I owned a Honda Unicorn, bought at launch in 2004. 8 years and 60,000 kms later, the Unicorn was surely showing its age and had become tardy and I was on the lookout for a new ride. The Pulsar 200 NS having just launched, I only had initial journo reviews to rely on. All reviews were exceedingly favourable and portrayed the bike as an excellent street bike with great performance.
I bought this bike in August 2012 (within a month of launch) and as of writing, have logged about 25,000 kms. I will deal with the bike in specific sections.
Looks
Well, long term or short, this section is not affected. This bike looks best front on. The lights are mean and give it a menacing look. The sides, with the exposed engine, look pretty attractive. The rear is quite disappointing. The bike looks pretty flimsy and wannabe-ish from the rear and is very similar to many other bikes from the Bajaj stable.
Engine & Performance
On paper, there is nothing to choose between this and the KTM Duke 200. It has better power and torque outputs compared to the 220F and the R15.
Well, it is quite a different story on the road. It has been a disappointing 2 years of biking. I have time and again felt the absolute lack of adrenaline pumping power that this bike promised to deliver. Duke 200s, R15s, 220s, Karizmas have all sped past me on various occasions, with me doing all I can to stay with them. The acceleration of the Duke 200 is breathtaking compared to the 200NS. This bike can maybe beat 100 CC bikes and a few Bajaj made 150 CC ones, but that's about it.
The engine is poorly designed and chokes quite frequently at full throttle. NVH levels are unacceptable and under hard acceleration, you may be misled into believing that you are taking off at astronomical speeds while a simple glance at the speedo is enough to bring you back to Earth rather quickly.
Now, after 13,000 kms, the engine seems to have lost whatever little oomph it had. On 6th gear, at full throttle, on a flat, straight road, it maxed out at 103 kph!!! A Honda Shine overtook me easily. So, that’s Bajaj’s 200 CC bike! Note that I have not serviced it anywhere other than authorized Bajaj Service Centers and I have not done any aftermarket additions or modifications.
The chain is a major problem in the 200 NS. There were no problems for the first 1000 odd kms after which, the chain got loose and started making a noise. It was so loose that it slipped when I went over small bumps and potholes. It was tightened in the first service but became loose in another 1000 kms. I complained and got it tightened. Same story. I lived with it and at 10,000 kms, the Bajaj Service guy told me that the life of the chain sprocket is only 8000 kms and I should get it changed. I got the sprockets changed at a cost of Rs. 2,000. The chain came loose in another 1000 kms. I complained to Bajaj and went back to the service center. One guy told me that this is normal with Open Chains and it requires tightening every 500 kms!! I drive 500 kms in 3 weeks and it just is not practical for me to make a trip to Bajaj every 20 days.
Electricals
While switches, lights and blinkers are all working fine, there seems to be a major issue with the self starter. At times, when I press the ‘Start’ button, the display resets completely and I have to wait for 5 minutes before I’m able to start the bike again. Time resets to 1.00 am during these resets. There is some issue in the connection between the start button, display console and the engine. I eventually found out that if I forcefully turn the handlebar to the left, the connection gets restored and the 'Start' button works. When the display goes blank, everything is reset except Odo. I have suffered many times at signals and tolls where I turned off the engine and it would not start because of this faulty connection. I have had to push my bike out of traffic and have had to push start it many times. It is inconvenient and really very embarrassing.
After several trips to the Bajaj Service Center, and complaints to Bajaj, there is no solution to this. They either have no clue about what is wrong or can't be bothered to repair it.
While this may not be a generic issue, that such a critical network has developed a snag is a fine example of how the bike is engineered.
Tires and Brakes
Brakes are good and do their job splendidly. It is the tires that lets down the bike completely. The stock tires are just incapable of handling moderate to heavy braking and skid routinely on clean tarmac, too! On wet roads or those with a coating of slush, loose soil or the like, one has to be extremely careful while braking and I resort to using engine braking to slow down rapidly.
Suspension and Handling
The bike has good straight line stability and remains true during cornering. It goes where you intend it to and requires no additional effort. Suspension setup is rather stiff and if you push it to the softest setting, there is a more than proportionate loss of handling with the bike becoming unwieldy and wobbly. Even at the softest setting, the rider gets a solid thwack while going over potholes and the pillion is never going to enjoy a ride on this bike.
Service
Bajaj Service centers are just no match to the competent service centers that Honda has. The executives and mechanics are disinterested and mostly have not much idea about your complaints. They just wash the bike, refill oils, tighten brakes and give it back to you. They hardly take your complaints seriously. When you ask them if the complaint has been resolved, they just say “It is like this only”.
For example, the fuel cock was extremely tight on my unit and I asked the guy to rectify it. When I inquired after service as to why it is still tight, he gave the answer as above. I checked on another 200 NS at a parking lot and found that the fuel cock was way easier to operate than mine. I do not know if this is an unwillingness to work or a lack of knowledge. Guess it is a combination of both.