Hi Everyone,

I am very happy to start my first thread here in xbhp.com. Its a great place . I am basically a bike lover, though I have owned only a single bike so far (TVS victor GL), I have been a nutter for bikes and been following all the new releases and happily test driving them and penning reviews. I have always enjoyed it. Situation got different when I decided to upgrade myself from my 110 cc bike ( I still love it, I used to to minor stunts and wheelies even in that ) as its getting older and will be touching two digit age soon.

I am 6ft 1in tall and around 80kg, tall and slim looking guy, and I want a bike to to daily commute and do occational highway rides (not long trips though) and bit of offroading if possible). Beleive it or not I have done all these in my victor itself now . Also since I have gone up in pay scales, I can offord up to a good 1.5l -2l on my new bike which I am going to be using for next decade.

I have been following all new releases and first thing caught my imagination is the Hero Impulse. A new attempt to create a new segment. The fully functional shocks will ease the bad road driving a lot. The price was ok, only issue was the front fender. Riding this one in rainy season will be colorful, so I would need a fix there if I want to take it to office.

When I was reading the reviews on this one, a friend suggest get my head a bit in to RE bikes as my price range would suit in that world. I love bullets always but somehow never thought I would buy one as I was skeptical about the technology it uses. How ever offlate I found that they have a much better engine now and the sales is promising then I decided to pay a visit. The initial test drive with a CL500 didnt go well. I didnt like the vibration, noise and handling. It was a nightmare for a guy who likes to ride the bike without much effort and enjoy sneaking through cars in traffic. However I liked TBTS and good old bullet they were much better in handling.

With the great comfort feel TBTS gave I decided to checkout for other cruisers out there in the market. There was only one 'Avenger' from bajaj, other than all those imported stuff those cost like a car. I did a test drive too, handling and comfort was much better than TBTS and looks were simply great, I thought except the power the TBTS has to lose to Avenger in all perspectives. But, I found that this has the pulsar 220 engine which is not doing great in reviews, for that matter non of the first gen pulsar engines.

Hence rejected it from my list, I wanted to have another test drive with RE. This time I was lucky to get on to a CL350. This was much better on NVH levels compared to a CL500. The gear shifting was spot on were the CL500 I found false neutrals every now and then. Then realized its a machine to machine issue not a generic one. Know what, I just booked a CL350 the same day as the waiting period is 9 months, I will have enough time to explore others.

Couple of days back the pulsar 200ns hit the news and looked at the reviews and its looking great and promising. I am yet to do a road test.

So thats my story, I would like to request the great minds here to advice me on choosing one from these list .

1. Impulse - good handling, and very comfortable, no waiting.
2. CL350 - Its an RE, Great looks, but long waiting.
3. NS200 - Promising reviews, great looks. price and waiting period unknown.

I will be using this bike for a decade from now and will be using for day to day commute and week end leisure rides.