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Say hello to the latest Pulsar which delivers more from less! How you may well ask but then this is a bike which sports India's first four valve single-cylinder engine and pushes the power-to-weight mantra to the hilt to deliver 150cc slaying performance. Adil Jal Darukhanawala explains the madness behind the method.
No bike maker in the land has been able to satisfy and feed the latent sporty desires of the performance minded Indian biker as has Bajaj Auto with its range of Pulsars. Ever since the first 150cc-180cc pairing hit the bikers' mindscape in 2001, every other bike maker has had to only play the following game as the Pulsars just rocketed ahead of a segment they truly developed and created. Of course success spawns rivals but even to this day, the Pulsar range has an overwhelming 50 per cent plus market share in the sporty segment of the Indian two-wheeler market and in fact it has been averaging about 50,000 units plus per month in this calendar year.
So what has caused this success to just gather critical mass and keep on rolling unabated? For one it was continuous upgradation of the products and not just by the simple expedient of cubic capacity hikes. Innovative technical moves helped the brand to continue its run, the Pulsars never being a sitting duck for any rivals. So while we had DTSi, ExhausTEC, fuel injection, oil cooling, bold styling, disc brakes at both ends, top notch multi-map ignition systems, Nitrox shock absorbers and many other myriad details to speak of, it was clever nurturing of the brand along with smart thought to keep diehard bikers always hooked on, it was - and is - no wonder then that the first name among performance motorcycling in the land is the Pulsar range.
And now its maker is about to turn this performance range on its very head with the introduction of the spanking new Pulsar 135 DTSi, a smaller version of course but completely in sync with the performance ethos of the brand. While many sceptics will tend to question whether going lower on the displacement dilutes the Pulsar brand, I think the proof of the pudding is in its eating and trust you me, this is one delicious machine which will deliver in ample measure on both sides of its displacement spectrum.
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