Pulsar 150

Overview

The Pulsar 150 is Bajaj at its most cynical, in the good way. Buyers handed a 160cc engine, a muscular tank shroud and the Pulsar family face, and the market forgave the arithmetic because the riding position is genuinely relaxed and the 14.8 Nm arrives early enough that second gear does most of the city’s work. In this sample catalogue it sits exactly where it should: between a hero 125 and anything with real sporting pretensions.

On the road the argument is torque before power. The single pulls cleanly from about 4,000 rpm and only starts trying above 8,000, which suits a 150 kg motorcycle with 16 bhp; the five-speed box is light and the clutch is soft enough that a new rider will not stall it at a junction, which is a bigger selling point than any styling cue.

The compromises are weight and finish. At 150 kg it is a couple of kilograms heavier than the 125cc sports-commuters it competes with, the plastics flex where a Yamaha’s would not, and the instrument console is the plainest in the price band. For a first motorcycle that has to do school-run duty on Monday and a ghat-road run on Sunday, the trade is still worth making.

• 14.8 Nm low in the rev range — the flexible 160 here
• 47 kmpl claimed despite the larger engine
• Dual-channel ABS fitted as standard across variants