Fervent praying and several visit to the temple and the showromm have finally paid off. Well I am talking about getting to have a nice close look at the 220 monster now with the Pulsar family. A raees zada of my college just bought it and he says he had booked it 6 months ago. I mean look at the fan following it commands. At the first glance it gives you a feel of ultimate satisfaction. Yeah it’s finally out and now I can probe into what is called the pulsar 220. The fairing that I told you about last time around is like a head that gives that mean macho look to the bike and it holds what is called parabolic + ellipsoidal projector head lamps that don’t fail to (en)lighten you up. And no, this time around I am not going to rave and rant about how cool this is or anything (as much as I would love to). The rear end remains the same with those two piece pillion handles and that sharpish end and LED tails. This time the exhaust pipe has a bit more of mass and it houses the infamous EXHAUSTEC technology. The insulation within the resonator ensure that you burn the road not her legs. The resonator within makes the bike feel like an innocent child with that muffled thump thump! But when you twist the handle you know what the bike holds on the insides.
Now getting into the techs, the Pulsar 220 gives me a lot of matter to rave and rant about. The first thing I would love to mention is the fact that it has got 220 cubic centimeters within the cylinder walls at the point when the piston is at the lowest(the full form is to actually get you to realize the hugeness) ie the max volume. The elaboration is to emphasize a relatively big bike... engine wise.
Now what is the interesting part is that this engine runs when the fuel pumped in is through fuel injectors (What the hell is that?? You ask). Ok the difference between an engine which breathes through injectors and an engine without injectors is that a regular one has a carburetor while the one with injectors has its carburetor taken off. Intelligent chips take into consideration a thousand parameters like the oxygen level in the exhaust, the fuel inlet temperature, the oil pressure in the engine, engine rpm, etc etc. Now these parameters are sensed and recorded by sensors and this info is sent to an ECM (Electronic control module) which makes intense, complex Herculean calculations and determines how much fuel is required in the next stroke. Now this happens at what speed ?? Now let us consider the engine runs at merely 2000 rpm(revolutions per minute) and since our engine is four stroke the fuel is injected once in every four strokes, ie 500 times the fuel is injected in a minute. 500 divided by 60 secs is all the time it has to make a decision which equals 0.12 seconds. This is what happens at just 2000 rpm and the engine is capable of 13000. oh yeah one more thing that is how it gets the new name pulsar 220 DTS- Fi (Digital Twin spark, Fuel Injection)
Moving on (This thing has lots of exciting stuff) the 220 has oil galleries. Well considering the fact that the engine manages up to an average 6000 rpm the engine is bound to get heated up and this requires cooling(Unless you want a molten lump of aluminium alloy under your fuel tank instead of an engine). The 220 is cooled by oil galleries around the combustion chamber unlike other bikes which depend on the air fins you see on the exterior to dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. And this system is pretty complex considering the fact that you cant have just that same bit of oil around your combustion chamber all the time. This oil needs circulation and that needs a pump, a cooler all the things that come with it.
Hmmm we are done with the DTS-Fi, the oil cooling systems and yeah the brakes, I almost forgot them (See? I told you this thing has many exciting things to probe into). Factiles tell me this machine is capable of 20 bhp (Brake Horse Power), 56.4 Nm(Newton-meter) torque and a top speed of 135 kmph(Kilometers per Hour). Now with so much of performance under your butt you cant hold on to those ancient drum brakes (mechanical brakes, internal expanding brakes etc etc call it anything. It’s the same thing). Agreed it has had disc brakes on the upfront and we have bin going gaga about it for some time, but excuse me we still cant hold on to the drum brakes. Hmmm… Bajaj does a swish and flick and there we have front and rear disc brakes. And if you are looking for some details, details then here you go the front ones have a diameter of 410 mm (Petal shaped) and the rear ones have a diameter of 296 mm (Steel floating). Those holes you see on the discs are not meant to appeal a wierd sense of aesthetic. They are for cooling. Yeah!!! I know it sounds weird and all but yeah they are for cooling and the holes make more area for the heat dissipation and for the air to cool it cross sectionally.
All this performance and braking is all fine but what about my butt under which the machinery goes? Well another swish and flick and Bajaj have an answer. 37 mm Telescopic Hydraulic Type suspensions upfront which travel for a pot hole of 130 mm (Remember the chunky bit of shocks I mentioned last time?? TING) and at the rear it has swing arm with an elliptical cross section coupled with twin Hydraulic Gas-charged Shock Absorbers (Big names???…..heheheh I just love them) with a travel of 101mm. Now these ensure your butt stays in place. Snugg and fit ??
Hey hold on one more thing. I kept looking for it and no, it wasn’t there I mean I had gone berserk. The kick was actually not there. It took me to realize, analyze and assimilate this fact. The kick is not a standard option on the 220 and no you still don’t get it if you ask for one. The kick has been an inseparable and an integral part of the Indian two wheeler and these Bajaj guys here come up with one without it. The gear box remains the same with the1 down 4 up action and misses all those false neutrals (The raees zada told me this. I gotta trust him on that). The clutch is like a stress ball ( bole toh maska hai). The tubeless tires are of course something you have heard of and I am not gonna push it down your throat to the point of humiliation.
All in all a very well engineered bike and with all this you ask the question that haunts all of us. Be it engineers, touts, authorized dealers, mechanics, the owners themselves, or for that matter Mr. Rahul Bajaj himself. “Average kitna hai??” The official answer goes like 45 kmpl(kilometers per liter), we all know how to exactly interpret that. At the end of the day it’s a question of give and take (give fuel take the performance and vice versa), it’s a question of choices, a question of a statement you want to make out there. What with global warming and petrol prices going sky high and allied issues. Well India has missed out on many years of pure biking. And with these new machines out there are we gonna enjoy the ride or sit back and wait for oil extinction to hit us. Personally I feel there is a third way out and many have already worked on this third way out. And as always I remain. A mind low on knowledge but high on quest of it
Monday, August 6, 2007
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