True, but the Pulsar had its own areas of success:
First, the market was already spoiled by the good looks of CBZ.But a bike that looks good was highly priced at 65K even in those days.People wanted those looks and that Disc brake but could not afford it.

Second, it is true that Fiero offered formidable performance which was far from the fort of any 150cc bikes of that time but it lacked the attraction quotient required for people here.Despite its twin advantage of both power and mileage, it lacked upmarket looks of the CBZ, it lacked the fifth gear craze of the CBZ, it lacked a tachometer which lessened its instrumentation appeal more.Now these things may not matter to someone who rides and buys for performance only, like myself or other Fiero owners. But at that time such things really mattered to everyone else.Oh, the Fieros lacked disc brakes for many years on the standard model.My bike has a disc brake though because I picked it up as optional while grounding the self-starter option.The feature package on Fiero offered was ridiculous to many people who wanted more from their bikes.

Third, when the Pulsar twins came in their 150/180 guise, people were overwhelmed by what was offered to them.The Pulsars looked very stylish with muscular looking tanks and tail section.It was almost as radical as the CBZ in conception.The Pulsar brought the big bike feeling to the commoners.The consoles had side stand indicators and tachometer.They too had reasonable power,a 180cc version was available just for Rs.2K more than the Fiero and way lesser than the CBZ,the 180 had fifth gear too.Electric starter options were available on both bikes.For the 150cc it was optional though.The disc brake being available on both the 150 as well as 180 bike as standard scored the last point for them.

Ultimately, it boiled down to one thing:
Pulsars had both power and upmarket looks and was loaded with features no other bikes were capable of offering at the same time.Moreover, the basic version of Pulsar 150 was priced even lesser than Fiero and CBZ both,but it had disc brake as standard.People who wanted self-starter along with disc did not have to compromise one for the other.
Pulsars offered more Value For Money for the common biking populace back then.

Now who would go for a bland featureless Fiero or the exclusively priced CBZ when greater things were on offer from a common man's scooter manufacturer and that too at a less price ????

Suzuki's habit of dwelling in the past and not moving up with times as fast sealed their first episode in India.
Honda did not have to worry about that then, as their partner Hero made it sure that they can remain exclusive in the premium segment by launching models such as CBZ and Karizma but be very common place with models of revenue like Splendour and Passion.

TVS well understood all these, had their issue with Suzuki,drove them out of India with their underestimating Indian populace thinking and launched Victor.......which became a sales hit and more popular than Fiero was then,despite the presence of Passion and Caliber in the market.It was because,Victor was very good for being a 110cc bike but also its looks were very stylish too.

Suzuki out on their second outing did the same mistake.They thought they would score what TVS scored with Victor by launching refined and technologically advanced commuter 125cc bikes in the era when the market shouted the need for powerful and radical bikes.The market looked for what different Suzuki had to offer.And what Suzuki offered was even less than what market had already.When most of their dealerships started going down on a loss and lost a major chunk of it.Then Suzuki figured out that something needs be done with the strategy, they came up with the feature laden GS150R.This bike I can assure everyone is the most sold Suzuki bike in India,not Heat neither Zeus scored sales like this bike.Access 125 is a scooter and I am not taking it into consideration.
If GS150R can show its effect on Suzuki's sales chart despite being in a handicapped state of not being widely marketed, guess what it could have done if it was planned sooner when the wide-spread enthusiastic Suzuki dealerships were in the last phase of desperation and eventually shutting doors on Suzuki

GS150R is unknown to most people in the market.It is because people does not how it feels to ride one.No dealerships,no test drives,no service centers in most parts of India......but why ???? Suzuki's dwelling in the past psychology is responsible for this. GS150R is not a flop, but a big hit without exposure.

But if we look at Honda, which in their independent venture in India, had the attitude to become popular and not show-off their own partners, they planned very methodically.They offered what the motorcycle market needed.A radical new bike, their first bike was the Unicorn......which was more powerful than the CBZ of their partners and at the same time was technologically refined and radical.A monoshock being a first on a 150cc bike made the bike more desirable and worthy of praise to many.Honda started gaining its way into the motorcycle market by selling a good performance bike at first and then came their 125cc,100cc and now 250cc.They are on a rise.They do not wait to do something different or don't do anything at all, they rather try to do better than what others are already doing. !!!

Suzuki should stop watching and making us waiting.They should do what others already do but for better.Dealership would again be on rise as the demands from the youths rise.GS150R came at a time when R15 and Pulsar220 is considered to be flagships..........how can this bike ride demands in the youth market enough to raise dealerships ???

Still,many people craves for the GS150R and does not find someone who can sell it to them or maintain it for them,

Suzuki can go Yamaha way and can set-up a factory outlet in four major cities of Delhi,Mumbai,Bangalor and Kolkata and just find out how the populace still desires them despite the competition.People can buy Superbikes and maintain them easier.Youths dropping in for a look at the Big bikes would love to ride a 180cc or a 250cc from such a company.People who looks at the GS150R with desire can finally buy and maintain the bike without worries.Car owners would be intrigued by the Suzuki logo of their cars on a bike showroom and can enter.Such customers can buy anything from a 125cc scooter to a 1300cc monster.Why stay at waiting for someone to offer a dealership and then judge the market ?????

It does not take a lot of money for Suzuki to do these things, their cousin the Maurti Suzuki is driving the nation.The parent company from Japan have enough revenues to fill India with dealerships.But it just requires Suzuki's good attitude towards people of India.Suzuki is a company which can give life to fictional concepts like Bking.They are a company with a lot of guts.But whenever they come to India, they mess it up all........maybe the people working for them in India are the real culprits or their underestimating the needs of urban Indian biking populace might be.


I use Lifebuoy and Medimix, however thanks for the recommendation

@Mach50

You forgot one big factor my friend You forgot to mention that the magazines of that time were heavily biased towards the Bajaj pulsars.The editor of OVERDRIVE at that time was well known to be heavily promoting bajaj,remember bajaj at that time was at a make or break situation when the pulsars were launched,they knew how to manipulate the market.They obviously knew that the existing auto magazines had the young enthusiasts reading them and at that time there were 2 or 3 magazines and no TV shows etc.The editor praised the pulsars like they were the first performance bikes ever made on this holy land.The rest is history.That particular editor,was forced to jump from one magazine to another mainly because of this bias and eventually he's promoting the same on the net now.
Were as the mechanics ,tuners,racers and people who knew things mechanical always knew what the fiero was capable of.It was a true all rounder(power/performance/mileage/reliability),it dominated the rally and motocross events,beating 2strokes and was almost unbeatable on himalayan rallies and set numerous speed run records, for rides from bombay to bangalore.
The magazines said that the pulsars might be getting their rears kicked on the rallies and motocross events,but will beat the fiero on tracks .What happened? they were made to eat their own words!!Fiero dominated all kind of racing for almost a decade till the R15 came.Now RTR's are as competitive and have started beating the R15 once again on tracks since a year or so.

---------------------
. I am regular reader of this thread .
I am very happy with the performance of GS. I am still facing 3.5 k vibration problem...but intensity is very reduced..

I doubt how many people who comes from the daily life used to read those mags of then.but I find every kind of Pulsars in every village or suburbs I came across so far.

Moreover, only one person cannot be blamed for a bias if any, there were only two magazines that specialized in these kind of things then Autocar and Overdrive.Every magazine praised Pulsar.Even our own Xbhp took birth with the pictures of silver Pulsar twins on a green webpage background.They had a special section on Pulsars back then and only into Pulsars.The forum has came a long way since then.My involvement with bikes came to me from a very early age.My membership of this forum dates back to 2004.......so I have watched a lot of things.Pulsar deserved the attention they got,they indeed had that "all that you want" quality in them, back then.

But I was under-aged at that time barred from riding any bike.Having learnt the basics of biking on my Dad's Shogun, I wanted to ride something like that.But the reign of 2strokes were going to be over and my father wanted to buy a four stroke, a good and powerful one.He almost went for the Pulsar.But I turned him to the Fiero, talking sense and arguing with a man who had ridden classics like Jawa and RD350,at a tender age of mine(boys of my age back then were generally into toy cars,superheroes and cartoons).It is because I was so mesmerized by Shogun that I always wanted a Suzuki for our family.That particular and moderately maintained Fiero which he bought,still serves him wonderfully while making a mockery of even the newest of Pulsar 150s.

So riding a Fiero really is not a big issue for me but the market always shy away from a featureless and bland looking bike.

Now the question here is why Suzuki products have to be flop despite being very assuring in every way.

The answer is still the one I had for them before.They have a stale psychology while developing a product.They bring performance in their products but it is incomplete and when they complete it..........they fail to find people who can spread their words.

The TVS has done better job with the Fiero, they put disc brakes and self starters on the later versions.Used fifth gear on the platform to produce Apache 150.Shook the total platform up, altered it for the RTRs.
Now the RTR is such a vehicle for which you get performance bolt-on kits in India.One can pump up their RTRs to clock in excess of 155kmph.

But when I approach such a person who develop those kits to develop one for our GS150R.I get the answer GS150R is not worth pumping up.I do not know why.It shares the same old Fiero platform but it has got new systems to refine it.Hence working on this bike would be worth a lot of time and money.But then who would buy the performance kit ???? A handful of GS150R owners ???? So would making it be really worth the time.

The blame again goes to Suzuki for their poor product strategy which makes such a good platform of the GS150R go waste.

Now only Suzuki can make for what it has done to itself.

A refined and powerful 180cc bike like the GS150R would again breed pure performance in hearts of loyalists, such a factor would be beneficial to the sales.

A nice 250cc,the sooner launched would gain attention of many people who had been harassed for waiting and saving on the only 250cc bikes in the market.The loyalist would always go for the Suzuki, such a factor would be beneficial to the sales.

A factory outlet in select cities would make their products have a wider customer exposure.Especially in cities where they have no dealerships at all.Such a factor would be beneficial to sales.

If three such factors influence Suzuki bike sales, selling the Slingshot 125 would be any problem.First the loyalists and then the believers and then the crowds would follow.

Anything else would make them sitting ducks......and make us Suzuki loyalists look like arrogant fools.

Guys I am seriously fed up of these lunatics/psychos/m****r f****rs in bangalore...
Just came back from a function and I realized that some idiot had left a deep "V" marked scratch on the left side of my GS's tank

Its clearly visible and the scratch is so deep that a small white kinda thing is visible inside the scratch(may be the tank's core)

I had parked my vehicle inside the party hall's premises but it was too crowded..
Don't know what to do..I am sure i will not get any sleep today (my bike is just 25 days old)

Seriously pls help me out to figure out a solution...
Attached is the pic of that scratch (I have marked inside the circle)
Pls suggest a remedy (permanent / temporary)

That is soo Bad.. Maybe some kid did it... maybe some kind of coating shud cover it.. Wat do our experts have to say??

HeyMach.. cut the suspense man... Wat happens when u spread ur elbows and fly like a bird...???

Hi Madhu, Can u post a pic to show me and others like me wat exactly is that net like..??

This kind of mischievous persons is everywhere. Coins are used by these lunatics and it is purposively done on new cars, bikes and scooters. Here, in my place, a peculiar group of youngsters are doing it; it is heard.

Paint pens are available in the market. Get one of matching color from a paint shop and do a touch up on the white areas. After that, rub with SCRATCH OUT from Formula 1. This will reduce the depth and noticeability of the scratch.

All of us are facing this kind of problems every day which is a part of our daily life. Your agony is because the bike is very new.

The best way is to wait a little more after doing the touch up and asking for a replacement of the tank, pointing out some rust on the mouth or somewhere else of it.

That scratch doesn't look like it was done on purpose or by a kid.
I think its due to handle bar of another bike, may be the person who parked next to you and while putting the stand or removing it scratched your tank.

Its happened to me so many times in college, especially with activa/100cc bike owners, they push their bikes in the smallest gaps to park, but luckily only minor scratches on my bike due to this. (its pretty common in blore due to lack of parking spaces everywhere )

I think you can try going to the svc and asking them to paint the affected area only, i remember some GS owner (black colour) had done it after some kids made scratches on one side of the tank, the svc repainted that one side only, for around 400 rupees.

Your opinion may be correct. But this painting is not done at the sc here and hence I am not sure. If the service center in Bangalore is doing it, that is the best way.

Otherwise do what I have said and try to get replacement later.

But thefalcon, why are you not active here?

[QUOTE=vishnukmd;641288]
Paint pens are available in the market. Get one of matching color from a paint shop and do a touch up on the white areas. After that, rub with SCRATCH OUT from Formula 1. This will reduce the depth and noticeability of the scratch.

Thanks Vishnu..Will try the pen method first. Can I get that Scratch out from ebay or something like that?


Hey Falcon...It deliberately done by some one as its a clear V shaped with a deeper mark at the junction..There were only couple of bikes present in the parking lot which were at safe distance from each other .I am going to collect some documents from SVC tomorrow and I will ask them to fix it if they can.. This scratch is about half an inch in width so do I hav to get repaint on the entire left side of the tank???

[QUOTE=ashoka_bnglr;641345]
Anyhow, these kind of social evils are all over in our country; it is true.

SCRATCH OUT LIQUID RUBBING COMPOUND is available in shops selling car accessories such as stereo players, polishes, car shampoo etc. it is easily available. Assure that you are getting an original Formula 1 USA product.

[QUOTE=ashoka_bnglr;641345]hi bro,

The SVC will say that they can give a touch up to the same with local paint and that will cover the scratch up. this is true. it will make the scratch less visible but if you look at it you will still be able to see the scratch. dont worry about it too much. i faced similar problem where i dented my tank a little while trying to park next to a pillar. got it covered with paint(black bike). it helped remove scratch but when you run your finger on it you can still feel the dent.

beware the SVC will tempt you to used Teflon coating as a way to cover it up. they will charge you 500 bucks for nothing. dont fall for that trap. remember what i said to you in the PM.

enjoy..

@ALL

Had my first fall yesterday night. Made the mistake of overtaking from the left side. The guy(SUZUKI Swift) in the front suddenly decided he wanted to stop and swerved to the left. I hit his back, full brake and the handle turned to the left and i fell.....no major damage to me or the bike. Big scratch in the headlight(right side), scratches on the silencer cover(why is it chrome)..well the bike took care of me well. i am gutted though that 2 months old and already a fall.

positives from this were that the brakes were amazing. i was almost at standstill when my bike touched the car from 55kmph.

i thinks that the front headlight console is slightly twisted to the right. will have to get it checked from SVC on second service.

after the fall the bike became super smooth till i reached home. no vibes at all. but today morning on the way to work a lot of vibes were there. nothing unusual. but more that normal amount. i think i was in shock last night not to notice.

Alls well that ends well...

vishnu there is a PM for you...

also what is the MRP of the scratch out??