Am a Hooligan!

Not me :p, I was referring to Santoosh's souped up Pulsar180! Due to my Crash few weeks back, my zma was stuck in service center for repairs and i was stuck with my old splendor for commuting to office. After i had bought my zma, my dad was using the splendor and i had almost stopped riding it from past 3 years, the sudden prospect of me having to putter around on it for few days that too at night to office in dreaded hosur road scared the daylights out of me. But thanks to Santoosh's generosity i got the opportunity to taste the competition :P The souped up Pulsar 180 V1!

I have been doing my daily rounds between office and home on his Pulsar from almost 10 days and this is the first time i've ridden any other bike for this long after i had got my Zma. Now, santoosh isn't referred to as "engineer santoosh" :P in Xbhp for nothing, he has done so much R&D on his bike and souped it up right from engine/lights/wheels and tyres!It's just a name sake Pulsar180, actually it's a 200cc :P Coz currently this bike is running with a Pulsar 200's block and piston! At one point of time, it was running one of Maruti esteem's piston! Now, on to other features of the bike, It's got Santro car's twin horns :P Powerful 100/90 Headlamp! no, it ain't just plug and play, santoosh has tweaked the electricals such that the 100/90 bulb gives out 100% output with stock coil and rectifier! :P

It's running on 18inch alloys! This bike is actually the first version of Dtsi Pulsars with faring, commonly referred to as P180 V1 with spoke wheels. The alloys are same as Zma's alloys! (same company) but cost half of zma's alloys! The rubber is Ceat, front is stock size while rear is 120/80! The rear tyre is so fucking wide, that it sticks to the road in all terrains. The tyre is of medium compound, so it neither wears out like michelins, nor is puncture prone, but gives michelin, pirelli like grip even on wet surfaces! Even though it's of 120/80 size, the tyre weights same as stock 100/90! The tyres costs almost as Zma's stock MRF Zappers!

Riding this bike is fun, it's a torque monster! thanks to the engine mods done by santoosh, the bike just pulls crazy in any gear! Iam so used to downshifting in zma for slow speeds, but this bike just manages it in 4th gear! so, if i need to slowdown, just decrease the throttle and if i want to accelerate, twist the right wrist!:P no changing gears or nothing! The front end is amazingly light compared to the newer generations of 17inch wheeled pulsars, it almost feels like my zma's front, it's very agile in traffic and cuts through traffic just like zma. The conventional front faring is a boon as i can squeeze through tight spots in traffic, which is not possible with my zma. The Engine growls like a rottweiler!:P After riding around Zma, which purrs like a cat, riding this bike brings a wide grin to my face as the engine and silencer make the raw grunting noise.

Now, on to the best part, night riding! As i mentioned earlier, this monster has 100/90 headlight, it's akin to a one eyed sumo at night! coupled with santro car's twin horns, i have fooled many auto chaps, tataindica callcenter cabs and cagers at night :P With a mere flashing of the lights at night, the autowallahs make way and pull to left lane, with the combo of honking twin horns and flashing of lights, many cagers and indica walas give way immediately, they get fooled that an one eyed sumo is behind them! :P Am loving the role reversal from past few days! :P Also, santoosh has very thoughtfully plastered this bike with reflective 3m stickers at vantage points. At night, this bike's visibility is not to be missed to oncoming vehicles.

Am truly blown away by this bike's performance and adaptability, am riding it from past 10 days, not once did i encounter any heart in mouth moments, i had heard a lot of bad things about pulsar's front brakes, but in this bike, they feel the same as zma, the stopping power is also the same. After i got back my Zma from repairs earlier this week, i offered my Zma to santoosh for few days, he was surprised that i was giving him my bike, on which i had just spent quite a large sum and it was hardly 2 hours since i had got it back :P but i know that it is in safe hands, my way of saying thanks to this amazing large hearted person who helped me out during and post my crash.

So, that means, i have his pulsar till this weekend for my commutes:P Am loving every minute of the rides on this beast, Truly, this beast is a hooligan on road!