I can’t remember the last time riding a motorcycle at low speeds made me this happy.
BHPian 2StrokeJunkie recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Thank you all for your valuable suggestions. While I do know that a car like a Nano would be extremely sensible and convenient, at this stage in my life I’d still prefer a motorcycle to mess around with, which should also tell you that I am not very sensible despite my back injuries. My brother has a Nano besides a Verna and I would lose the opportunity of making jokes at his expense if I got a Nano for myself too. I already have an Alto and that does the job pretty well.
I will also check out the smaller Apaches, the Suzuki Vstrom, and just for the heck of it, the new KTM390 with adjustable suspension, though it’s highly unlikely that I would commute on Rs 4 lakh motorcycle, again.
I did however manage to get a ride on a friend’s late 2022 Xpulse CS Santosh Rally Edition and what a ride it was!
So at first, I was pretty intimidated by its height. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to swing my leg over the seat. The bike was initially parked on the cobblestoned pavement and that made it even more challenging so I moved it to the road and managed to pretty easily swing my leg over the seat.
On the saddle, I could touch the ground with my toes on both legs. My height is 5.11. I was slightly worried about whether I would be able to handle riding it, stopping, etc but once on the move, it was easy.
In fact, the riding position, and suspension are much more commanding than the XPulse base variant. You sit much higher, with potholes and big speed-breakers being discarded like they don’t exist. It is so tall that while passing autorickshaws you would be looking down at them instead of looking inside them like you would if you were on a normal motorcycle. Put your arm out and you would be able to swing it over the roof of most SUVs!
The riding position is great, I loved it. Throughout the ride, I kept looking for potholes and speed breakers so much so that in the lanes that I didn’t find them I was disappointed! It’s the other way around on the Interceptor. This is the Rally Edition with the stock seat, the Rally seat makes the seat height higher which would definitely make it more difficult for me to handle.
I thought taking U-turns would be tricky but it was a breeze. Stopping, negotiating traffic, and riding through the small gaps on the extreme left of the road also didn’t cause any issues though my confidence levels initially were low, I eventually got pretty comfortable with it. I was even standing up on the footpegs and flying over speed breakers, etc. The only issue I did face was when I tried to move the motorcycle backwards while on the saddle – with only my toes reaching the ground, that’s all I had for leverage.
Should that be a deal-breaker? I probably need to ride it for a few hours more to determine whether this is the motorcycle that fits my requirement but first impression-wise – I was smiling a lot just riding it at slow speeds, I can’t remember the last time riding a motorcycle at low speeds made me this happy.
I will have to borrow it for a longer period and also check out other options but right now, I’m pretty smitten with the Xpulse.
The owner did complain about the lack of power making it a boring motorcycle to ride pretty quickly for him but to me, the power seemed adequate. I guess on the short stretches when the road opens up other motorcycles will pass the Xpulse but once the going gets tough the Xpulse will see you through in comfort. This is what I feel. But this is also why I should probably also check out the Suzuki VStrom.
Other than that I noticed the Rally Edition doesn’t have a main stand which could make chain maintenance and fixing punctures an issue. I hear the std version has a main stand. The std version seems a more sensible option, I did find a few pre-owned std Xpulse 4Vs for sale in the Rs 1.50+ ballpark with around 10k km of usage. I think at that price, there isn’t much of a difference with the cost of a brand new 4v at Rs 1.83 with 0 km on the odo.
Let me know what you guys think!
Keyword: Test rode a 2022 Hero XPulse Rally Edition: My observations