T e st
ROAD TEST
bajaj PULSAR 220
Street smart
860
OD Rating Price Rs 69,470 Ex-showroom, Pune
Bajaj has given the Pulsar 220 a street bike look but makes do with the same old design package
+ Performance + VFM + Rideability looks - Ageing - Tyres - Heavy
Words Abhay Verma Photography Gaurav S Thombre
T
he naked, brash Pulsar 180 was a rage. So much that I just went ahead and picked one. I’m still happy with it but not with the way streetfighters have moved on. The 180 grew up to the Pulsar 200, but since then the street fighter has waned. Although faired sports bikes are revered in India, naked street bikes still tickle the fancies of the hooligans at heart, including me. Just when the Pulsar 200 had endeared itself to enthusiasts with its low and mid-range grunt, comfortable riding position and menacing character, Bajaj called it quits for the 200. The Pulsar 180 became the new 200, er... the confusion never seems to end here. And then Bajaj yanked fuel injection off
90
overdrive MAR 2010
the 220 and we got the Pulsar 220F, the fastest Indian. I had a feeling that a 220 without its fairing would make for a perfect street bike, something that won’t hurt if a wheelie went bad or I landed on the expensive fairing. Bajaj boffins sensed it and got just what I had in my mind - a bikini faired, full-blown wheelie maniac.
Design and Quality The 220 has nothing new to offer. The bike is identical to the Pulsar kin. Bajaj has simply ripped the 220F’s half fairing and slapped the 180’s bikini unit and tank flanks first seen on the 200. The body panels and fuel tank are all the same. In short, the bike is a replica of the erstwhile 200. As on other Pulsars, the quality of
plastics is decent. That said, after four days of testing the fairing unit had developed a mild rattle.
Powertrain & performance The two-valve, DTS-i engine displacing 220cc remains untouched, retaining the power and torque figures of 21.4PS at 8500rpm and 19.2Nm at 7000rpm respectively. As on the 220F, the engine feels unstressed, with no hint of discomfort even at the 10,000rpm redline. The 220 is 4kg lighter courtesy the fairing, but the performance figures are almost similar. The dash to 60kmph came up in 4.1 seconds – as opposed to the 220F’s 4.0 seconds. The sprint to 100kmph was done in 11.6 seconds as compared to the 220F’s