To me, both bikes are good, but both have much to evolve. The good thing is one of them is evolving where the other one which had an upperhand once is staying where it started. But still, both bikes are excellent performance bikes ,ofcourse in Indian Standards. Here is one genuine comment i got for one of my posts about Karizma FI from ‘Sreek’

hi all readers…

To start things off, i have been riding the KARIZMA for the past 2 years. It is, with out a shadow of a doubt, an excellent bike on all respects. I have nothing but sheer respect towards the KARIZMA. To simply put it, HH is a legend maker. CBZ, the first premium sports bike in India and then they took it quite a few steps further with KARIZMA. its definetly a legend too. Bajaj, i feel is a trend follower or rather a trend improviser.

and now coming to the twist in the tale…

last week i sold off my 2 year old best friend, KARIZMA only to find a better friend in a beast which goes by the name PULASR 220 DTS-FI.

Its just been a week now, but the only thing I can say about PULASR 220 DTS-FI is that “I AM IMPRESSED”. I know that it is almost impossible to impress the KARIZMA riders simply because they are used to ride the best. But trust me when I say, even after riding the KARIZMA for 2 years, the PULASR 220 DTS-FI impressed me.

Factually speaking, there in not much to be compared between the 2 amazing performance bikes. Both of them are quick, fast and both look awesome. The PULASR 220 DTS-FI is technologically advanced though.

KARIZMA looks and feels intimidatingly big. Its has definitely got that big bike feel to it. And this is exactly whats missing with the PULASR 220 DTS-FI.
May be this is a not such a bad thing after all. Even though the PULASR 220 DTS-FI looks smaller and much compact, it surely feels much quicker than the KARIZMA. And to some extent it really is too.

I don’t really want to comment on the mileage and the quality part of it because I really don’t care much and I am sure that none of u readers do either. But just for information, my old friend, KARIZMA used to return 33kmpl which may be considered exceptional. And my new friend is returning around 36kmpl. and about the overall build quality, KARIZMA is better. no doubts. (any HH is)

As I have said, technologically the PULASR 220 DTS-FI is a few steps ahead of the KARIZMA. The PULASR 220 DTS-FI’s head lights are nothing short of amazing. And the rear disc and the clip handle bar and faring mounted mirrors add to the overall style statement of the PULASR 220 DTS-FI.

The bottom line is that both of them are undisputable very very good performance bikes and neither of them can ever disappoint anyone anytime anyhow. The KARIZMA (17 bhp) is fast but the PULASR 220 DTS-FI (20 bhp) is just that much faster. But if any of you wnat an exact answer, either the KARIZMA or the PULASR 220 DTS-FI, guess what, its an unending argument.

All said and done, I still have the utmost respect for the KARIZMA but as of now, I am totally in love (or lust) with the PULASR 220 DTS-FI.

And just to mention about both bikes oooomph!!!…. When I used to ride the KARIZMA people on the road, especially the young ones used to point out and say “wow…hey look karizmaaaaa” and I am sure it still happens to a lot of you KARIZMA riders. But now, with the PULASR 220 DTS-FI, the only reaction I am getting is “wwwwwwwoooooooowwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh”. (for those of you who are wondering what that is, its sheer amazement”.

Comparison is good and is a much needed one for a product if it need to evolve.But it should be genuine and purposeful.

(Click on the images for full size view)

Photos taken by Aryan @ Xbhp.com . Please get permission from him before using these photos .

]]> http://blog.neo999.com/auto-expo-08-bajaj-pulsar-220-dtsfi-chrome-and-black-version/feed/ 71 http://blog.neo999.com/making-of-pulsar-200-free-biking-commercial-video/ http://blog.neo999.com/making-of-pulsar-200-free-biking-commercial-video/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:31:23 +0000 nEo http://blog.neo999.com/tech/making-of-pulsar-200-free-biking-commercial-video/ I am not sure how this video is appropriate in a biking blog.But , this one shows stunts and techniques used in making Pulsar 200 advertisement .

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WME2COzhi98&autoplay=1 350 425]

THIS IS MY TAKE ON THE RIDE OF MY NEW PULSAR 220CC FROM PUNE TO MUMBAI

well starting with the probiking showroom..well the treatment and procedure was good..the probiking ppl definately make u feel priviliged…first they spent time in explaining me how important road saftey is coz since the bike is overpowered and its a one of a kind etc etc…then the fun began..they brought the bike out from the basement..it was glistening black..oooh the first look gave a huge smile on my face..trust me it was an achievement getting the most awaited bike ever..then those guys spent 15 to 20 minutes explaining me all about the fuel pump and ecu and alll…and then he handed me the keys..oh man i should tell u that was one hell of a rush..so i got on to the bike ..hit the switch and trust me i was on an all time high..well a little bit of city traffic and i hit the highway…and now the fun had only begun…doing abt 57kmph i was cruising along..the engine purrred as i ripped through the air..easily overtaking trucks buses and other slower and less important vehicles..the road presence of the bike is really of gigantic proportions..one flick of the head light and on comming traffic would just give way..the throttle response was just tooo good..making life very easy..with a steady wrist the bike just revved at 4k rpm…the riding position makes u feel u r astride a bike which is built to give the rider every comfort as well as give u 100% control…as i was travelling from pune to lonavala the 57 km stretch made me realise that here is a bike which has excellent fit and finish and is surely built to take u long distances with utmost comfort…the bike has really nice road grip even on dusty surfaces..inching my way i realised one thing that the bike gives u an incurable itch to hit the throttle and take the bike to its limit..but at the very same time i realised all that it took for me to get the bike and besides no true bike lover would want to hurt a new piston..so after a very composed and calm ride i reached lonavala..here i took a stop and gave the bike some time to cool off..after a nice 15 mins i got on and again hit the road ..this time i was in for an experience i had never imagined i could have got from an indian make bike or should i say a “bajaj pulsar”…the ghats i supposed is a very feard terrain because of its edgy inclines and serpantine curves..but trust me guys it was the most enjoyable stretch of road ever..the downhill journey felt like a roller coaster ride but the only difference was the coaster was very powerfull and i had control of it hehe …the turns and the breaking was just effortless..not even for a moment did i feel that i was descending down at 50kmph and at an inclination of a good 60 degrees..and just when i had begun enjoyin i realised i had reached “khapoli” (town at the bottom of the ghats)

i agin took a halt there and had this strong urge of going back up and doing the ghats all over again..but then i was time pressed so had to move on..from there again the ride was simple and sooner then i thought i was nearing vashi…realising that i am now again going to be bothered by the veryy irritating bumper to bumper mumbai traffic..and so with the innumerable redlights and traffic jams i made my way home ..only to have had the remenescence of wind blowing through my visor and my bike giving a quiet whistle of agreement that yesss i finally have the most sexiest indian bike…

well about the bike…its a nice 220 cc and the most important factor its a fuel injected 220 cc…the ride i guess i none like an indian bike till date..the clutching and gear shifting is soft..the riding postion i mentioned earlier i great..the head lamps are powerful..the firing sounds very husky and is pretty distinct..the overall make of the bike is neat..the engine responds flawlessly..over all i should say that the bike is WORTH EVERY RUPEE AND PLEASE DONT EVEN THINK OF BUYING ANY OTHER BIKE …

the only problem is that this bike is not ment for new riders and as the company says the 220 is surely a probiking experience.

Bajaj doesnt want to break 200’s market by releasing Pulsar 220 nation wide , and they are releasing 220 in limted numbers to keep people waiting for it and not go to HH showroom for ZMA. This kind of strategy took them way long since they launched calliber(1999) . Visually the only difference i can make out is that the saree gaurd is black compared to white ones in the first batch. But personally i think that they ‘may’ have changed something technically inside the engine/gear/console/electricals/Fi system from the feed back they got from the first lot bikes. Lets wait for another first hand review !

P ics :

The Bike looks good & it’s stunning. It feels big when you sit on it, infact it gives you a big Bike ka feel the moment you sit on it, mainly due to the clip-ons & slightly backwards footrests. BAL as again has got a winner here, the fit & finish levels are very good infact much better than HH or for that matter ZMA. The digi Speedo console looks great & the self test looks charming The first things that you notice are missing choke lever, fuel knob & a new pass beam switch along with the backlit switch panel & of course the LCD Digi console.

The Riding experience

My biggest worry was since this Bike doesn’t have kick starter how good would the self be & am glad to say that the self lived up to its expectation. The Bike starts very smoothly & almost effortlessly.
The gear shift is smooth & precise but still doesn’t not slot like CBZ\ZMA, some like it some don’t. I was fine with it as I had used this type of shift on my pulsar 180 but yes this one was better than the one on mine. Not a leap of change in the gear shift but nevertheless a good one. Those who like slotting gears may still crib but I was happy with it as I had no false neutrals & no wrong gears.
The engine is smooth really smooth & the Bike picks up really sweetly, the exhaust note is nice but whether one likes it or not may differ from person to person. Once revved up the Bike gets the typical pulsar vibes near tank & fairing though they are minimal but can still be felt on the knee touching the fairing near tank. These vibrations come around 70kph & above.
Just like its smaller siblings the RVMs on P220 become useless at these speeds as they vibrate so much that you cant make out what you see in the mirrors but since you cant see much anyways its not much of a problem. Oh that reminds me did I tell you guys that the RVMs are absolutely useless especially if you are wearing a minimalist riding gear, reminds me of classic Pulsars which had stylish mirrors but very poor visibility wrt the ones sported by DTSI versions, Yeah BAL did it again

The Bike picks up really well on roll-ons, the most amazing thing was that even at 5th gear the Bike picked up at 25kph, though it pinked a bit but still picked up without any jerks

Riding Comfort

I found the suspension to be a little stiffer than the ZMAÂ while Pawan felt otherwise. The roads had no bad patches so cant say about how they would feel under bad road conditions.

The Bike has very sporty feel to it. The seats have good support & it holds you well. The Bike is really good if you want to ride it fast (which of course you would ). I rode the P220 for around 10-15 kms & my right shoulder started to pain, does it make it really bad for long riding ?? To answer this, it reminds of the first two days when I had bought my 180 DTSi (which was my first Bike ever) & when my arms pained like hell for two complete days  so it’s just a matter of getting used to. So does this make the P220 a good tourer ?? Or to say will it be more comfy than a ZMA for long rides ?? In my humble opinion with a guy of my height (am 5’10”)NO. Although the engine is really refined with enough power to take long stretches effortlessly the riding posture is not what you would want for such long rides. Having said that it’s still a matter of personal choice, I mean Sunny & Ken keep doing long rides on SBKs which in common perception are not good for long rides.
Disclaimer: I am not comparing it to the SBKs just the riding posture

All those who got disappointed here’s another way to look at it. Those who are shorter in height may find the Bike to be better than the ZMA for riding comfort since they wont face the issue which taller guys like me faced i.e. crouched position & knees touching the fairing. So I think it can be safely put that it would be more comfy for shorter people that taller people for long rides

Handling

I took the P220 on ghats & on straights; the Bike has really good handling when compared to the smaller pulsars especially because of the better swing arm & the riding posture & not to forget wider tubeless tires. The Bike is very eager to lean when compared to previous Pulsars. So is this the new Handling champion ?? Sadly No here where I hated BAL the most, they have actually ruined a great handling Bike into a non handling one, the reason ?? The stupid main stand aargh the mains stand scrapes at slightest of the lean  I am very sure infact confidant that if the main stand is removed the Bike will be an awesome handler

Ok just before some shouts that he has taken curves without scraping the stand, I will like to make it clear that the stand scraping happens when you are taking tight twisties uphill or downhill i.e. it won’t affect much on straights but then you only need the leaning aspect on such twisties.

Braking

Full marks here no comments it simply rules here Excellent breaking supported by a wide profile rear as well as front tire(Yes the front tire is broader too )

Headlights

10 out of 10 or may be 11 out of 10. The lights everywhere including the headlights are superb. Let it be tail lamps or the LCD or the backlit switches

Drag Results

Frankly speaking the drags which we had were very amateurish & should be taken only as indicative & not as a proof because:

- The bikes had diff mileage on odo
- The drag was done on a strip which was barely 100-200 mtrs
- We had no timing device. And a few launches were not synchronized properly
- My ZMAÂ is stock but has heavier & broader rear tire.

Result 1: P220 VS My ZMA

P220 won on 2 runs

Result 2: P220 vs. Modded ZMA (Vivek’s)

ZMAÂ won 3 times
P220 won once when Vivek rode the P220 & Pawan rode the ZMA

Conclusion

Well am no journalist & this isn’t any magazine so I am really not sure what to post as a conclusion or verdict, rather I would put it as answers to commonly asked Qs

Q1: Is the P220 worth buying its price?
A1: Yes the P220 is a very good piece of machinery.

Q2: Is it better than ZMA?
A2: This is still debatable, while the engine is more powerful & has more torque than the ZMA, it still has niggling issues like poor RVMs & vibrations at higher revs which the ZMAÂ lacks, Also the handling though very good is marred by the stupid stand which I believe can be fixed.
At the end one has to decide his priorities & go for it

Q3: Should I trade my ZMAÂ for the P220
A3: Unless you want to go for all the gadgetry & that extra power NO. Remember the slightly mudded zap beat it in the unofficial drag

Taken from xBhp.com

Bike Of the Year: Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi..

The only magazine to include this bike as a nominee, truly deserving winner even if it may sound wierd to include a bike which is not officialy launched in india..

Car Of the Year: Honda Civic.

Manufacturer Of The Year: Honda Siel Cars;
CEO Of The Year: Dr Wilfred Aulbur (DaimlerChrysler India);

Technology Car Of The Year: Merc S Class.

Import Car Of The Year: Audi Q7.

(taken from rearset.blogspot.com) .From his own experiance…

Yes, I rode it. The 220, that is. And I’m remiss on the riding impression. So here goes. First of all, the two big questions.

1. Is it impressive?
   Oh yes it is. Very much so. Without a doubt, it gets my vote for the best motorcycle in the country today. Overall. I still have a couple of bones to pick with it….
2. Karizma beater?
   What’s a Karizma? You mean that little yellow speck in my fold-away, fairing-mounted, shapely mirrors?

Now for the guts and glory bits, eh?

Mechanically speaking
This is easily the most well-engineered Bajaj bike yet. It has an almost disappointing Honda-like civility. It’s not as noisy as the older Pulsars. And you could keep a coin on the tank and rev it to the moon (or rev limiter, whichever is earlier) without aforementioned coin sliding off. Gears snick into place with minimal fuss, the clutch take up is very progressive. Despite trying, I could not trick the gearbox into missing a shift, had no trouble finding neutral and it all worked just the way it should.

Performance
Which is why the bike (as I said) didn’t leave me as excited as I could have been. It’s too civil. Not that I want a harsh, vibey old thing, but that its too smooth in its power delivery. You almost don’t notice the speed. Not until I found a helpfully aggressive chap (220? Bajaj? Pchah! Race lagaayega?) on the aforementioned yellow Karizma did it become emphatically obvious how fast the thing really is (all usual disclaimers against racing on streets apply. Only did it because of the lack of space – to ride – and time – owner was getting itchy).

On its own, the digital tacho shows perpetually climbing numbers, the sounds rise a bit, the scenery blurs by a bit quicker. That’s it. I wish the FI curves were a bit more aggro. I don’t know if that’s possible but I do wish the bike blew harder from the word go. As in its too much of a gentlemen. I wish it’d punched me in the nose a couple of times, that would have helped the love and the excitement, eh?

Handling
On any terrain, nothing in India’s gonna catch it. Its surefooted, confident and can be relied on to get a move on. A couple of times, I caught myself not backing off even in dirty corners, expecting the whole package to just samba on without a twitch. And both times, that’s exactly what happened. Absolutely amazing. Astoundingly good, even. The chassis re-tune works. Period.

The Karizma upgrade will need to answer some hard, hard questions in corners when it comes.

And it isn’t a sportsbike for only the greatest of roads either. The 220 has gained a nice balance on the ride front too. It feels sporty and absorbs almost everything without as much as a raised eyebrow. I rode it through a stretch where cars and trucks has pretty much blasted off chunks of tarmac from the top layer. At high speed and at low speed. And I have nothing to report. No worries, no problems, no shocks, nothing. This is a truly great package.

More love for the brakes as well. They’re great. They talk to you through the fingers, have great power, and should stoppie the 220 easy (I didn’t try – I’d mooched the bike from a fairly reluctant owner; which is also not to say that I can, in fact, stoppie it in the first place).

Comfort
It’s comfy all right, but there is a hitch. The fixed fairing comes back a bit too much and unless you’re sitting so that the tailbone is touching the seatstep, your knees will be rubbing on the fairing. That’s a bit uncomfortable.I guess when you are riding it in jeans, I’d grip the tank quite hard before hitting the brakes hard. In riding pants, the armour has that privilege of being very intimate with the fairing end. Shorties – I’m guessing 5′5″ and below won’t notice this.

Read the rest of this review from the original author – Rearset.blogspot.com

The Price of Karizma in Pune is 83k! So that makes Pulsar 220cc a killing steal!! 3bhp and lots of guddies @ almost same price.!

And wait , Pulsar 200cc is also launched in Pune with 72000 RS.(on the Road)[[According to an XBHP member]] . But with FI and more power , 12k extra for a Pulsar 220cc seems to be a perfect option! So guys , thats the Xmas present from Bajaj!

Update : december 5 : 45 pm :