Well Let me first start of with an introduction about myself. I am Sarvesh Mehta, a 19 year old engineering student and this is a review on the ownership of my bike the Pulsar 220 DTS-I.
I Got my 220 DTS-I on the 16th of October 2009. I purchased it from the Bajaj Probiking showroom here in Panaji , Goa. Got delivery within a week !!!!
The urge & craze of owning this mean machine started way back in the days when I was in the 11th standard , I was from a very young age interested in automobiles & wanted to own my very own bike meant just for me to suit me & my personality, one fine day after college was over, me & my friend decided to go check out the bike in the showroom, afternoon went to Sitara Bajaj ( the dealer for Bajaj bikes here in Goa), 1st look at the bike & man I had gone crazy!
The guy who was in charge of the showroom started up the bike for me & revved it, the roar of the 220cc power house just made me go mad, So after reading all the reviews this & that, convincing my Dad, I finally booked it, and finally on the 16th of Oct 2009 this beautiful machine was a part of my garage.
On the 17th the pooja was carried out for the well being of the bike, later I took the bike for a small spin in my area as I didn’t have any papers yet. After returning home, I decided to check the bike properly. Tried to see oil level, the various parts of the bike, opened up the seat & checked the rear brake fluid & other stuff under the seat, read the user manual & tried getting familiar with the bike.
Again around 9:30 -10 pm couldn’t sit at home. Went In the garage and took her out again. The bike was a real pleasure to ride & add to it the excitement of owning a new bike!!
Iit’s just a feeling that can’t be described on paper, after riding the bike I was quite happy with the engine performance. The 220 has a very healthy 19.12Nm torque, due to which it has very good power at lower rpm, the engine knocking at lower rpms are much lesser compared to the other bikes.
Speaking about power the 220 DTS-I comes packed with a powerful 21.04 horses engine, a additional 1 BHP to its predecessor the 220 FI which use to come with 20.04 BHP. The gearbox on the P220 DTS-I is just amazing, the gearshifts are smooth as butter, according to me the 220 has the smoothest gear shifting compared to any other bike, this is just my point of view, I may be wrong also, but according to me, until now whichever bikes I have ridden did not have a gearbox as smooth as the 220’s.
But with every good thing of the 220 ranging from the engine performance to the smooth gear shifts , there are some bad points too that I noticed about the bike.
As time passed by & my bike munched down miles, I slowly started hearing a weird sound from the rear disk brakes( the sound was something like the sound which use 2 come from the ranger swing cycles), the sound kept on increasing as time passed by, this was due to the open rear brake calliper of the 220,
I brought this problem to light with the guys at Bajaj & they were like, it just requires brake cleaning & it will be fine, they then opened my rear calliper & cleaned the pads & my bike was ready to go again.
But then after another 300 -350 kms the sound again aroused, this problem still continues in my case, but now Bajaj have come up with new callipers from BYBRE which are closed callipers & performance is much better than the earlier KBX calliper. Thinking of getting my rear calipers changed as soon as possible, speaking about it, the overall braking is very good of the 220.
Another problem with the 220 is its centre stand. The stand of the 220 sits quite low which creates a lot of problem while manoeuvring a bend curve or even while crossing over a large speed breaker, there is this large thud sound whenever crossing over a large speed breaker, especially when you are double seat on the bike, I’ll post a pic of the centre stand so that you can have a look at how low the centre stand sits on the bike.
The projector lamps on the 220 is any time better compared to any other bike available right now in India. The light throw is amazing & very bright, the roads ahead of you at night time are completely visible, this kind of lighting is very suitable for long night rides.
As of now my bike has clocked 13,000Kms & I am very satisfied by the way the bike has served me, no major problems have been faced till now, the bike engine is still very smooth, The engine oil that I have been using for my bike is Motul 3000V 20w – 50 semi synthetic ( please note: I had once even used the Motul 300V factory line 20W-50, After using this oil I found that the engine became really smooth & it was a real pleasure to ride the bike, the Factory line oil is mainly for higher CC sport bikes) .
The suspension on the 220 is quite hard & it goes with a loud wham! In the potholes, the mirror on the 220 Fairing version are quite small, but very stylish, they do tend to vibrate a bit ( please note very little vibration) with the fairing vibes but as time passes you get used to it.
I am 5ft 10 or 11 something, 75kgs. The 220 looks much better on people my size. When riding also I feel much more confident on the 220 than on the other bikes.
The MRF Tires with a 90/90 in front & 120/80 at the rear are good, made of a soft compound which grips the road quite well on turns & inspires confidence while bending the bike. I’ve got Nitrogen gas filled in my tires which keeps the temperature of the tire quite cool & even helps in reducing unnecessary weight of the bike resulting in a better fuel efficiency.
Speaking about fuel efficiency, my 220 gives me anywhere between 40 – 43 kmpl, this fuel figure that I got includes 70% of city & 30% of highway riding.
All in all I am quite happy with the new 220. I really love the all black styling. Matches the colour of my Brothers bike & my bro & me like the all black styling on the 220! As the old slogan goes FEAR THE BLACK, I Will put up a few pics of my bike which you can see below.
Cheers & safe riding
Sarvesh
p.s. I bought it for 76k inclusive of all taxes everything.
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