Quote:
Originally Posted by Technocrat Sankar: I would not advice ZMA to any one for city commuting for following reasons:
Mileage: best I ever got was 35 normal was 30-31 worst was 27.
Its long bike & at times difficult to manouever in tight spots
The rear panels are pathetic you wont need to bang your bike for them to break, one pothole is enough & they are expensive(1st gen's costed 8xx per piece, 2nd gen later costs 650 per piece) I changed them thrice
Since you already have bullet go something which will have a good mixture of mileage & performance which the FI has. In the longer run Mileage does matter specially with these weird fuel pricing policies
Having said that its a beautiful bike with an amazing engine(took my 5k not serviced only oil changed bike to Hyderabad & came back next day The ride (When Lonavla Became Hyderabad :D) ) & the most comfy ride posture for long rides & awesome handler.
Just like any Honda nothing breaks but when it does you pay heavily for spares.
I hope this helps, if you need more info let me know |
there is something seriously wrong with you bike or riding style(no offence meant) on my bike i normally get 38-40 and with little careful riding i can even get 45 but can't control the throttle that much, my office is 14kms one way and it takes around 45mins to me, there are no free roads and i travel through almost middle of chennai so you can understand .....
About maintainance i haven't spend much on the bike. usual oil change(i change it every 1k kms) apart from that i have changed accelerator cable(one cable was broken, there are two accelerator wires in ZMA not redundant but bcoz of carb) and brake pads once .....
about the panel quality you are partially right, yeah quality is quit ****ty but it doesn't break on pothole.
for normal commuting i feel very much comfortable in ZMA, one of my fren has apache and i find ZMA better. never found any problem with bikes length it handles wonderfully.
till date bike runs like new, i have done 18k kms and still there are no vibration throughout the rev range, almost daily i rev it to red line in second gear till i can feel the limiter cut(on a certain flyover which always is empty) in but still engine is as smooth as the day i got it. and lots of low end torque means very less gear changes. again gearbox is one of the best ......
yeah parts are little expensive but again you know that you are paying for something that worth the price
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sankar Thanks for all the info and input guys i really appreciate it!
Even though i like the RTR Fi very much there is no going back to it solely due to the attitude of the dealers and the delay in the availability. If the RTR was available off the shelf at a different dealer i would've gone for it. But Karizma is not all that bad either and friends who has owned the bike only have good things to say about it. I might have to get used to the length of the bike but then Bullet is not too short in length either and i daily ride it in the traffic.
Another important thing is the long term usability quotient as i plan to keep the bike for three years minimum and Honda reliability should see me through (but Techno 8 grands for the plastic pieces!! glad they brought it down!) it plus it's a bit more upmarket and seems to be more comfortable for the pillion on a long run than on an Apache. Can i call the Karizma a bit more mature than the Apache?
Once the Kari comes the Bullet would be converted back into stock running setup. And i'll try to fix the soullessness of the Kari First on the cards is a free flow filter and a 28mm Dellorto carb and that should tart it up a little bit!
The bike costs 80500 here at Trivandrum and it is 7k more expensive than the Apache. Why not R15, well SB it's way too much outside of my motorcycling budget!
Balenopower, the Kari may not be the brightest of my decisions, but the fact is there is no other bike in my current budget which is a good alternative, Pulsar 220 is out of question as i'm not very comfortable with Bajaj's build quality and reliability over a long period of time. The probiking showroom guy himself told nobody buys 200 or 220 to keep for more than two years. He may be wrong or right, but what struck me is that the Bajaj salesman himself has in his head that no one buys the big Pulsies to keep for long.
All of you who have owned/own the Karizma could you please tell me what you like the most about the bike and what you hate the most? And have you experienced any serious issues related to engine or electrics? How would you raate the bike on reliability on a scale of ten? |
Well i have take TR of RTR, bike is good no doubt about that but engine feels quit strained after 5000rpm, also riding position is not exactly you will need for daily commuting .
pros zma will be
Smooth engine till rev limiter cuts in
gearbox
riding posture .... best for city or highway
very reliable
front brakes (best till date i used after CBZ, being nissin ..... all other disks i have used on indian bikes are like binary brakes works like switch either on or off but nissins are very progressive )
clutch again very progressive unlike many other indian bikes
low end torque
cons
underpowered for 223cc :( you will feel on highways ...... can do 100-110 but after that loses grunt max i have done is 135 something on speedo)
not as fuel efficient as the other bikes in category
poor seats
poor rear brakes
EDIT; one more thing i would to add is take 2-3 test rides and decide. i will not suggest to change the desicion