If you need reltively high speed cruising on highway as your daily commute, the only 2 things that are on your side are 1. Horsepower, 2. Fairing.

Nope, relatively high speed cruising here only means attacking larger emptier roads I may come across on early morning rides occasionally without the bike struggling.

Just for the reference, Outer Ring Road Bangalore is like this road that goes in a circle around the whole of Bangalore City. Its big yes but since every tom, dick and harry who has to work in another part of the city rides/drives on it, its often a medium to slow speed road (30 to 55kmph avg speed on it) with a small jam every 10-15km or so.

Ideally you should get a bike with both, but since that doesn't fit the budget and FE requirement even remotely, we need to check your other options. This is exactly how I expected my question to be interpreted. Thanks a lot.

4 of the 7 bikes in your shortlist produce between 13-13.5 horses (The rest are 11 or less).

A test ride on all 4 should help you shortlist w.r.t. height /size.

The FE *should* be Discover 125ST > Pulsar 135LS = Discover 150 > Achiever which is why I've been waiting for the damned "Sports Tourer" from Bajaj to hit the zillions of Bajaj showrooms littered around bangalore

If you are worried about the Bajaj bikes overheating, let me remind you that Duke, P200NS are the very 1st mass market LC Naked bikes in India. In the absense of a fairing, the radiator fan has nowhere else to throw hot air apart from the rider's legs. Its all about getting used to how those bikes are.

You mean to say the heat felt on the legs riding Duke200 or P200NS should be equivalent to that felt riding CBR250R/Ninja/R15 WITHOUT the fairing ?

Coming to the bikes in this set, The 150s will be more effortless to ride but will return comparatively lower FE. The other 2 are high revving 4 valve engines, but high revving doesn't mean high heat. The bikes are tested at least a for a couple of lakh kms before launch, People have done SaddleSores on the P135, so you can rest assured that there won't be any unnecessary overheating, not least in the 40-70 kph band.

Well there is one reason I considered the 4-valve bikes and some 125cc bikes here. Even if torque and power are lesser on 125cc bikes, since I ride solo 100% of the time it should be easier to manage.

Hope you use the weekend to TR all the bikes and then report how you felt about each of them.

This week sadly I'm held up with other things. Don't think I can start TRing till week after next week I posted this thread in advance so that I can be a little more informed while TRing and know if my options are right or not.

If outer ring road == NICE road or something similar to NICE road, I have seen it and have a pretty good idea what that is. That's the reason I mention horsepower and not torque .

NO!!! ORR is much MUCH slower and its size varies from 2-lane to 4-lane to 6-lane at different places and sections are dug up due to hopeless and never-ending bangalore metro rail work. Plus you have suicidal idiots crossing the road without regard for their (or others') safety.

NICE Road feels nice to ride on (most Bangalore based sites/mags do test rides on it), ORR feels nice only if you are riding when there is very little human life on it - 6:30AM or 11PM type rides. I ride early morning at 7AM when I leave home, but my return time is usually in the chaotic 7pm to 8pm range.

I need enough torque for stop-start traffic so that my bike just *moves* ahead. I need to go through the middle of the city on the way back sometimes. I think anything above 10nm should be enough for this ???

Leave my license at the showroom ?
I'm a guy who never lets people touch his bike, laptop or mobile phone and you want me to leave my sole identification document at the showroom ??

Oh and one more question. Among the bikes I listed and also counting some other similar bikes, Yamaha SS125, SZ-R, HMC Achiever and Suzuki Hayate don't come with gas-charged rear suspension. Do you think this will mean they are less comfortable than the Nitrox suspension in Bajaj bikes ? Just curious.

Any reply to this one here ??

Is a gas-charged rear suspension (Hunk/Xtreme/Bajaj/GS150R) really more comfortable than "normal" dual shock rear suspensions (SZR/SS125/Achiever) ??

Oh and BTW through data gained by overnight browsing the internet it seems Achiever has the body of the Hero Honda Ambition. Any notes on that ?? How does it compare size-wise ??

If we will leave the riding position, I found pulsars (don't have idea about 200ns) nitrox suspensions are softest and very bumpy, even a 40kg person would feel very comfortable in case of suspension only and I found mono shocks are same (Unicorn, Dazzler).

HMC bike's suspensions are very ruff & tuff and not so much soft compare to others ( Personal Opinion)....

Some bikes have rear set footpegs and some don't right ? What difference does that make to comfort levels, and also to the health of the spine ? I hear particular bikes are comfortable but can result in bent spinal chord arch or something like that in the long run ?

OK more questions coming up because I'm so far only used to riding my old pure-commuter 2-stroke Samurai. Hope you guys bear with it.



About the part in bold. Some bikes have rear set footpegs and some don't right ? What difference does that make to comfort levels, and also to the health of the spine ? I hear particular bikes are comfortable but can result in bent spinal chord arch or something like that in the long run ?

None of the bikes in your shortlist have rearsets since all of them are supposed to be commuters and not track/sports bikes (regardless of whatever the S in the ST/LS might stand for).

I heard even some commuters have slightly rear set footpegs ? Like Suzuki GS150R and CBZ Xtreme and Hunk ??



Really ? Isn't keeping back arched/crouched all the time considered bad for the spine ? Ideally you're supposed to keep back errect and straight right ?

Isn't arched back == straight back (slightly bent backwards so that the chest is up)? This is what my gym instructor told me . Because thats how I keep my riding position, not bent forward.

Anyways, whatever the terminology, the back should be straight .

More details here: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/pit-stop...tml#post632314

This is getting epic. I was talking about forward arch (bending forwards) while you were talking about reverse arch (bending backwards).

Anyway yeah which of these bikes enable you to comfortably have a straight back or a back that is slightly backwards so that chest is up ?

For example in my current ride, the natural position when I ride is with back curving forwards which is not at all good since I may end up with a hunchback later. Hence the question.

Read the link I gave. The back position should be bent backwards/chest up on all bikes. No forward curves business. If you have to bend forward due to the riding position of the bike, you bend from near the waist, not the upper/mid back.