STAR POWER!

A nostalgic investigation into the worthiness of the newest Pulsar. Will it light up your world as brightly as the 180?

- Kartik Ware

The two Pulsars stood side by side, their motors idling in unison. Their reverberations infused the air with a sporty beat, and it was incredible to note how the original and the latest motorcycles sounded so similar. That’s when I knew for sure the Pulsar spirit pioneered by the 180 was truly alive again in the N250, enough for a cheesy reincarnation reference. And I couldn’t be happier. You see, the Pulsar 180 was my first bike and I learnt life on it. And when I was handed the key to this beautiful one that lives at Bajaj’s Akurdi facility, memories from 20 years ago came flooding back. The 180 will always be the reason why I keep falling in love with motorcycles again and again.

What makes a Pulsar a Pulsar? For me, it was always all about solid and clean shapes, a torquey motor, a flickable short wheelbase, and fun down to the bones. I just defined the Pulsar 180 there, and I can imagine how difficult it might have been for Bajaj engineers to take all those attributes and mix them with the dreary demons… er, demands of ‘customer insights’. I looked at the company’s first 100/90 rear tyre on the 180, the very same that my youth once pushed its luck on, and wondered if market surveys could ever match original out-of-the-box ideas. That’s what Pulsars after the first one were missing, in my opinion. And my bias is only as real and deep as the Pulsar 180’s character.