College days - young vigour, loads of attitude and a longing for the best things in life. That's probably about the same time that I first laid my eyes on the Bajaj Pulsar when it was showcased at the Auto Expo in Delhi all those years back. Then, I was cramped for choice - it was either a HH CBZ or a TVS Fiero. And then they launched the Pulsar in November 2001. After a lot of convincing and going back and forth on the decision to get me a bike, my elder brother finally walked into a Bajaj showroom with me and we booked ourselves a black Pulsar 180. Initially I had contemplated getting myself a 150 instead, but I wasn't going to settle for anything but the real deal - and despite the sales persons best efforts on selling me a 150, the 180 it was.
Those were probably the longest 20 days of my life. Taking delivery of a brand new vehicle is the best feeling in the life of any hot blooded motoring enthusiast and without doubt that was a special day. I was 20 then, still in college and with keys to a whole new world of freedom in my hand. The kilometres started adding on at a rapid pace - the fact that my daily commute to the canteen...err...college, was all of 40km one way added massively to that. Within the first few days, the bike developed a distinct squeak from the pseudo steering damper at low speeds which eventually gave my bike her name - Squeaky.
The first generation Pulsar was in my opinion the best Pulsar ever built - short wheelbase, loads of low and mid range torque made for a wheelie-happy machine that turned in sharp and was simply put an immense joy to ride. Squeaky and I have shared a long time of motorcycling madness together - over 1,35,000km in just about four years. I popped my first wheelie on that bike, went on my first long ride too. In my short career as an automotive journalist I've ridden numerous bikes but I have yet to come across one that gave me as much thrill as the first gen Pulsar 180. Call it partiality if you may, but fact is that if there ever was a bike that introduced India to real biking, it was the Pulsar 180.
Print
