[DrCar]

I might be sharing an opinion that might not be along the lines of what majority think.

I drove my friend's newly bought Pulsar 220F when it was launched initially. The bike was driven for around 500 kilometers when I got a chance to drive it.
The vibration from the fairing itself was a big turn off for me. Instantly thought that if a 500 kilometer driven bike could vibrate so much, then how would it fare on a long run? Never ever dreamt of owning it in my life thereafter.

What I loved the most was the wonderful projector headlights and the engine.

Now the fun fact - Currently I own an Avenger which has the same heart as this one. Only reason I bought Avenger is because I had a very good first impression with the engine of 220F. To be honest, I never test drove the Avenger before buying it.
I guess this Pulsar 220F or its mechanicals have somehow managed to touch our lives in one way or another.

Good bye Legend.

[John P Daniel]

Some bikes are simply meant to go on. The Pulsar 220F is one of them. While the Karizma R and ZMR were refined and efficient, the adrenaline rush provided by the sheer acceleration and induction noise of the 220F combined is hard to come by. Simple, reliable, efficient and powerful enough for most usage patterns.
Had my first experience on my friend's 220F during college days. Man..what a shocker it was. It was like you point it where you want to go and gun it. No second thoughts about it. The bike will be there before you could realise it. Yet, for all it's performance, it was as simple as a bike can be. It's DIY friendly, mod friendly, family friendly and the list goes on.
The same mill was later experienced in the Avenger 220 but it was not as adrenaline pumping as the Pulsar. The Pulsar 220F is a wolf in sheep clothing indeed. The headlights, semi fairing design, stance, massive engine size all make it desirable even after a decade.
The Pulsar 220F will be missed for sure. It is indeed and end of an era.

[White Aviator]

This is one iconic bike! I remember being in 10th std and literally begging my dad to get one of these for himself. I was not eligible to ride a geared bike but wanted this so badly to be in our garage.
When I was old enough to ride, the KTM craze took over and that's what I purchased but I've always wanted to ride one of these which I never got.

Now that it's gone out of production and limited stocks are available, I'm thinking to myself if we should get one as a collectors item to keep in the garage and ride it only on occasions. Then maybe many years down the line we could sell it above cost like what my dad did with his Yamaha RX 100. I don't think it would really sell above cost but it costs nothing to dream

[VijayAnand1]

Owned one during late 2011 to 2015, running close to 28k, the first wine red after a blue in Ooty, this was a thorough head turner back then with all the attention and ogles. Almost felt like a king riding around town. A timeless design that has aged like a fine wine. The fact that all these years it has managed to have a cult following of its own and still could give most bikes a good run for their money is a legacy few leave behind.
The machine that propelled me into what I am today, learnt so many things with this one, made great friends, some foes along the way, had some of the best memories, including Ladakh. Thoroughly, a motorcycle that singlehandedly signified what cheap power was to the masses. Definitely a motorcycle to be inducted in the Indian Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

The motorcycle that I've sold to a local person, who repairs vending machines has clocked more than 94k with two cylinder replacements, and the last I saw the reading and the bike was first quarter this year.

You did your job, now it's your time to retire and make way for the kids.

Job well done 220. Job well done.

Cheers!
VJ

[Phantom 510]

The name is still being displayed proudly in the pulsar line up on their official website inspite of the rumours at the moment. The Pulsar 220F still sells well and gets Bajaj Auto Ltd a good business every month. I don't think it is axed yet, it will be foolish to discontinue such a great product which still sells in good numbers every month. Agreed, it is old in the tooth now but it's vfm price tag, grunty power and ease of ownership makes it unbeatable for what one pays. Why fix something if it's not broken.

[Mr.Ogre]

Originally Posted by windrider

https://Youtu.be/ZuNXyWU4NAs

Indeed a very sad news for me. This was the ad that set ball rolling for me. Believe it or not I owned 3 P220's at various stages in my life. The first one was a black P220 Fi, the first one in Navi Mumbai. However, it seized within first 1000 kilometres and I had to sell her away after the company fixed it for free under warranty.

Momentarily I switched to Karizma R, however it didn't feel like the original Karizma that I had ridden earlier. Later I realized Hero had changed the ignition timing on the R variants in the pursuit of good fuel economy

I lived with the R for a year, and then picked up a red P220 FI. This time I had fun with the bike, and did a lot of rides to Konkan and Goa. Later I passed the bike to my brother and I got myself the carb P220. It was a no drama bike. And during the final years I even got this bike a big bore kit from Joel. The bike held really well even with the big bore, and I was able to sell it for a good amount.

[neil.jericho]

Back in 2008 - 09, the motorcycling industry was very different from what it is today. Performance motorcycles included the R15, Pulsar 220, Ninja 250, Apache 150 / 160 / 180, Karizma / ZMR etc. Each motorcycle was so different from the other. I used to ride with many owners of the first batch of Pulsar 220s in Bangalore and they used to openly say that they are basically doing beta testing for Bajaj. They felt like renegade riders who were going against the conventional grain by trading off peace of mind that say the Karizma or R15 would guarantee, for the thrills that the Bajaj offered.

Over the years, Bajaj has fine tuned and perfected the Pulsar 220 and it has been a very strong seller for them, even in these Covid times. While the rest of the Pulsar brand has got thoroughly diluted, the Pulsar 220 remains steady as a rock, visually not changing except for the addition and subtraction of stickers and what not.

It will be interesting to see if Bajaj's gamble of killing the golden goose Pulsar 220 and launching the new Pulsar 250F, pays off for them. Given Bajaj's usual muddled strategy of flooding the showroom with all permutations and combinations of bikes, I would have kept the Pulsar 220 alongside the new Pulsar 250F and given customers the power of choice.

I think the Pulsar 220 has the potential to continue selling decently well, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, while the Pulsar 250 can bring in riders from metros and tier 1 cities.

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Coming from a ZMA the P220's roll on acceleration was thrilling and the highway potential was a boon considering the first time I did Kollam - Bangalore I did it in a crazy 7 hour span or less, which was an upgrade considering my normal running time was around 12~14 hours with the Discover 100, however over time even the P220 did saturate to around 10~12 hours as the lack of a better torque spread from low to mid did make riding it over time quite boring.

A quick check on Google maps shows that the shortest route is 633 kms and with a time of 7 hours, you would have averaged 90 kmph over the entire trip. Given the road conditions in the time frame that you have alluded to, covering this in 7 hours seems to be very difficult to achieve.

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

In fact when riding the P220 nearing the end of a really long ride(if you know it, you know it) I'd be downshifting hard and revving it's nuts off chanting

"God! Why doesn't this sh*t break!"

Whereas with the CBR250R I'm like;

"Oh God! Hope this sh*t doesn't break!"

A really wonderful motorcycle in that sense.

I have never heard of any Honda CBR250R motorcycle owner worried that his bike was going to fail In fact most riders buy the CBR250R for the irreplaceable peace of mind that comes with such a brilliant product.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

A quick check on Google maps shows that the shortest route is 633 kms and with a time of 7 hours, you would have averaged 90 kmph over the entire trip. Given the road conditions in the time frame that you have alluded to, covering this in 7 hours seems to be very difficult to achieve.

Actually distance travelled is around 750kms for me one side, here's a snap from my Discovers speedo;



My latest run was back in 2019 and it was till the outskirts and it was a little less than college run;



So I'd say the average was over 100kmph, quite remarkable as per my own standards however Kurup from our xBhp group took the same route I take i.e Madurai, since we're from the South, and he did it in less time than I'd take to drive from Kollam to Kochi on a peak traffic day, this was to deliver Sam's Duke 200.

Again do note, this is the result of first time thrills, over time the time taken does average to around 10~12 hours. If going by Location History the P220 pic above took 11.5 hours to and 12.5 hours from Bangalore.

I have never heard of any Honda CBR250R motorcycle owner worried that his bike was going to fail In fact most riders buy the CBR250R for the irreplaceable peace of mind that comes with such a brilliant product.

Haven't owned the CBR250R for long but mine being a used motorcycle I have got the opportunity to source spares for it as well as work on it which I believe holds more weight than hearsay.

So when I say I'm unable to source a consumable nonetheless, forgive me if I do not appreciate a reply along the lines of;

"Why do you need to replace it? It's a Honda!"

On a different note, the Honda reliability notion has helped me get a few buyers lined up so I guess I shouldn't be this candid.

Daddy needs a Pulsar F250!

[voyageur]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I have never heard of any Honda CBR250R motorcycle owner worried that his bike was going to fail In fact most riders buy the CBR250R for the irreplaceable peace of mind that comes with such a brilliant product.

I agree with this. CBR250R is an international model. It's a very respectable beginner's bike and considered quite reliable. I think there may be one-off product that goes faulty but overall CBR was not too bad from what I have heard. In fact, reliability must have been high up there for many motorcyclists to buy a CBR250.

On the other hand, I rode almost all models of Pulsars except the newer AS200, RS200, NS200 - all pre-2010 models to be precise. 5 years down the line, the bike would be in a dismal state. But then, people who buy these bikes are also beating them to death.

Just my 2 cents

[varoon9999]

As they say, "all the good things in the world are short-lived", so was my journey with Pulsar 220F, this machine has ruled over our hearts for several years and continues to do so.

I also have fond memories of owning a 220F for 5+ years, my dad was to retire from his job in 2015. Brother and I wanted to gift him something that we can also ride while we're at home during our visits to Chamba (HP). This was probably the most selfish gift that we could give to our father.

I always loved riding it, I did Sach Pass, Pangi valley, and several local trips on this, but as luck would have it, had to sell this off in 2020 as my father was not interested in riding it anymore because of its weight and longer turning radius. Additionally, the bike had clocked mere 4700Kms in 5 years of ownership, which I felt was real injustice for a bike with such high adrenaline.

We let go the Pulsar in 2020, handed it over to another enthusiast who already had one 220F with him.


Good old days- Mean Machines basking in the glory


Three Musketeers - Time to say "Cheese"

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

So I'd say the average was over 100kmph, quite remarkable as per my own standards however Kurup from our xBhp group took the same route I take i.e Madurai, since we're from the South, and he did it in less time than I'd take to drive from Kollam to Kochi on a peak traffic day, this was to deliver Sam's Duke 200.

Doing an average of over 100 kmph over 700+ kms on South Indian roads is terrible unwise even on a super tourer like a GS1200 or a Ninja 1000. On a much smaller motorcycle like the Pulsar 220, well the less said the better.

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Haven't owned the CBR250R for long but mine being a used motorcycle I have got the opportunity to source spares for it as well as work on it which I believe holds more weight than hearsay.

So when I say I'm unable to source a consumable nonetheless, forgive me if I do not appreciate a reply along the lines of;

"Why do you need to replace it? It's a Honda!"

I dont know what any of this means or how it is related to what you said earlier. I have been riding with Honda CBR250R riders from the time the motorcycle was launched in India in 2011. So I have heard a thing or two, directly from owners who have clocked tens of thousands of kilometers on this bike, for over a decade.

Overall, Bajajs reliability record in motorcycles is laughably bad when you compare it to Hondas. And if you look at the quality track record of the Pulsar 220 from the day it was launched till the day it was discontinued and look at the CBR250R from the day it was launched till the day it was discontinued, it isnt even a fair comparison. Quality wise, the Pulsar 220, is a clear step below the CBR250R.

I dont mean to derail this Pulsar 220 thread, but even Bajaj owners (and I am a former one myself) will admit that it doesnt stack up all too well against the CBR250R.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I dont mean to derail this Pulsar 220 thread, but even Bajaj owners (and I am a former one myself) will admit that it doesnt stack up all too well against the CBR250R.

+1

As a previous user of both the bikes, I would rate CBR250R much much higher in the reliability scale.