Friday, December 10, 2010

Monster

This piece of news is several months old. Yet worth sharing. I've been driving a Bajaj CT100 since 2004. It was a nice bike, amazing mileage, no big problems and it has served me loyally. I never really had any complains. It did what was expected out of a bike of its class and more. In fact, when new, I was very proud of its specifications and would tell anyone who cared to listen; and several who didn't.

I'd ridden it less for 6 years. Around 30000 Kms. Yet it was enough to give problems. It seemed like I always had a bad back or it was a due bad posture at work and in bed. At one point of time, I'd decided I need to see a physiotherapist about it. 2 days into the week long therapy he declared it was my bike. "Too short for your height", he said. That was true. Not many bikes were good for my height. But I'd never thought about such stuff when I got this. Who would? I was too excited about getting a bike for myself.

Times were different now. The bike was a problem. I tried not using the bike for a week. That coupled with the sessions with the doc worked wonders for my back. I wasn't ready to buy a new bike yet. I sought out some used ones but couldn't find a good deal. This went on for a several weeks. Jobs changed. Office was now closer home. And all the while I had the same old bike. The back pain returned, though cricket during weekends helped a lot. Around a month after I joined the new company, I'd started some research about bikes. Within a week I decided a 150cc is going to be lot more comfortable than what I owned. Atleast a 125.

Soon, I was reading reviews, complaints and whatnot on the internet. Every bike seemed to be good. All 150s were priced roughly the same, except Yamaha of course which was higher. A lot of recommendations for the same bike came in from friends. But I also had this thing about not buying something that's common. I wanted something different from the crowd. Atleast in my social circle. So a lot of bikes from my list were knocked off. Then one fine day while talking to a colleague about it I learnt about a bike which he'd bought 2 years back. I took a test ride and within few metres I'd almost made up my mind. I then looked up reviews about it, consumer complaints what not. Since I didn't personally know any other owners I had to rely a lot on online forums. And since I liked this bike a lot, I tended to read only positive reviews. I even called up competing brands and asked why I should buy their product instead - didn't get very satisfactory answers.

After I saw the new version of it at a showroom, everything seemed to fit about this bike. It was big; right for my height. Great specs. Seemed to be a marketing failure which suited me perfectly well. A very comfortable ride. Similar price tag. Delivery promised within a week. The reputation of Suzuki engines. And to top it all, the colleague who had it resigned all of a sudden which meant I was the only person with a Suzuki GS150R in the whole building! I even tried to ignore the fact that there are only 4 places I could service it in Chennai as of then. Now that I'm a proud and happy owner, I want to share a pic of the monster.


Am not going to talk about the specs here. You can find them on their website. But I can tell you its an great piece of engineering - drive it to experience it! The 6th gear (I know!) deserves special mention; almost as good as cruise control.

PS: I am no longer the sole owner of this model - another colleague bought it on my recommendation, same colour even!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

miss the old bike! and the silver helmet with a removable cushion :P

Ambika said...

Oooooohh!!! iLike!!

LVS said...

@vish you had more use of it than myself :P
@ambika the bike or the post or.....? :D thanks anyway

Mouli said...

Hey buddy,

Apart from your research on bikes, research on your 'back' also. Wise advice, never ignore! :)

Porkodi (பொற்கொடி) said...

pudhu velai.. pudhu bike.. =) drive safe!

LVS said...

@mouli
words taken sincerely!!
@hema
nichayamaga...intha bike le sidebox kedayathu!! :D

Anonymous said...

fun times those were! sigh!

Anonymous said...

Il semble que vous soyez un expert dans ce domaine, vos remarques sont tres interessantes, merci.

- Daniel

Anonymous said...

Hello,

This is a message for the webmaster/admin here at misplaced-soul.blogspot.com.

Can I use some of the information from this blog post right above if I provide a link back to your site?

Thanks,
Mark

LVS said...

@anon
feel free :)
though I can't imagine what you could need from my blog!

Kavya said...

As long as you treat your spine right! :) .. nice mean machine! :)

LVS said...

@kavya
danke :)