I'm quoting the exact text below.


Yes, let's not take this further. But I was one of the buyers, who changed his buying decision to buy 200NS, not because I was short of cash, but simply because, I found 200NS to be a more practical bike. To put things in perspective, I may take my bike to a place called Hasimara. Expecting KTM dealership / SVC at that location will be too optimistic. Where as I'm sure within a few months, 200NS will be a common sight even there.

Q: Now to answer you specific question: why is this cost-cutting initiation from Bajaj? coz as per your theory a person who can afford a P200NS can also afford a Duke right?

Ans: Because, not everybody is interested in FI, Lightweight swing arm, or WS USD forks, especially if they don't have a good enough practical on road benifits.

Q: What if Duke and P200NS are priced and marketed identical ?

In that case, Pulsar would also had all the extra equipment to justify the price. In that case I would have still preferred the Pulsar!

Not sure why the other bikes are brought into comparison and the asked for opinion, are the CBR250 and Duke are as identical as Duke and P200NS?
We forget one basic thing while commenting on this thread, this thread is about P200NS and Duke 200. Which are from the same Bajaj stable which are almost featured identical. The answer lies on the product differentiation point which is the COST. Decide which one fits your budget for purchase, running and maintenance costs. This deciding factor drills down to the word AFFORDABILITY which is not accepted my a few heads around here. Its common sense a person ready to invest a lac on a bike will certainly be a person who is worth a few more lacs under his head and not below the poverty line. Its just the Trap set by the seller to attract customers at the Price point. If you are contented enough choose the P200NS and if you like it complete pick the Duke 200.

There are few exceptional ppl who select the bike according to the rear seat, tank capacity etc. Even I am one of those exceptional ones, coz back in 2008 I selected an R15 instead of FZ for the rear seat without knowing any other difference about both those bikes.

At last the user has accepted that P200NS suits his purpose and his Budget. Boss, this is what I am trying to say from the 1st post. Now what if the Duke is sold at the same cost and hence fitting your budget? Now don't respond for the sake of it and stating I like the rear seat, side mirror etc..Think about the mass consumers and respond. Cost factor is the only thing behind this game.

Regarding my English, I apologize bro coz its not my native tongue. Also I am lazy to read comprehension books, so better I will go back and sit in 5th std once again and come back if you like.

now you would be thinking that i might have gone for cbr .. duke according to me is qicker than cbr, easy to handle and better looking as well .. it even has way better roll on acceleration ... if i had 2 lakhs to play with , i would wait for a month or two to escalate my budget and go for ninja ...i could have bought the cbr non abs model instead of duke but i did not find it better than duke in terms of performance .. 0-60 , 0-100 , roll on acceleration , light weight and looks were at the top of my priority list .. i never care about the better top speed of cbr cuz i will ride my bike only in city ...

+1000 ...couldnt agree more .. exactly what i wanted to say ..

Either my english is too bad OR ur english is so good that It looks opposite than what you mean to say. I know that u will agree with the former, so no point discussing

I suggest you to get reading comprehension book by Norman Lewis, does a world of good to your understanding of english. Now to the theory part, I didn't propose any theory, it's you who proposed that " P200NS is for people who can't get Duke 200". And the response was if some body is trying to decide between Duke 200 & 200NS, then that obviously means he can afford either one of them. So, the actual theory here is anybody trying to decide between two bikes will consider them only if they can afford them. Unfortunately you can't comprehend this properly, that's why I suggest you get a good reading comprehension book. And about the other points they are not even worth responding to, you are utterly clueless on what you are talking about! why the hell would I be bothered about Bajaj's strategy when buying a bike? all I want is a bike that suits my purpose in the budget that I got.

Guess, I was trying to say the same thing. Looks like lot of people are in need of reading comprehension books please follow the thread properly to get the context of the posts.

If the bold line is ur case, theen why were u gunning for NS, even when you had the budget for Duke??
I will tell u why-- Its because of the niggles faced by the owners that u read on the ownership thread. Right??

So u see, there other OTHER ASPECTS as well which one also considers when buying a bike. Just that, the bike is offering the best technology, and I have the money for it wont do.
Giving my example, After my p150 got stolen on Jan 2010, I waited like hell for the R15 V2.0. But then when it finally released, it seemed Impractical as a Only bike in my garage, with that pillion seat. Had it been my 2nd bike, no forces in the world could talk me out of R15.
Now since NS fits all my requirements, so going for that. So why not Duke for Me?? = 1stly the Budget will be stretched a bit more for my comfort level, an 2nd ly I simply Dont like its Styling(just my Personal Opinion)
What i tried to say is Payeng' article stated that Bajaj using the Triple Spark was not a Marketing gimmick, and is useful in mataining the pollution norms even by using a smaller CATCON; which in turn results in lower cost of the exhaust systems.

Lets stop this argument right here, We are taking about Duke and P200NS only. In general Affordability is not in terms on the money present with you in your pocket/bank A/C. Its the way you spend it. There are people who do hair-cut for 5000rs and I too have 5000rs with me, but will be never spend it on a hair-cut. Which certainely means I cannot afford the hair-cut though I had the money in my pocket. Likewise if I think a bike is just to travel from A to B with the at-most best efficiency I will simply buy a 100CC bike, no matter I can even own a Skoda at home . I woundnt spend a fortune on bikes.

Coming to the point, no matter how many times/types you describe the bitter truth is the marketing strategy behind the P200NS which simply scores off the Duke by a huge 40K margin, virtually creating an VFM illusion among the common buyers who has no idea about the real world difference between both.

Hero has CBZ and Hunk both almost identical under different hoods, but the price tag is almost the same, hence the styling plays the product differentiation/decision making role. Comparing the P200NS and Duke the only differentiation that Bajaj puts forward is the cost margin and nothing else. You well know Bajaj has put in great effort to bring down the cost and why is this cost-cutting initiation from Bajaj? coz as per your theory a person who can afford a P200NS can also afford a Duke right?

What if Duke and P200NS are priced and marketed identical ?

Answer to these questions will explain my point.

See both the bikes are targeted towards youngsters. Fuel tank capacity and rear seat are neither major differentiation nor decision makers in favor of P200NS coz the R15 has virtually no rear seat and a 12lit tank and priced over a lac. Again a few exceptions are present everywhere.

So I hope lets stop this debate right here and disappoint others.

Sorry, didn't get your question, what are you demading here read properly, check the context in which my post is and then come back with a clear question. will be ready to answer you, after all don't have much to do in office today!

sorry for the back to back posts, didn't see this one when I posted the last one

@Rohan, me too waiting for you to answer this

You need to again go through Payeng's article. What u are demanding here, Payeng has stated the same things(i.e for triple spark and NOT against it)

@Rohan, General Query: What would you have picked had your budget been fixed at Rs. 2 lac? Not a penny more. I really want you to answer this one!

correction to the first para, some people did call bajaj engineers are crap, do check the first few pages where one particular member was on rampage!

About the part in bold, but that's just you Don't think that everyone in the world thinks like you, there might be some, but not everyone! now you getting what everyone else trying to knock into your head!! Another person may want to consider which bike fits best for his purpose or which bike serves his needs better.

you got it wrong here .. nobody called bajaj crappy indian company here ..bajaj has a lot of contribution towards creation of duke200 , still you only get what you pay for ..people buying ns thinking bajaj even made duke is like saying ---i will buy toyota etios because they even make lexus lfa ...

if i had 3.3 lakhs to spend , i would pick the ninja .. i would never consider the cbr250 ..similarly if i had a budget of 7lakhs , i would pick the ducati monster and not even consider ninja 650 as an option ..you get what i am trying to say?? .. no compromise when i have the money to buy something better ..

CBR250 & Ninja 250 may belong to different worlds, and they are not as close as Duke 200 & P200NS, but that was just a simple example to drive the point home.

No it's not, both are different statements. If someone says P200NS fits my needs that doesn't mean he can't afford Duke 200. The extra statements in bold about service/maintenance are used to convince as added advantages. Even that doesn't mean the guy can't afford a bit more on service/maintenance. There are lot of people buying Splendor, that doesn't mean all of them can't afford a 150cc bike or can't afford service/maintenance of a 150cc bike. It might be true for some of them, but certainly not all of them. There is a difference between how much one willing to spend & can't afford, try to understand it before posting something like certain bike is for those people who can't afford the other one.

This is exact re-phrasing done in a sober way. But unfortunately Ninja 250 and CBR 250 belong to different world's and aren't as identical as P200NS and Duke and moreover both are from different manufacturers and not sold from the same stable.

"A person who cannot afford the Duke can pick the NS" is what I mentioned, it can also be said like "I get what I need from the NS itself at a lower cost, also I save on service/maintenance too and I am okay with the missing technology, features etc too ". Frame the sentence either ways it ends up in the same way. (Applies only to Duke vs P200NS). To be precise its like having an Lxi, Vxi, Zxi for the same product.

You get the Duke or P200NS you will never regret later coz Duke is an internationally proven product. For the P200NS, based on the user reviews up until now, shows Bajaj has done some proper homework and given a niggle free bike this time. Hopefully this couple makes the other competitors pull up their socks....