Bajaj Dominar 400 UG2 - Accessorised for Touring

The Dominar 400 is a strange motorcycle. What exactly is it supposed to be - a power cruiser? A tourer? A sporty roadster? This is something that even Bajaj hadn’t really figured out, until now that is! Of late, Bajaj has been pushing the Dominar 400 hard as a touring motorcycle, and all the cross-continent odysseys they’ve undertaken with this motorcycle seem to be testament to that. And for 2022, the company has even decided to give the Domi a distinct touring flavour. What you might think of as an accessorised Dominar in these pictures is in fact going to be standard going forward.

Now right off the bat, let’s get one thing clear. Even though this is the “new” Dominar 400, there are absolutely no changes to the engine, chassis, suspension or even the overall design. What Bajaj has done, though, is kit the bike out with some bits that might help riders take on long journeys a little more easily.

Windscreen

From the front, this is the most obvious change to the new Dominar. A lot of people who do take this bike touring end up retrofitting large windscreens, and Bajaj has just decided to make this a standard part of the package. Now a bike that usually won’t cruise faster than 110-120kmph might not really need a windscreen, but riders in colder climates are sure to appreciate this addition. Also, this has been designed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to minimise flutter when riding at triple digit speeds.

Phone/GPS mount

Now rather than trying to upgrade the existing instrument cluster with Bluetooth connectivity and navigation, Bajaj has instead opted to place a phone/GPS mount behind the windscreen. This should be rather handy when touring, as it’ll allow riders to clamp on any standard mobile or GPS mount on it to make navigation a breeze. The only flip side to this we can see is that depending on the mounting hardware, the phone/GPS could end up obscuring part of the instrument cluster.

USB charger

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This goes hand in hand with the mobile/GPS mount - a standard USB port under the instrument cluster for charging said mobile phone or GPS.

Knuckle guards

While the Dominar is far from an off-road motorcycle and has no real use for knuckle guards, Bajaj has seen fit to install them anyway. If nothing else, they should help keep the wind off the riders’ hands when riding through cold climates, and should provide some protection to the levers in case of a fall. In any case, the dual layer floating design does look quite nice, and these knuckle guards are rather well built.

Revised crash guards

Bajaj has always made very minimal and tasteful, yet functional, crash guards for their bikes, and the Dominar’s earlier crash guard exemplified this well. The new crash guards, while maintaining the minimalism of the earlier ones, add some additional protection to the radiator in case the Domi goes down on its side.

Metal belly pan

I guess Bajaj is really expecting Dominar riders to take their bikes across some terrible, broken roads, and to help protect the bike over such terrain, has changed the standard plastic belly pan to a metal one. Given the condition of most of our country’s roads, we think this is a great addition.

Tail rack with bump stop

To make attaching luggage easier, Bajaj has now added a rather large, and well built, tail rack to the Dominar. This rack actually has mounting holes for a tail box and Bajaj rates its carrying capacity at 7kg (although they say it’ll take a little more quite easily). This tail rack also comes with rather handy grab rails and a little bump stop (not a backrest mind you) to help the pillion brace a little better under hard acceleration.

Saddle stays (accessory)
Now we come to the solitary accessory in this new package, and that’s the new saddle stay system. This pair of saddle stays can be purchased for Rs 650 and they’ll help riders mount soft saddlebags to their bike without having any part of the bags interfere with the motorcycle - an absolute must-have for tourers.

With all these new features, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the Dominar 400’s price has only gone up by Rs 5,000, making it Rs 2,16,648 (ex-showroom Delhi). This means the Dominar 400 is still priced rather well for what it’s offering. And on top of that, all these extra bits, barring the USB charger, can be retrofitted on any previous-generation Dominar at any Bajaj dealership. The bad news, however, is that all these bits have added 6kg to the kerb weight, making the already portly bike now weigh in at 193kg.

So have all these added bits made the Dominar 400 a great touring motorcycle? Well, we’re still not entirely convinced. For that, we would’ve liked to see the bike shed about 20kg of weight, as well as add some extra ground clearance and suspension travel. That said, as things stand currently, if you were to take the Dominar 400 touring across the country, it might just make your life a little bit easier.