7 LSD: Lame Speculations & Dhokha/Disappointment

A collection of a few baseless motorcycle related Urban Legends floating around on the web..

Let’s have a look at some of the motorycle related, "World Famous in India" LSDs (Lame Speculation & Dhokha/Disappointment).

1. Bajaj Pulsar 300

When you get bombarded with the same stuff on numerous blogs/sites, the layman would naturally take it as the Gospel truth..

This urban legend one has been around for around 2-3 years. The origin of the rumor is this photo shopped image. Any half-biker with half knowledge of international bikes would tell that this is a digitally altered image of the Pulsar + Honda Hornet 600.

Digitally modified Pulsar

Honda Hornet 600

The Pulsar 300 rumor is so widespread that I have heard even the salesman from a couple of Bajaj showrooms tell me: "Sir, Pulsar 300 will be launched soon, I have seen the photos of it on the net..!!"


2. TVS 250 cc Taurus

The Taurus is actually a concept shown by TVS at the 2006 Auto Expo. At the 2006 expo itself TVS had made it clear that there are were no production plans for this concept. But then our great blogs & sites have made sure that this has become a "soon to be launched" model from TVS.. since 2006..!!

TVS Taurus Concept, 2006

3. Yamaha R15 would make 21-22 Ps (this was before the official specs were announced)

After the 150 cc Yamaha R15 was shown at the auto expo, Yamaha quite astutely did not reveal the power figures of the bike. So till the official specs were revealed, it was all left to.. well.. speculations..!! And boy, did guys speculate?

Not just blogs, websites and forums but even reputed publications joined in the speculation fray. The most widely expected and optimistic power figure was put around 21-22 Ps. We all know that the final official max power figure turned out to be 17 Ps.


4. Ninja 250R will retail for Rs. 1.5 lakh in India (this was before the Ninja 250R was officially launched)

It was first mentioned on a reputed publication and subsequently made into other sites as well. It beats me to comprehend as to what led the guys speculate that the Ninja 250R could really be priced at 1.5 lakhs for India..!! Just for the record the same 2010 Ninja 250R with fuel injection has a sticker price of £ 4,000 (approximately around Rs. 3 lakhs INR) in the United Kingdom.

As it finally turned out the Ninja 250R came with an ex-showroom price of 2.7 lakhs in India.



5. TVS will launch Apache RTR 220

This was a hot topic of discussion on internet forums before the 2010 Auto Expo. As far as I remember the original source of this was a couple of reputed publications.

But why on earth would TVS make a 220 cc Apache and look like a follower of Bajaj (TVS already has an Apache 180 in its kitty). Anyway post the 2010 Auto Expo, the rumor has kind of died down.. at least for the time being.


6. Bajaj Pulsar 250, Liquid cooled, Twin cylinder

This is the latest one to hit the town. The originator of it is motoroids.com. As usual, it is currently being copy, pasted on other blogs, sites and forums.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether to believe it or give it a pass.



But seriously these speculations are probably losing the novelty these days. Remember the famous Aesop’s fable in which the Boy cried Wolf..??

Sources of the LSDs (Lame Speculation & Dhokha/Disappointments):

"Bakwas" Blogs: Blogs are probably one of the most unreliable sources of information. Any Tom-Dick-Harry with some free time and access to an internet connection can become a blogger. Yep, its that easy. But what is difficult is getting visitors to read the stuff that they publish. So the easiest way to get mouse clicks seems to be publishing sensational, breaking news type of articles.

Moreover coming up with original content every time seems so challenging, so what is the next easiest option? Copy & Paste stuff lifted from other sites. Who the hell cares about the authenticity?


Responsible (?) and Reputed Publications: In some cases, it’s not just the amateur blogs that are responsible for spreading the baseless rumors. In a bid to become the first one to break the sensational news, sometimes even reputed national publications resort to publishing speculations which often go on to become LSDs.

What’s worse is that once any particular site publishes the senseless rumor, it is very conveniently copy & pasted on numerous of other sites. In the process a lot is lost in translation.


When you get bombarded with the same stuff on numerous blogs/sites, the layman would naturally take it as the Gospel truth. Sigh..!!

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