A New World

Enthusiast bikes that won’t kill you

- Aadil Naik

I learned how to ride on pretty basic bikes. A Yamaha FZ-16 and a Bajaj Pulsar 180, besides a host of scooters. I spent a lot of years having a blast on these, and then I rode my first properly fast bike — a KTM Duke 200. It blew me away, but looking back at it, I think I was merely fortunate I didn’t have an accident. The jump from a mundane bike to a purpose-built hooligan was huge, both in terms of experience and the skill required to handle it. And boy was it dangerous. I know, as a cousin who followed in my footsteps wasn’t so fortunate, and his dad sold his bike after that crash. I bought it, obviously, but that’s not the point. Another cousin of mine, Salek, recently got his license, and the question I keep asking myself is, what if there was a logical progression into our lust for performance motorcycles? In the absence of dedicated riding schools in most of the country, how do I not only prevent him from killing himself, but let him learn to enjoy what I enjoy so greatly? Turns out the universe was paying heed to my musings a lot more than I thought, and in the span of a couple of months, two motorcycles arrived as an answer- the Hero Xpulse 200 and the KTM RC 125. And oh, what glorious answers they are.

You have most certainly heard of these two by now. The Hero Xpulse is the long-awaited successor to the Impulse and the KTM RC 125 is the smallest bike from the Austrian hooligan factory. What you also know about these is they have the same complaint- the lack of power, and that’s where we must begin. Speed and acceleration are at the core of what makes the hair on the back of our neck stand. It is what makes performance motorcycles fun, but there is a drawback to it. The faster you go, the less your mind concentrates on everything else. Your vision narrows at higher speeds, and a sudden spurt of acceleration even at slow speeds takes mental capacity away from other tasks. This is not good for learning to ride- an inherently