Year 2012 marked the entry of Bajaj to a whole new era with the introduction of the Pulsar 200NS. This bike had everything that the previous Pulsars lacked. The bike was fresh in design, with a completely new frame, body, overall styling and even the engine was all new with a new technology as well. The bike now had a smoother engine, was fuel efficient with even more power, it handled beautifully and was priced aggressively. The bike was instantly accepted by everyone, but still there was something that was still attracting majority of the people to get the Pulsar 220 over the 200NS, even though the Pulsar 200NS was the better of the two. When we asked people about this, the two obvious reasons we got were "The 220 has more cc than 200NS" and the latter one was "the 220 has got fairing and that makes it more appealing to us over the 200NS" (guess this is the reason their all new Discover 150F is selling in good numbers). So guess Bajaj must have overheard this somewhere or learnt from it and gave us a 200NS with new clothes and named it as 200AS. The AS tagline stands for Adventure Sports, now let's get on to know about the 200AS and whether it truly stands for it's "Adventure Sports" tagline.
On the whole the Pulsar 200AS is a very likable machine for those who are looking for an all rounder motorcycle and it sure is going to boost sales numbers. It isn't exactly what it's tagline says, but still it doesn’t say NO for any kind of road conditions.
Styling:So going by the tagline, you might expect this bike to have a 19" spoke wheel at the front, long travel suspension with dual purpose tyres and so on which a typical adventure motorcycle looks like. But no, this bike is as we said above, is noting but a 200NS with some cosmetic changes. The 200AS gets half fairing with a single projector headlight and a reflector headlight integrated in one unit with their conventional pilot lights. The headlights look neat and appealing as well.
The fairing looks neat and so neat that we personally liked the bike's design a lot. Apart from the headlights and fairing, the bike also gets a windshield to help you at the highways, slicing the winds that hit you directly while riding on the highways. The handlebars are slightly higher on the AS as compared to the NS. Now moving to the rear end, the bike now gets an extended rear fender which might look odd for some but again it's there for a purpose and that is to stop the mud being splashed all over. Except these changes, the rest of the design is same as NS. There are some bits like panel gaps which look a little odd, but other than that there's nothing that makes the bike feel out of place and the bike looks really good from almost all the angles, though it looks like NS from some angles. The AS is available in three colours, Blue, Red and Black. The colours too are attractive on the 200AS, main reason being that these don't have those flashy stickers like that of NS/RS and guess that's what makes it look great.
Instrument Cluster and Switch gears:The 200AS gets the same instrument cluster as the 200NS but now placed a little further, that's on the fairing. The instrument cluster is a three part, with the analogue tachometer and fuel gauge at the center, the tell-tail and warning lights taking the left side and the right consists of the speed, trip meter, time and so on. The instrument cluster is neat and easily readable. A gear shift indicator should had been there. The switchgears on the other hand are made of good quality as that of the NS.
Ergonomics:The ergonomics of this bike is similar to that of the 200NS, wherein you sit almost upright with a slight lean to the front which in no way affects the comfort of the bike. The bike is fine to ride in bad roads too, as the suspension isn't altered from that of the NS and it absorbs bumps pretty well. The bike is comfortable for long distance travel and doesn't tire you out even after a long ride. We feel that Bajaj should had incorporated a single seat to make it even comfortable and there's another reason for which we wanted a single seat, about which we will be speaking about later. Again speaking, the present seats having nothing to complain about as they are very comfortable. The pillion too, sits comfortably and no pain or whatsoever for both the rider and pillion.
Performance:Yeah here we are, so finally let's get on the bike and see how the bike performs in real life conditions. Thumb start the engine and you hear the sweet sound from the engine. The engine which is powered by the same engine as that of 200NS, 199.5cc single-cylinder that churns out 23.5 Bhp of power at 9500 rpm and 18.3 Nm at 8000 rpm of torque. The fuel is injected via the carburetor and uses the same triple spark technology. The engine and gear shifts are both smooth. The bike is quick from 0-100, similar to that of NS, though we did not record the timings and the top end is 136 km/h.
The power delivery on the AS 200 is linear which makes it ideal for the highways. The bike is best enjoyed in the mid and top range, though top is good, spare for some vibrations on the handlebars and foot-pegs, rest everything is fine. The vibrations are nothing way too irritating but still they are there. Switching to fully synthetic oil might reduce it to and also not to forget, wearing your riding gloves too will help you cope with these vibrations. The crosswinds on the highways is not a problem now, as ducking in will help you to cut the wind and big thanks to the windshield for this. The projector also is very useful for those riders who ride at night, added boon we can say. These were the main two things which according to us was missing out in the NS.The bike's a joyous ride. I was really surprised as to how easily I was able to maneuver the bike in tight city traffic and the bike behaves exactly the way I want to, no drama from the bike's end and no where does it display it's heavy weight. The bike keeps the smile up on your face and the sound of the bike too is pleasing to hear, until you get it over 7k rpm, after which the tone starts to change.
Riding Dynamics:The riding dynamics hasn't changed from that of the 200NS and even the suspension setting remains the same as that of the 200NS, helping this bike behave well in the corner. We expected the bike to behave lazy around the corners due to its added weight in the front, but to our surprise, the bike handled beautifully around the corners and it was a joy to ride around the corners with no feeling of the added weight spoiling the handling.
The only disappointment here is the Euroslip, oops Eurogrip tyres which is fine in normal dry conditions, but is slippery in rain and the braking is also not that inspiring with these tyres as I ended up skidding a few times while trying out a little hard braking. The earlier batch of the 200AS came with MRF, but now it's like all the bikes are coming with Eurogrip. Upon speaking with the officials about this, we learnt that the bikes are being fitted with the tyre stock which is there presently, i.e., Eurogrip or MRF whichever is available, will be fitted for the bikes. So hopefully in few months' time, all the bikes will come fitted with the MRF tyres, which is going to make the bike's braking and handling feel even better.
So we are almost done with our review, understanding how the bike performs in the city and highways. There's one thing missing, it's time to see how the bike performs off-road or no road conditions and how well it suits the "Adventure Sports" tagline. That's why we took the bike for a short spin on the bad roads, the off roads and even no road at all too to see how the bike behaves. Again surprising us, the bike behaved very well on all these places.
It sure was a joy to ride in bad roads, leaving the seat and standing on the foot pegs means even fun to ride this bike, even sitting on the seat doesn't make it terrible in these conditions but we felt standing much better. The only problem we had was with the split seat, it's like when you will be doing some off roading with all those unstable ground and you happen to mistakenly land on the part of the seat between the rider's and pillion seat, it's going to be awkward, I mean way too awkward. This is one of the reasons we wish that the 200AS came with a single seat. Another thing here is the linear power delivery which just spoils the fun here, as the initial punchy response isn't there and you only get the power in a gradual manner. We wish Bajaj had tuned this to suit the Adventure characteristics of the bike.
Verdict:I have already spoken a lot about the bike, so let me put the verdict in short. The 200AS isn't actually an adventure bike but at the same time doesn't say no for adventure riding. The bike is very comfortable to ride on the highways, it's maneuverability in the city is very surprising as it feels very light, the bike can take on bad roads too and even take you to places you want to go. This bike is nothing but a NS which just got better. With the addition of the fairing, projectors and refreshed styling and priced extremely close to that of 200NS, it sure is the perfect package and replacement for those who said that the Pulsar 220 was better. With the launch of this bike, we can sure expect the bike to boost Bajaj's sales by large numbers.
Finally, we waved bye with a happy smile of satisfaction to the Pulsar AS200 and lastly take time to thank Mr Girish (GM) and Mr Naveen (Manager) of Popular Bajaj, Mysore and our supporting crew who helped us in this review.Review By: Rakesh Gowda
Photographs By: Darshith Gowda
