Bajaj Pulsar NS160 review

A naked sports bike or a city commuter? Let's check out.

Kms done - 1567km, Mileage - 45kmpl

DESIGN

The Bajaj Pulsar NS 160 borrows its design from its twin brother, the Bajaj Pulsar NS 200 which was introduced some time back. Even though the design is quite old, the design stills looks eye-catchy due to the sharp looking head light, chiselled fuel tank, LED tail light and perimeter frame. Bajaj designers have smartly used the dual-tone paint scheme in enhancing the visual appeal of the bike. The split seat also adds to the sporty nature of the bike.

SIDE VIEW

The only eyesore is the spindly 110-section MRF tyre at the rear and the narrow swing arm that looks like it belongs on a commuter, instead of the sporty NS. The paint quality and general fit and finish are at par with the bigger Bajaj bikes, such as the Dominar 400; however, there are a few niggles. The switch gear, for instance, looks cheap, and the rubber tank pad as well as the chrome Pulsar monogram on the tank had begun to peel off on our test bike. A little more attention to detail would have helped for sure.

CONVENTIONAL HEADLAMP (HALOGEN-55W)

The bike has 176mm of ground clearance which is more than ideal for Indian road conditions.

GROUND CLEARANCE-176mm

Bike has short underbelly exhaust which sounds Sporty.

EXHAUST

The tail section houses an LED tail light with rear Tyre Hugger.

TAIL LAMP

The rear view mirror has wide area of vision.

SIDE MIRROR

The instrument cluster houses an analog plus digital meter with indications of service due, side stand and all the switch gears are backlit in blue color.

INSTRUMENT CONSOLE

ENGINE AND PERFORMANCE

The NS160's engine is based on the 150cc mill that powered the now discontinued AS 150. Bajaj has increased the bore, while the stroke remains the same.The engine develops 15.5PS of power at 8,500rpm and 14.6Nm of torque at 6,500rpm. With the numbers so high, the performance is really noticeable. The motor just loves to rev and acceleration is brisk. At ideal, there are next to know vibrations and you only feel a slight buzz in the footpegs and tank as the revs climb. The engine refinement is a great surprise and is one of the smoothest Bajaj motors out there. That said, the vibes become prominent as the revs rise past 7,000rpm and all the way to the redline.

ENGINE

The long stroke configuration means a majority of a torque is concentrated in the low or mid range. The bike is happy to chug at 35-40kmph in 5th gear and all I had to do was simply roll on the throttle to overtake the traffic. Bajaj decided to stick with a five-speed gearbox for the NS160, but its ratios feels perfectly suited to the motor's power delivery characteristics, with extremely short first and second gears for easy city rideability. The NS160 is quite frugal for a 160cc motor and the skinny tyres sure help in this regard. In our long term review,the NS160 returned an impressive 45kmpl overall mileage.

PERFORMANCE

RIDE, HANDLING AND BRAKING

The riding position of Pulsar NS160 is similar to NS 200 due to clip-on handle bars and marginally rear-set footpegs which results in a slightly sporty but comfortable riding position. The large fuel tank also gives the feeling of a bigger bike feel. The 805mm seat height might be a problem for short riders but comfortable for riders having height in access of 170cm. The perimeter frame borrowed from NS200 outperforms other bikes in this segment having traditional diamond type frame.

RIDE QUALITY

The bike comes equipped with 240mm petal disc brakes at the front and 130mm drum at the rear. The braking performance from the front brake is strong but the rear one's braking seems to be a little bit weak. But this Pulsar as a stunt machine is very good. The tyres is the area where it sacrifices for mileage but still performance from the MRF rubber is nice. It gets 80 section front tyre and 110 section rear tyre.

FRONT DISC BRAKE 

The bike weighs 142kg much lighter than the bigger NS so the handling of the bike is nimble which makes riding in city easy. The 1,363mm of wheelbase which is very high for this segment makes way for great stablity at higher speeds.The bike comprises of conventional telescopic forks at the front and gas-charged monoshock at the rear which offers great ride quality over bad roads. This makes city riding a breeze on this bike.

REAR VIEW

VERDICT

The NS160 checks most of the boxes required for a 160cc bike and after sales and service and spare parts availability makes it even stronger to recommend in this segment. But the lack of rear disc, wider rear tyre and no option for ABS makes it slightly unsafe for the Indian roads so if Bajaj introduces its another variant with all these features it will be hard to resist.

VERDICT

At Rs 81,626 (ex-showroom,Delhi), the NS 160 is priced right as it has the performance, looks and is fuel efficient for a 160cc bike. It undercuts the bikes like Honda CB Hornet 160R and Yamaha FZ-S but then there is Suzuki Gixxer which is very affordable with rear disc and with the launch of TVS Apache RTR 1604V the competition has become intense.

Credits: Sahil Rana and Navneet Rana