re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

Eurogrips are not that great off road and on wet tarmac and due to the position of brake pedal there are good chances of skidding.


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re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

Only Eurogrips are available as of now. Dealers in Bangalore had informed that one bike in a lot might have MRF and till now only one customer has got MRF with AS200.

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AS200 initail and twomonths use review

After looking in the market for a number of bikes, the NS200 suited my budget need, mileage, resale value, etc. But the problem was I never liked NS in the first place since I didn't have other options I thought of keeping the bike for a year or so and then sell it off. When I went to a showroom (19^th April) for the purchase, the AS has already in display. So after looking around the bike, I made up my mind on buying this instead.

On the day of payment(27^th April) I took a testride just for peace of mind. I didn't expect it to be good as I had rode NS200 in the past and I really didn't like it. But to my surprise this bike felt a lot smoother than the NS. Although it uses the same engine.


Just washed it


No windscreen









The review

BUILD QUALITY
The build quality of this bike is good overall.The plastics are good although they get scratched very easily and the metal frame is very good. Windscreen is really sturdy, mudguards are also great. Seats are hard and the pillion seat is uncomfortable. The rear grab rail is good and holdable (unlike the Pulsar 220, which is quite useless). Handle bars are ok (I hate split bars). On my bike the left bar, despite being fixed properly moves a little bit in its place. The quality of the mirrors are bad, the mirror surface is not smooth which produces distorted images.


ENGINE
As I previously mentioned the engine feels smooth. Due to the engine being new I couldn't rev it too much but the engine feels free above 4000 rpm. Under 4000 rpm the torque is very low and keeping the bike under 4000 rpm in higher gears is very hard. here in bangalore due to uneven terrain, there are lots of climbs, where the the bikes rpm suddenly dips below 3000 rpm and the engine starts knocking. According to Bajaj's manual we should keep the bikes speed under 48kmph till first servicing and under 54 till 2nd (although they didn't mention on which gear, I assume it is 6^th) , at those speed the rpm is about 3000 to 4000. Anyway I've been keeping the bike in the 3000 to 5000 rpm range and the bike rides decently.

ELECTRICAL
This is the part where I have the most complaints.

• The engine kill switch kills display too, although bajaj's servicemen say it extends the displays life but it does not. At every traffic signal when I have to kill the engine by flicking the engine kill switch the display will start its startup procedure everytime and this is bad for the display.
• Rearlight/taillight/backlight only turns on when engine is on.
• Display backlight turns up only engine is running.
• Parkinglight/Day time running light turns on only when engine is running.
• Head light turns on only when engine is running.

RIDE COMFORT
The ride comfort is decent. The hard seats make it a little bit uncomfortable but you can add extra padding to make it right. The bike is a bit handle heavy so you have to work to get the bike to turn at high speeds and it gets worse with a pillion. It needs some getting used to, after a month or two you get used to it. Gear throws are huge and are often uncomfortable. I have to bend my fit too much to change the gear. Same goes with the rear brake. The lever is placed too high, I have to bend my foot too much to keep the foot on the lever and also be sure not to press it. The working zone of the clutch is very less but it seems that all the bikes these days have this. The switch/button console on the handlebars are big and this makes it difficult to use indicators when depressing the clutch. Despite these problems overall the bike feels great at 60 - 80 kmph so you can cruise with it.

HANDING AND SAFETY
This is the area where this bike will not disappoint. Straight line is very good and cornering is even better. The brakes coupled with the MRF tires feels very reassuring. Due the bike's weight a bit towards the front, the front brakes engage perfectly and braking performance improves a lot with reduced risk on front tire skid. Due to the engine being a rev loving engine it just begs to be pushed hard.
The lights are just great.


After 2 months usage


I think this bike has automatic choke (besides having a manual one). It does not serve its purpose. When I start the bike in the morning it stars at ~1000 I have to manually set the rpm to ~1500rpm by turning the engine idle rpm screw. I manually keep the bike at 3K rpm using choke for 2mins for the engine to warm up. After leaving the throttle the bike returns to ~1600 rpm. But after I have ridden it for some time(2kms) the idling rpm reaches to 2.5K. And then I reduce the idling back to 1500.
If I don't heat the bike for ~2mins and start riding, although the rpm hover at around 1500 to 1700 rpm, whenever I depress the clutch the engine shuts off. When I turn on the engine again the rpm has returned back to ~1000. This becomes very dangerous when I am in traffic when after depressing the clutch the engine stops and when releasing it the bike stops suddenly in the middle of the road due to the enginebraking.

You have to heat up the engine for a smooth ride. Even you have left the bike for half an hour you need to heat it up. Intermediate heating requires about 30 secs of manual choke.

Tank easily got scratched from my T-shirt.

I gave the bike for servicing at the service center, and all they did was clean it, change oil and filter and spray chain lube. I didn't have the manual then so I didn't know what was supposed to be done. But when I got the manual there was a lot of things that they skipped, so when servicing ask them to perform all the tasks that are given in the manual. Also the service guys didn't know how to reset the service reminder indicator(wrench symbol).


Overall the bike is good. It is definitely not perfect but all the little imperfections that it has can be fixed easily to make it perfect. It requires maintenance and if proper care(which is basic care) is given, it won't disappoint you.

P.S. Some AS200 how-tos are coming up.

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

I would always be cautious in believing what the dealers tell. My AS200 came with MRF zappers.

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

Thanks @xttony for that post, some real life reviews are much appreciated

Hey Krishna, did you insist on MRFs or they came as standard fitment?
Which MRF Zappers do you have? any idea?


I had a chat with a Dealer, he said AS 200 only come with Eurogrips!

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

Congrats buddy. The AS200 looks sophisticated in Black.

About the Eurogrips, I did scrub the Khivraj stock yard for a MRF clad AS200, they had none.

Guess will wait for 10K kms and dump them. I found the dry tarmac performance to be adequate, but the cornering is nervous.

In other news, my front left fairing has started rattling. Under inspection, one of the allen key bolt have run loose. Need to buy an allen Key and make it my key chain i guess

Pulsar AS200



To reset the service reminder in AS200 follow these steps:

1. Turn on the bike
2. Set trip 1 on the display console by pressing(press should be less than 2secs) the mode button multiple times, till you get to trip 1.
3. Turn off the bike.
4. Press and hold the mode button.
5. Turn on the bike while holding the mode button.
6. Keep holding the mode button till the service reminder(wrench symbol) starts to blink.
7. Release the mode button.
8. Now press and hold the set button till the symbol disappears.
9. Done

Mode Button - Button marked with M
Set button - Button marked with S

Hope it helps.

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

The Allen Key set will generally come with a key chain. I just bought one yesterday for 70 bucks. Quality is bad though. You should go with Stanley or something.

Re: AS200 initail and twomonths use review


I never had such issues with my P220. The back-lit on the display will be always on even when the kill-switch is on (engine-off condition). But, regarding the head-light, mine also works only when the engine is running. I thought it is normal. Isnt it.

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

[MENTION=57847]xttony[/MENTION] : Yup, saw stanley set in Flipkart.

BTW, where do you service your Bike ?

Re: AS200 initail and twomonths use review

P220 doesnot have such issues, these issues only exist in the 200 lineup. In 220 if you turn off the engine the light takes about 5 more seconds to shut off, but in this bike it shuts off instantly. I don't care much about the headlight turning off, I care more about the parking lights and the backlight turning off.

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I generally do the servicing whatever that is possible. It is a new bike so I haven't done much anyway I am not willing to touch the engine block yet unless I see someone skilled do it.

Re: AS200 initail and twomonths use review

From what I heard, the p220 uses bcu and hence it doesn't have the backlight issues. Newer p180 and the 200 series doesn't have bcu and in these, the engine kill switch turns off the whole electricals. Btw, try to keep the engine idle rpm at 1000 rpm on cold engine bro. The hot idle should be around 1.4-1.6k rpm.

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re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

The engine shuts off at 1000rpm when cold. I kept it at 1200. anyway, now I heat up the engine properly. It takes about 2-3 mins of choke to heat up the engine properly.

By the way what is BCU?

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences

Alrighty then !! First service done....pathetic service by Bajaj ASC in Krishna Bajaj, Gurgaon.

All they did was to wash, change oil ( which was pumped out of a drum into a dirty looking measure ) and the oil filter ( which most certainly didn't look original ), topped up the coolant when I countlessly asked them to do it and that was all.

When I asked about cleaning of the air filter, the guy replied that in AS200 and RS200 the air filter isn't cleaned...it is simply replaced after every 20k kilometers.
On showing him the service manual which stated cleaning of the air filter element, he blatantly replied, "Sir ye sab bakwas hai, hum Bajaj se training kar ke aaye hain..bohot saal se service kar rhe hain."

This was the first and probably the last service at a Bajaj ASC. I don't care if the service is free or paid, the service quality should be top notch. Any members here know any good service center in Gurgaon or Delhi where the 200 can be taken care of properly??

One thing I forgot to mention, instead of a chain spray, the service guy lubed up the chain with used engine oil which I believe is causing some chain noise when i let go the throttle. Should I get the chain cleaned again and lube it with a proper chain spray?

re: Pulsar AS 200 Owners Review and Experiences


No, I did not ask for MRFs. In fact, I did not even know that there were 2 tyre options. I guess I got MRFs because my bike was from one of the 1st batches.
They are MRF nylogrip zapper tyres.