which I usually do, probably due to bad seats and a super firm ride, on my regular bike. I was still grinning at oodles of power and the trip was far from over. I still had 100 Kms of the worst roads on this route left. I was still able to keep an average of over 50kmph and I was mostly where the bike felt at home. Off Road! Keep the engine running over 3K on the RPM and the bike just takes off after every breaking. By the time I reached Jamshedpur at around 8:20AM I had done close to my fastest nonstop run yet on this route of 4 Hours 10 Minutes on my Yamaha R15v2. Please note that I was slow and standing for around half an hour due to the fog.
Over all I would say that the Pulsar 200 NS is an excellent buy at the south-side of a Lakh in INR. A bike with an amazing capability of handling whatever you throw at it. Be it smooth roads or the worst off-road possible. The Pulsar 200 NS will chew it and spit it out.
To sum it up, did the Bumblebee make me grin all the way from Calcutta to Jamshedpur? Hell Yeah!!!
LEAVE THE ROAD 