Thread: Bajaja Pulsar 220

The pulsar 220 is the fastest bike around the track after the R15. It's really fast but isn't the most reassuring thing when pushed hard around corners. This bike delivers power exactly in the right range giving it an edge over its nearest rival, the Kari2ma. However, ride it hard and you know that there's something amiss, thus preventing it from becoming as involving, reassuring and fun as the R15 or even the Apache RTR.

The power delivery too isn't very smooth. As MR Rajkumar, our second race tester commented, he can post a lap time as fast as the Pulsar 220 on the 200 owing to the latter's better handling behaviour and smoother power delivery. But all that doesn't stop the Pulsar 220 from taking the crown of being fastest bike of the country with an air-cooled engine.

One problem with the bike that both our testers very clearly pointed out was the soft suspension that deters it from displaying its true capabilities around the track. The lack of stiff springing and damping makes the PZ20 slightly unconvincing while exiting high speed corners. Caution has to be practised while you're going all out on this monster or else you might just run wide. The Pulsar enters the corners well enough, but as it goes through it and you wring the throttle to power out of the apex, it starts showing signs of nervousness.



The 220 requires you to put in a lot more effort to steer it through tighter bends, making it lose time. Had it been a nimbler, more athletic machine around the more technical sections of the circuit, it could easily have given the Rr5 a tough time. Also, the front brakes required the riders to squee2e the lever harder than usual while enteriI)g into abrupt corners after a long straight. The feel for the brakes could have been better.

With a best lap time seconds slower a lap than the R15, but there are reasons for it. It's a bigger, heavier bike and runs on wider ryres that increase drag and don't really help acceleration too much. The grip from the 120 section rear Zappers, however, was the best after the R15's bespoke tyres. It was a close call between the Rr5 and the Pzzo in terms of the top speed achieved on the racetra'ck, but owing to its strong mid-range power, the 220 managed to get its nose slightly ahead of the Yamaha. The P220 maintains its supremacy among the air-cooled engined bikes and finishes second, very marginally ahead of the RTR and clearly ahead of the Karizma.

Shave some weight off the bike, equip it with grip pier, thinner rubbers and tinker a bit with the engine, and it might just match the pace of the R15. Talking of stock bikes, however, the R15 is the new king of the racetrack.