QUARTER TO FUN

The updates to the quarter-litre Pulsar have made it all the more engaging to ride

- Manaal Mahatme

'Let's face it, the 250cc is the new 150cc... this is a commuter segment'... our brief for the 2024 Pulsar N250 started with those words. And it hurt because, growing up, the likes of the Pulsar 180, the Pulsar 200 and the 220F were the 'sports' bikes that pre-teens like me would aspire to own one day. And now, almost a quarter-century later, the biggest Pulsar yet the N250 is labelled as a commuter?! And now with bits like USD forks, wider tyres, ABS modes and traction control, can it really be just a commuter? It's a Pulsar after all.

On the design front, nothing much has changed, except the red's got red-er than before, and the livery feels much more... lively. At the front, the LED DRLs now feature stickered 'eyebrows' above them, which to me, makes it look like it's squinting its eyes and giving a serious look. Perhaps, the N250, too, disagrees with its commuter label.