Reality check. Decals constitute as much as 80 per cent of what most manufacturers in India call a full model update. Some of the more enterprising will even go so far as to call it an all-new machine, thanks to the stretchy, colourful vinyl. It is then a surprise when you hear, ‘thanks for coming, but let me warn you, this is just a tweak. A fine tune, if you will.’ But then, the Pulsar never had any decals to boast of anyway.
To Bajaj’s credit, they’ve been updating the Pulsar regularly despite and inspite of the competition’s lethargy. To keep that in perspective, at Motoring, more power is always welcome.
And the new Pulsars have that. The power boost, all 0.5 bhp of it (now 16.5 bhp at 8000 rpm in the 180 and 13.5 bhp at 8500 rpm in the 150), isn’t the big gain, though. The huge leap forward is in terms of torque, and there is loads of it right off the bottom. The exhausTEC chamber, first seen in the recently launched Discover, has been added to the Pulsars as well, you see. Essentially, it serves to produce a second negative wave that boosts the scavenging properties of the motor, and as a result, cylinder charging is very, very good. Together with the benefits of the twin plugs of the DTSi system, the results are obvious – you now get 1.55 kgm on the 180 and 1.25 kgm on the 150.
To get even more out of the engine, Bajaj saw fit to design new intake routing, alter cam timing and lighten the crankshaft a little bit. The motor, as you can see, has seen some serious work. So now when you whack the throttle open at 4000 rpm in a high gear you take off like a Diwali rocket.
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