2 Avenger (or any Classic Cruiser) is not a bike for bad roads

Classic Cruisers like the Avenger are not the ideal set of wheels to ride/tour on bad roads..

Two of my friends with whom I went on the recent bike trip to Tawang, had been Avenger owners. One of them has switched to a Royal Enfield Classic 500,the other still has his Avenger with him. The reason for both of them going for the Avenger was because they were into touring.

This is the common image of a motorcycle in the Classic Cruiser format. i.e. a bike suitable for “touring”. In reality, a Classic Cruiser motorcycle is comfortable to ride only on perfect, smooth roads. These kind of motorcycles are not at all suitable to ride on bad/broken surfaces, leave alone touring on off road terrain.

Why are bikes like Avenger not good on bad roads?

16 Hunto..!! Pulsar, India’s No. 1 Sports Bike! [2011 Pulsar TVC]

Pulsar TV Commercial makes a "Hunto" comeback..!!

Q 1: What's common between: Bullet trains, Yakuzas, Samurais, Sushi bars & Geishas ?

Ans: All of them belong to the land of the rising sun, Japan.

Q 2: So what’s it that they got to do with our "desi" Pulsar..??

Ans: Check out the latest TV Commercial to find out.

5 2011 Hero Honda Karizma ZMR? Not really

Look closely.. Hero prepares for it's imminent divorce from Honda..

Hero Honda designers/painters have added a bit of color here and there, that's all. According to me it’s definitely not an upgrade for the Karizma ZMR per se.

Where has the paint been applied this time?

1. Body colored rear view mirrors and rear grab rails

2. Copper (dull gold?) colored silencer heat shied

3. ZMR branding replaces the Hero Honda branding on the Speedo console

4. Engine has been untouched (yawn)

According to me it is the 3rd point which might be a subtle but represents an important change.

0 TVS Motor launches 2011 Sport

Details of new 2011 TVS Sport on its website..

A few weeks back there was news of TVS Motor roping in the next big thing in Indian cricket, Virat Kohli as the new brand ambassador for its Sport model. The news also briefly mentioned that an upgraded Sport was being launched.

But it seems that amidst the Kohli Mania, the actual product upgrade was hardly noticed by anyone. In fact none of the "blogs" have noticed that the details of an upgraded TVS Sport have appeared on the TVS website.

What’s new in the 2011 TVS Sport?

1. Electric Start

2. Redesigned graphics/stickers

3. No, it doesn't get LED tail lights as previously reported

4. A new brand ambassador (?)

News Source: Businessline

What’s the USP? I am not sure..

62 My Bike Trip To Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh [Travelogue & Photos]

Travelogue of my first major bike trip.. along with Photos

In the previous post I had mentioned the chain of events which made me take this bike trip. There were a total of 7 members in the group, 5 (including myself) of us were travelling from different locations of India to Guwahati and were transporting our bikes as well.

The original plan:

The original plan was actually a 13 day long itinerary covering "Guwahati - Bhutan (Via Phuentsholing) - Arunachal Pradesh (via Tawang) - Back to Guwahati"..!!

Unfortunately our bikes did not arrive in time and therefore the trip had to be replanned. During the first 6 days, my friends visited Bhutan by Car and then the last 6 days were kept aside for the bike trip to Arunachal Pradesh (by then our bikes had arrived).

I decided to give the trip to Bhutan by car a miss and joined them for the bike trip to Arunachal Pradesh with Tawang as the destination. Even though my bike (Pulsar 220) had made it to Guwahati, I decided to take a 2003 vintage Pulsar 150 (single spark plug) instead for the trip which was arranged by my friend Nilutpal Hazarika.

Nilutpal is also the guy who is responsible for co-ordinating and organizing this trip and making this memorable journey a reality.