Which of these two is India`s most appetising streetfighter? We have the definitive answer.
Tandoori
chicken has its origins in Peshawar, Pakistan and due to territorial
reasons, is now regarded as a fantastic Indian meat preparation. It’s a
fiery orange hue, is spicy but not eye-wateringly so, and the meat,
prepared elaborately in a tandoor, which is a coal-fired oven of sorts,
is particularly juicy. Given the anatomy of a chicken, consumption of
the dish in question requires some effort at the dinner table, but it’s
part of the experience, really.
On the other
hand is another lip-smacking preparation called butter chicken. A cream
gravy prepared around boneless chicken, preferably, and usually paired
with soft tandoori rotis – it is, given the varied demography of our
country, aspirational food for many, and can’t-go-wrong-with-it food for
the rest. Nice introduction to the KTM Duke 200 and the new Bajaj
Pulsar 200NS, no?
WHAT ARE THEY?
Both are streetfighters, competent to the
last nut and, needless to say, smashing in the looks department. The
Duke looks radical and is a fibre-bodied shout-out to the stunt maniacs
of the country. It’ll make a wheelie god out of you if you’re sincere
enough – explains why Aneesh (that’s his bike in the shots – mine’s not
stock) and I both own one. The Pulsar, on the other hand, is a striking
answer to the prayers of the street racers of our country. It’s fast,
it’s poised and the fact that I’m comparing what is essentially a
‘Pulsar', a word that’s become synonymous with performance, to a sharp
motorcycle from a European powerhouse is proof enough of how much Indian
motorcycling has evolved.
HOW SIMILAR ARE THEY?
Not very. How different can 25.4 bhp
(Duke) be from 23.1 (Pulsar)? A lot, and swinging a leg over the saddle
is the only way to find out. A large chunk of the 200cc single-cylinder
is common to the two, yes, although I will go on to say that this is
perhaps the most competitive utilisation of technology-sharing under one
roof India has ever seen, perhaps even better than what happens behind
the curtains at the Volkswagen Group office. Bajaj, by means of its 47
per cent ownership of KTM, has handpicked the best of resources from
either party to create what are, no doubt, two of the most fun bikes you
can buy in the country today. The KTM is torquier and more powerful,
but uses that advantage early in the powerband. The Pulsar is (and does)
the opposite. The KTM is rough and a bit vibey (no handlebar-end
weights), while the Pulsar is refined without being numb. You may not
necessarily like both, but you will like either. Smart move, Bajaj Auto.
WHICH ONE’S BETTER BUILT?
The Duke is. A lot of the hardware, so to
speak, on the Duke’s interface exudes finish levels that are familiar
territory to some of the world’s finest motorcycles. If you walk over to
a 690 Duke and take a look at the handlebar controls, levers and meter
console, you will be surprised to see how similarly built the Duke 200
is. This is something the Pulsar lacks, but that’s a given owing to its
much lower price tag. Even across the rest of the motorcycle, the Duke
feels a lot more ‘premium’ to the touch. After spending a good few
hundred kilometres in the Pulsar’s saddle, the best I can come up with
is ‘the Duke feels like a scaled down 690, the Pulsar, a handsomely
matured Indian motorcycle'.
WHICH ONE’S FOR THE STUNT MONKEY?
The Duke has all the right bits – USD
forks, a stiff rear monoshock and a riding position that only reaffirms
its stunting intentions. The handlebar is a bit high-up – it offers good
leverage and unlike clip-ons, won’t break in the event of an outrageous
stunt gone wrong. The footpegs grip well and are thoughtfully grooved
(makes a massive difference in wet weather – a little bit of muck and my
feet would slip dramatically off the Pulsar’s) and the overall feel
from the levers and pegs is optimal. Add a wheelie bar to the tail, and
you’ll have everything you need to be a YouTube celebrity. The only
negatives are the toe-shifter and rear brake lever, which aren’t wide
enough, and the handlebar grips, that do come across as a bit hard.
And that’s just the cycle parts. Rev the
Duke up and pop the clutch in first – it wheelies with the eagerness of a
seventeen-year old wanting to ‘find out more’ about Monica Bellucci. It
displays poise no matter which end is up in the air and the better
stunters amongst you will find the power graph of the Duke extremely
palatable. The Pulsar, too, is hooliganistic, but less intuitively so
(its mind is just too much on speed) when compared to the Duke. Give it
more gas than your gut feeling allows, followed by a quick pop of the
clutch, and the Pulsar will cover a lot of distance before you bounce
off the rev limiter in first gear. However, if you think racing is
passé, the Duke is what you’re looking for.
WHICH ONE’S THE TRACK SCORCHER?
The difference is simple – into the
Duke’s chassis, Bajaj has dialled a good degree of communication, while
the Pulsar gets a strong dose of effortlessness. So to answer the
question I have posed, both are exceptionally focussed around corners,
but the Pulsar makes you work less hard. It, hence, boils down to your
riding skills. Leaned over into a fast sweeper, the Duke demands 100 per
cent of rider commitment, whereas the Pulsar likes to be shown
enthusiasm. In the city, the Duke is more game to flicks of the wrist,
but through fast, demanding twisties, the Pulsar is more stress-free.
That twin-spar frame on the Pulsar, combined with the really good
tyres/brakes, makes it one of the neatest handling packages on any
Indian motorcycle on sale right now.
Performance-wise, either bike is highly
rewarding. On the Duke, things happen with a sense of urgency and if
you’re precise with the shifter, you’ll hit the tonne mark in 8.9 secs.
On the Pulsar, things are a little spaced out. To hand out the order of
speedo indicated top speeds the Pulsar is capable of in each gear, it’s
50, 73, 94, 114, 129 and, finally, 136, beyond which lie a few extra kph
that you can gain provided you’re light and have superhuman crouching
abilities. I spent a large share of my Pulsar time shifting between
third and fifth – extracting all that juice happens best here, and it’s
fun. The sixth cog only adds that extra bit of top-end to the Pulsar’s
performance but what’s interesting is that it spans roughly 90 kph,
considering you can shift into top gear as early as 45 kph. If you want
thrills but would rather not work too hard for it, the Pulsar should fit
you like a glove.
WHICH ONE’S COMFIER?
The Duke is already very (un)popular in
enthusiast circles for being punishingly stiff in the suspension
department, and having clocked over 3,000 km on mine, I do have some
unpleasant stories to tell my grandchildren. Hopefully, it won’t come in
the way of me having grandchildren in the first place, if you know what
I mean. However, I like stiffly sprung bikes as much as I dislike
children, so the Duke suits me. I like the seat – both the cushioning
and texture – and the excellent leverage the handlebar provides leaves
me largely unstressed at the end of a long ride. The rear monoshock is
adjustable for preload, so you can’t dramatically alter the damping
characteristics, but the stiffness is only a clear reflection of focus,
something the Duke has a lot of.
The Pulsar is stiff, too, but not as much
as the Duke. It’s a lot friendlier over bumps and the gas charged rear
monoshock performs far better over bad roads. On fast, bumpy roads, you
can feel the Pulsar’s suspension working really hard – the Duke just
tosses you around, instead. At the end of a fast Mumbai-Pune run on the
Pulsar, I was not stressed at handlebar, seat, or footpeg and while the
Duke produces the same results, there’s no doubt that the Pulsar is the
comfier of the two.
WHICH ONE WILL YOUR PARENTS LIKE?
The Duke’s lineage and country of
manufacture ('Austria? Australia? Same thing, no?') is a mystery to many
people in our country, despite its popularity with enthusiasts. Your
parents may, hence, find an orange Duke easier to digest than a yellow
Pulsar. However, if they’re the ones funding it, they might find the
thirty thou savings a bit hard to resist and your mother will talk you
into some high-on-drama religious pact wherein you will be forced to
ride the Pulsar at running-in speeds for the rest of your life. ‘Yeah
right', you’ll say, ‘and now you won’t even let me marry my
girlfriend...'
WHICH ONE TO BUY?
If you’re reading this paragraph before
you’ve read the rest of the story, don’t feel guilty – I’ve been as
excited as you are to get to this bit. At Rs 87,514 (ex-showroom,
Mumbai), the Bajaj Pulsar 200NS is fantastic value. It’s everything the
street-racer in you could ever ask for and overall, is a truly
outstanding example of honest, enthusiastic packaging. The KTM Duke 200,
at Rs 1.17 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) is substantially more expensive
and only just as fast as the Pulsar, but for the premium you pay, you
get stuff like USD forks, a very communicative trellis frame, a
comprehensive meter console, fuel-injection, smashing looks, and quality
and feel that is unmatched by even some more expensive motorcycles.
The conclusion, hence, is about whether
you have what it takes to make the most of such enthusiastic machinery.
Take your call, while I dig into a plate of tandoori chicken...
If your girlfriend is a regular pillion,
she’ll hate the Duke for the damage it’ll do to her spine but she’ll
like the attention and the extra shopping she’ll get you to do in
exchange for not complaining about it. She’ll also like the fact that
the Duke doesn’t spray as much muck up the rear (and hence, her latest
pair of GasGas denims), thanks to an elaborate (but not ugly) rear
mudguard – something that’s absent on the Pulsar. However, considering
you’re a stunter, you might not have too many functional bones left,
which might hamper your relationship (more on that, er, never). But
being a track guy isn’t a big deal either, since women don’t think too
highly of men dressed in leather. I’m going to focus on my wheelies...
Competition check
Not streetfighters, these two, but still
popular with thrill-seekers are the Yamaha R15 and the Honda CBR 250R.
Both sport full fairings and twin-spar frames, and the single cylinder
engines of either feel absolutely at home on the racetrack. The R15,
thanks to its riding position, comes across as a bit extreme (it’s a
wrist-killer, if you plan to spend longer than a couple of hours in the
saddle), but the CBR is the larger, comfier of the two.
Despite its relatively small 150cc mill,
the R15’s performance is sharp and thoroughly enjoyable. The CBR’s 250cc
motor, too, is very involving and the more you push it, the better it
gets. If a full fairing is a must-have for you, try out these Jap track
tools.
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Nice to read your article! I am looking forward to sharing. Bajaj Pulsar NS200 price
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