Hello,

I think some background info is in order. I am 29 and have never owned a bike. I look at an automobile as a way to commute from one place to another. I was quite content with my scooter LML NV spl which i drove quite a lot from 2001 to 2007. Only driven a bike a few times in college, was satisfied with my scooter never even too interested in getting or driving a bike.

Passed out of college in 2007 and my dad got me an Alto which i am still driving today and am quite satisfied with the fuss free ownership and robust reliability it has offered. Only been stuck once in these almost eight years and that was due to my own mistake (more on that later) and that time too, maruti service came to my rescue and fixed the car in half an hour. I do however really love to visit the hills. Been to ladakh, sangla, chitkul, most of himachal i guess. But my love has been to see the place not so much the drive. But i started to enjoy driving my alto in hills and took it to kalpa, binsar sanctuary, etc with friends. Till november 2014 i only knew about a handful of bikes, couldnt name even one bike from yamaha or suzuki. I had however driven a rented bullet (dont even know which variant) for about an hour during the ladakh trip (on empty roads in diskit) and enjoyed it. wasnt confident to drive on the bad patches so didnt get one for myself and travelled in hired car.

So why this thread you might ask??

well you could say im going through a quarter life crisis (or maybe i should say one-third life crisis looking at my age). Family pressure to get married is suffocating. A lot of friends have already gotten married and these trips that i love so much are becoming very difficult because of family and work commitments of friends getting very busy with their lives. I dont want a regular life and cant seem to settle. just the thought is repulsive to me. So i am starting to think ill start touring solo on a bike.
I have been going through various websites to get to know about bikes. After about two months i have a fair idea of what options are available. My aspirations are that i hope to do long rides spanning 100s of kms over multiple days.

So here goes:

1. Budget - preferably under 1 lakh, i can manage a bit more if its really worth it.
2. Age - 29
3. Height - 5'11"
4. Weight - ~ 68Kg
5. Intended usage - want (hope) to tour extensively in the himalyas. and would like if it is okay for regular city driving.
6. Fuel Efficiency - min of 30 kmpl. but i would want good mileage from an environment point of view. Want to throw as little pollutants into the air as possible.
7. City & Highway usage - chandigarh city usage (light traffic by delhi, mumbai standards) 20-30%, touring in himalyas 70%. I wont mind touring long in plains, but that will only come much later i think and can get a different bike if at all i get there.
8. Approximate Daily / Monthly running - daily office running maybe 15-20 Kms. that can also be shared by car. weekend and extended tours as much as i can.
9. City / Town /Village of residence- permanent residence - chandigarh. however at present i stay at solan.
10. Brand / Bike type preference - I have a feeling that cruisers would be best for my intended usage. since we only have impulse in dual sport and that is almost phasede out.
11. Essential requirements - Comfort for long duration rides even on bad to hopeless hill roads, great reliability to not get stranded every now and then.
12. Not important - looks. The performance, comfort and reliability are more valued by me.
13. i would like if the service interval is not very short. Yamaha 70 days is justnot possible. i would prefer if it was 6 months. though i will manage 3 month as it seems to be most common.
14. I know the rider is the best judge and i should go take a test ride of all and decide after that. But i am too scared to try as im not confident on driving a bike. Even if i do drive all my concentration would be in driving and ill not be able to notice the engine. Ill need to start riding and only after a few months ill be able to gauge how a bike is behaving.
15. In this situation will it be better for me to get a simple bike like Unicorn 160 and practice riding gain confidence and then get a better bike in an year or so?

^^ I had a few friends who had bullets and they loved spending time with their machines. In my experience they are very unreliable. Something or the other keeps going bad and stalls bulllets. Those that have a thing for them might enjoy working with them on a weekly basis. I cannot imagine myself doing that. If i could live with such tantrums, i'd rather get a girlfriend (no offence to females). I know rented bikes are ill maintained but we hired 5 bullets in ladakh and two of them had to be left on the way and the other three also needed some work to be done. Also the cheapest one is over a lakh and i dont want to pay for some poor quality product that is till living in thmiddle ages with respect to technology. So enfields are out of the question.


The only other cruiser - the avenger 220 leads my list at present. Please tell if this is not suitable for driving in the hills. I have seen people doing ladakh on it. There are great and bad reviews about it. I guess most people dont have issues with it. It might not be a Jap bike but its much better that REs. Will it be okay as a bike to learn on? What is the majority opinion?

It might look like ive made the choice but im very confused as a lot of other options are there, however ive found some or the other shortcomings.

Other bikes that are recommended for touring on xbhp within 1 lakh are the Karizma -R and Pulsar 200NS.

Karizma R 2014 - It looks bad to me, but im not very bothered about looks so can live with it. But ive heard that the engine is not as smooth and there are vibrations. Ive heard that this is hero's first self designed engine and has lost the refinement of the earlier honda engine. also reliability hasnt really been tested since its new. though i think i wont be driving in the night much but the fixed headlight that does not turn with the handle is also stated to cause problems in the hills. So kind of averse to it.

200NS - Some bad reviews and quality issues reported but a majority of the users seem to be happy with it. I did go and sit on it in the showroom but the seating position seemed high, awkward and even strenous to me. coupled with the weight i dont know how it will behave on bad hill roads and if ill be able to control it.

i also have these on mind, please state if they will be good.

GS150R- this is recommended by the few people that own one. Its owners say its very comfortable and refined. also the sixth gear is very good for touring. I went to the suzuki showroom but the salesman was pushing very hard for the gixxer and didnt even want to show me the GS 150R. I insisted and sat on one and it seemed very nice. I loved it and almost finalised it. but the salesman gave a very cold response and asked me to try gixxxer as its new improved bike. he said GS150R is only on order and will take a month. I said check up if it can be delivered early. he called me after a few days and again asked me to try gixxer. After this i feel that if they are so uninterested in selling it they will be lesser interested in s ervicign or maintainign support for it. Its going to be phased out soon and will give headaches for spares and service.

Impulse - it looks to be just the bike for the hills and bad roads. the place where i stay at the moment really has no roads and would love this kind of a bike, but is touted to be underpowered. however ive seen a review on xbhp of a person doing a good amount of touring on it. But its at end of life and service and spares may cause a headache which i really dont want.

Unicorn 160- this looked perfect to me. I thought that i would get this, ride t for about an year and gain confidence on it and then get a better one. i know it doesnt look nice but i think its refined and reliable as its a honda. Its mileage is ~60kmpl. so that would be really good. much less CO2 into air and less CAD so i would like it very much. am willing to sacrifice a bit of power for that (like in my alto). also its torque seems to be good which will come in handy in hills. But ive hardly found any ownership reviews and those that ive read say that the engine isnt as refined as the older unicorn and some people suggest regular unicorn over the 160.

Gixxer- I went to the suzuki showroom and sat on it. it doesnt feel comfortable at all. too forward leaning and legs towards the back. would not be comfortable for long duration.

200AS- was just thinking of going for avenger but then i saw the pulsar 200AS. Was very interested as the quarter fairing is supposed to make it a better tourer than 200NS. Got very excited and called the bajaj dealer and was told that its not available on display, bookings have started but the waiting period is min 3 months. Dont want ot wait that long.

So please help me as i want ot get one as soon as possible and start riding.
sorry for the long post but i thought ill get best advice if i put out everything thatsin my mind. please tell me if i missed anything, ill add it. thanks for reading and helping.