Before I defend myself, let me quote a few lines on Criticism by Winston Churchill.
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
Anonymous said...
Hey Payeng,
To be frank I was actually expecting such a comment. Reasons being..
- Bajaj happens to be my "Current" Favourite Indian Bike Manufacturer.
- Till this date this blog contains more posts tagged as "Bajaj" than any other bike manufacturer.
One has to remember that a "BLOG" is a place to voice his/her personal views and opinions..
There can be other people who might dissagree with my views and opinions..
All kinds of views and comments are welcome on this blog of mine.
But I would still argue that I am NOT being biased towards any Brand..
- It just happens that in 150 C.C and higher capacity bikes, BAJAJ is doing everything right and is responsible for raising the level of Biking in India like no other bike maker.
- And engines below 150 C.C just dosen't seem to excite me.
- Bajaj commands over 60-70 % of sales in the 150 C.C and above capacity bikes in the Indian motorcycle market.
- Indians are very shrewd buyers, you can't expect to sell a bad product to the Indian Buyer (the failure of Chinese bikes in India proves this). The Quality of Bajaj therefore cannot be taken to be that bad.
Disclaimer:
This is to remind that the Views or Opinions in the blog are entirely mine unless explicitly stated. The Views and Opinions published in this blog should in no way be related to any other person or organization associated -- directly or indirectly -- with me.
16 Comments:
I can see that the "anonymous" poster is a HH fan. well. thats all right.
The thing about Bajaj is, they keep offering newer bikes with newwer technologies. That have changed the face of Indian motorcycling with Pulsar, Eliminator and Discover. Dont believe me? Here:
1) The true potential of the 150 cc segment was realised after Bajaj launched the excellent Pulsar, which was much more of a value for money than CBZ. It forced HH to change its strategy of cheating consumers with old technology and small-cap bikes.
2) Eliminator brought in a whole new segment, and gifted buyers a lifestyle along witht the bike. People began to realise yeah, Bajaj isbecoming a power biking brand.. and although it is a small capacity bike, i.e. 180cc it is still the only cruiser in the country (Thunderbird is NOT a cruiser)
3) Discover led the way for changes in the smaller segments by giving goodies like dts-i, discs, alloys, sns suspension.. you tell me.. which company in India had the balls to do all these things before Bajaj showed them the way!
also, the reliability issues existed in the older bikes.. after 2000 Bajaj's have been top class as far as build quality is concerned.. just look at the latest Pulsars.. a few years ago you'd have said they are import bikes. But is Made in India, baby and say it with pride!!
I would definety agree with aditya .Bajaj gets all the credit for changing the indian motorcycling scenario.HH truely lacks the punch to dent the 150cc plus market.see how they market their bikes like passion(ad's on tv show its biggest strength as the color comination :)).high time they get down to some serious R&D to compete with bajaj.
I agree with you guys..
Actually not only Hero Honda but other bike makers like
TVS, SUZUKI, HONDA and YAMAHA have to pull up their socks and put in more effort to match up with the efforts of Bajaj..
Come on TVS and you MIGHTY JAPS..
[Sadly LML has quit the race for now and Kinetic still trying to survivein this cut throat competition]
Hi Payeng,
Suess u have read my post on Suzi's to get some sensible bikes to this country.
I do agree that TVS lacks behing BAjaj, but it aint far behind, considering the daring concetps like Isotope and Taurus it showed @ Auto Expo.
The Racing pedigree of TVS cant be ignored..
Anonymous said...
Hey Payeng,
i agree with you bajaj is making good bikes and also they are upgrading their model every year and are making changes to their bikes but hero honda what they do is retain the same thing and put some sticker work and say thats a new model whats the point in doing that and i dont know who said they are reliabele i dont comment on the build quality but what about spares they are not easily avalible and the maintaience charge is more and for god sake they put the ame engine and just change the model for eg passion and splendor share the same engine this is not my coment this was told to me by a herohonda mechanic
my name is suraj i am from bangalore
suraj,
dude, you got serious misconceptions about bajaj/pulsars.i am a proud owner of 150dtsi since april'04...and dude, i havent gone to ANY mechanic apart from the regular service schedules.TILL DATE.
a HH mechanic will definitely tell you only about the cons of a bajaj bike.THAT ,you can say is being biased.
like payeng said, if a bike/car isnt good, it simply doesnt sell after initial batches in india (viz. lml ). but the pulsar range has been CONSTANTLY selling like hot cakes....and truly said, no other bike maker raises the bar so high on standards....c'mon now, who gives dtsi?who gives sns?who gives self diagnostics on the console?who gives telescopic forks?who gave the discs as standard equipment?who gave the first rear discs?who gives tubeless tyres?who gives backlit switches?who gives self cancelling turn lights?who gave the first gas-charged shocks?and that too for no additional price hike,mind you.
no doubt HH brought the first 150cc bike into india...but apart from that, it has been a hopeless follower trying to match bajaj in terms of sheer technical and design prowess.
even i'm not biased towards bajaj. I am a big yamaha enthusiast, but as of now, no yamaha bike excites me as much as a pulsar.....forget yamaha, not even the unicorn does come close to the pulsars...thats why,my next bike is gonna be either a pulsar 200 or a 220
show me an indian manufacturer who's done so much for the indian biking scene, and i'll take back my words.
hi nilu
i never said that bajaj bikes are not reliable plz check my post again because i have a pulsar 150dtsi for the past 3years i am satisfied with its performance ,what i said was that hh never upgrades technology and they just put some stickers and just change the model but still engine remains the same even before splendor plus came the splendor and the passion shared the same engine tis info was given to me by a hh mechanic thats what i said. any way congrats on your new bike and hows the performance of your bike.
who cares if u are biased in favour of bajaj...atleast bajaj is doing something for the motorcyclists....unlike HH who will keep bringing out 'new' 100cc crap. wht happens to them when the agreement with honda runs out in '08??...hope the company shuts down....lol....
Arey yaar!!!
PULSAR KO 150 baar dekh liya!
Pulsarians ko hamesha yehi defend karna padta hai ki pulsar mein prob hai!!
Hamesha yehi issue uth kar aajata hai!
Waise classic Pulsar ka make kafi acha hai!
And nyways never say that pulsar ke engine mein woh baat hai!
Yaa compared to unicorn it has more power but its engine isnt got smoothness in any way!!
U know what I think!.... Ppl buy pulsar with loads n loads of excitement!
N they love its looks n it looks macho!
I used to go crazy on the macho looks when it was newly launched!
N I wud say this to everyone ki... why buy a CBZ buy a pulsar cos its got good power n good mileage too!
Later realised that pulsar is a overall good bike but its not a great performer!
If u need sheer performance go for cbz anytime!
Btw Pulsarians wud never accept that their bike has got any prob coz its a matter of loyalty for most of them!
They buy pulsar coz they feel loyal to a company which is indian n has done loads of great work being an indian company!
even a bit of imperfection doesnt matter coz its the feeling of swadeshi which makes every pulsarian retort to the criticisms given to pulsar!
Nd the truth is this only otherwise even every pulsarian knows that his bike's engine n small other things always feel a bit of disappointment!!(If he's really compared his bike to others!)
Anonymous, please leave your name along with your comments Yaar..!!
Who told you that the Pulsar is perfect..?? I tell you that the Pulsar is still not a perfect bike and never was.
The Classic Pulsar being the first one actually had the Most Problems. The present UGIII ones are way better in build quality than the Original Ones. It's the Gearbox which still needs to have more postive feel to it.
If you really care for Performance.. why settle for a 150 cc..?? Go for the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi..!!
I don't agree with your comment that People buy Pulsar because Bajaj is an Indian Company.. Believe me Indian customers aren't jingoist.
Pulsar were never perfect..
The clutch of the orginal Pulsars were infamous for their jerky bite. The present UGII lot have perfect clutch feel.
The Orginal Pulsars were nervous handlers, the present ones handle like dream.
The Pulsar still isn't perfect. But was the Yamaha RD 350 a perfect bike..?? Or for that matter the Yamaha RX100..?? Even today it takes a real man to muster up the courage to own a Royal Enfield Bullet.
How come all these bikes command such respect from bikers and have gone on to become legends..??
Probably a guy like you who is so hung up on the perfect dream bike will never be able to comprehend such emotions.
after visiting the website sections/post...i am definetley sure that this website is completely and ONLY made for Bajaj bikes....no one here want to listen a single word against Bajaj :)
Why fight like this....
Both are good in their aspects....
Hero Honda has done a lot in the two wheeler market in pre-Bajaj Indian market and that has to be aplauded....
Now it is Bajaj that has learnt from Hero Honda and is emerging as a new leader.....
The top position is not meant for one single brand (and it is healthy if it is not).
The Indian market and customers have a lot more expectation from both the brands as neither has fully satisfied its customer (leave alone blind customers who dont want to listen anything against their brand)...
thanks for this most informative and inspiring post. but again i feel that bajaj is blowing the pulsar bubble too far. it sbeen 10 years since th pulsar was launched and so far all there have been are extra spark pugs and 20cc incerements. sounds a bit like its going the old ambassador mk| mk|| mk||| mk|V way
who cares if u are biased in favour of bajaj...atleast bajaj is doing something for the motorcyclists....unlike HH who will keep bringing out 'new' 100cc crap. wht happens to them when the agreement with honda runs out in '08??...hope the company shuts down....lol....
The guy who posted the last comment. are u aware of the pulsar 200ns? Just do a quick search u'll knw why pulsar is gonna stay for a long time
Post a Comment
Your Comments are valuable as they keep the conversation alive..
But Please Comment Responsibly (for them to be published)