Pulsar 150 DTSi Vs Fiero F2
It started when BharathB decided to buy two rubber tyres equipped with steel rims and spokes that are attached to coil spring suspensions which is fitted to a tubular frame bolted with a Petrol tank and cushion foam seater, along with a power+performance 4 stroke engine which can be controlled by an arm with clutch lever and throttle assembly. The topping would be a speedo + tacho combo and a 35/35w high power clear prism head lamp ! whew thats a huge thing.
Keeping the above requirements in mind, we came upon several options starting from puny Bajaj Boxer to the mightly cruiser Kawasaki Eliminator.
After some careful analysis we had two options in our hand. Pulsar 150 DTSi and Fiero F2. To choose the best one, we read many reviews and conducted couple of test drives.
Pulsar 150 DTSi Took off the stand and kicked the engine. Vroom.. the engine responded very well. Okay, the sound is not sexy enough to appeal any bike enthusiast. The powerhorse responded immediately to the throttle variations and tacho meter was quick and responsive. Good. “keengg keeeeeengg” .. wow the horn is sound enough.
Clogged the first gear and released the clutch, she moved on with little cough, clutch handling is good. A quick pep to the ride.. she again responsed very well. Thats great. However it felt tight when turning. The chasis has been designed such that, most of the engine weight falls on the front fork and does not distribute equally to both wheels. This is one odd thing i noticed. However, this odd thing didn’t show up any difficulty in riding. The riding position leans forward and holds a good balance giving a sports feel.
The braking is good. Though the read brake is drum-tech it grips enough to stop the horse without any skid. The front disc does a fine job helping in sudden braking. Perhaps the difficult thing to do is park her on straight stand. She is heavy around 160Kgs ( am not sure). So I prefer side stand parking.
On the pickup and power, this is one good arabic-horse.. throttle her… vroooooooooooommmm.. ignore the unprofessional sound and concentrate on driving, you will love her. Responsive braking and efficient pickup without sacrificing mileage, she tops the chart with all bells and whistles.
Ah, did i forget to say anything about the curious design of that petrol tank ? well thats pulsar. distinctive design sometimes looking odd. But everybody likes it !! Pros : Styling and Performance Cons : Little bulky
Fiero F2
At the first glance, Fiero F2 looks like a mixture of all TVS nonsenses in design. TVS guys should bang their head on napier bridge for making her sooooooo ugly with kanna-binna fitting that never goes with the design. She has the BEST performance engine known so far. No vibrations, pure performance.. something you can say as, silent Thunder. Kick and you will be greeted by the strip-down version of famous Fiero’s thumps. The sounds were muddy like pulsar. But contrary the 150 cc engine pumps out BHP after BHP for every mm of throttle given. wow ! She is tall and you will feel you are riding a real horse. I can see pulsar rider’s helmet below my level. Wow.. thats soo cool.
The suspensions are really good enough and provide a smooth ride. The riding position is same as pulsar, leaned forward. You will get upset when trying to clog her to fifth gear. Donno why TVS guys didnt provide any 5th gear !! Next, the abnormal styling with the exhaust. It is oddly protruding behind the kicker and angles slightly, pumping the smoke to the East-SouthEast direction. So weird huh ?
The windshield or headlight assembly is cool and features sporty ‘n’ trendy rather than masculine like pulsar. The equipments available are speedo, tacho and fuel gauge. Better and cute.
Another thing is you can configure Fiero in 3 ways, Pure performance , Performance+Economy and obviously.. the Economy. In economy she gives brilliant mileage and in pure performance she gives brilliant speed. But people always go for Perf+Economy. Thats the sad thing.
Concluding, I can say Fiero is a top notch performer, which is ditched by TVS’s lack of styling and 5th gear absense.
I always like to go in more detail, but afraid of the length to which this blog might go. so i had cut short the frills and presented the core impressions about Fiero.
Pros : Performance + Refined Engine Cons : Ditched styling
So the question now is.. what is BharathB’s bike ? well.. you might have guessed now, PULSAR !
The reason we landed on 150 instead of 180 is, purely budget. To get extra 2BHP, it costs almost Rs.4k more. So we picked 150. Here is the feelings/ impressions i got from the test drive.
Go get her if you are into pure driving with performance horses. Dont mind the little bumpy ride and not so good sound.