All,Sorry for the delay in posting the updates from my end. My requirement changed significantly after my last post as I underwent a change in job after my last post on this thread. I did not buy a bike until about two months back.
Need for a bike when I already own a car
The reasons for which I decided to get a bike were quite odd.The major
reasons are as below.
1. I needed a bike to travel short distances says around <5kms. E.g. going to gym,going to spencers to get few items. I was getting stuck in traffic jams while performing these tasks.
2. My office is quite close to my home. It's only about 5kms.Unfortunately I don't have great work in my current project.I hardly have 5-6 hours of work. So,I prefer going to office a bit late compared to other office goers. I usually go to office around 11:30 A.M and return home around 7:00 P.M.[This would be the case 80% of the time]. But the problem is that the
car parking space in my office can accomodate only around 50 cars and these get filled up by 10:30 A.M. LOL!
3. Another reason was that sometimes it take me 45mins to travel from office to home by car to cover the 5kms. I wanted to avoid this on certain days.
The bikes which I considered
I decided to go for a 150cc bike.No real reason apart from the fact that I wanted a proper commuting bike with some power and did not want a 100cc or 125cc bike as I had already owned a 100cc bike earler[TVS Victor it was and I think it was 110cc bike].
In view of this, I shortlisted the following bikes.
1.TVS Apache 160 Carb
2.Pulsar 150
3.Yamaha FZ-S
4.Honda CB Unicorn
5.Suzuki GS150R
I decided on Suzuki GS150R after ruling out other bikes because of the following reasons.[These are just my views and may not be applicable to others.]
1.TVS Apache 160: I felt that the handle design would not be to my liking. I wanted a comfortable commuting bike and didn't want to end up with any back pain. I had experienced sever back pain during TVS Victor days.
2.Pulsar 150: The only reason that I ruled out this bike was that I felt that there are two many pulsars on the road and I wanted something fresh. I also felt that the quality of the build may not be as good as a Honda/Yamaha or a Suzuki.
3.Yamaha FZ-S : Ruled out due to low FE,compared to other bikes,and the cost of the bike.
For a long time I was confused between CB Unicorn anf GS150R.The reason were the following.
1.I had not see many GS150R bikes on the road compared to Unicorn. I was a bit concerned about this. I knew that the bike was introduced only in late 2008 but still it looked like that Suzuki had not tapped the market.
I was not sure if there were few issues with the bike due to which the consumers were not interested.
2.I was worried about the A.S.S. I believe that there are only around 4 A.S.S in Chennai and each one of them is in a different corner of the city.
I chose GS150R over CBUnicorn
1.After getting favourable reviews from the owners in this forum and I also read favourable reviews in a number of online auto-magazines.
2.In the comparision of the specifications of GS150R and CB Unicorn, I felt that GS150R had a superior specification due to which the riding and handling will be much finer.
3.I wanted something fresh and not the usual run of the mill bike and GS150R seemed to be a good bike.
Details on buying and first service experience to follow..
23rd January 2010, 13:06
