Hero XPulse 200 BS6: Living With The XPulse - Part 1

The improvement in fuelling and refinement have had a direct impact on the city fuel efficiency figures as the XPulse 200 BS6 was almost 2.5kmpl more frugal. Now these are ideal fuel efficiency figures that one gets when riding the bike conservatively. However, I like to ride bikes more enthusiastically and hence getting these sort of fuel efficiency figures over the course of the 1,500km is impossible for me. Still, the XPulse managed to return close to 38kmpl in a mixture of city and highway riding conditions.

Braking Issues Ironed Out
The BS4 XPulse was not particularly a great braker, taking far too long to come to a dead halt, especially from higher speeds. Also, the ABS was poorly calibrated, free-wheeling the front wheel over the smallest of road hazards, which did end up scaring you on countless occasions. Gladly both issues have been sorted out by a great extent. The BS6 XPulse stops 2m earlier (43.89m now) from 80kmph, has better lever feel and braking progression, and the ABS didn’t lock up at all on a clean patch of tarmac. The ABS intervention is a lot more predictable on loose surfaces, with subtle inputs felt at the lever when going over rumble strips or small speed humps.

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Better At Off-roading?
The BS4 XPulse had already set a high benchmark with its off-roading abilities as it had a very potent package capable of taking on the harshest of terrains. In that regard, the BS6 XPulse hasn’t really made any great improvements but that’s not disheartening at all. For someone who is an amateur off-roader like myself, it is quite an easy motorcycle to hop onto to go trail hunting. Even for a rider like Zaran, who is quite literally terrified at the thought of a millimetre’s worth of slide, to find some comfort when off-roading on the XPulse is remarkable.

We had gone for an epic off-road adventure with him trying his luck with the dirty stuff for the first time. He fell 10 times and beached the bike once. Still, a lightweight like him could lift the stricken XPulse up without assistance, with yours truly only helping him out when his inexperienced self sank the bike in a thick puddle of soft muck. And even when you could see a nervy Zaran trying his best to stay on the saddle and not off it, the XPulse 200 helped him out to a great extent.

The damages, you ask? Slightly bent brake levers (both front and rear), a bent engine guard and a little fork alignment required. The rear brake lever was easy to get it back into shape. The front needed replacement, which cost me a grand total of Rs 93 (Zaran, when will you Google Pay me for the same?). The engine guard isn’t too out of shape. Only, the fork alignment remains, which shall be done soon.

What Next? More Adventure
I learnt how to ride motorcycles when I was 10 on a small motocrosser, at a family friend’s farm, and it wasn’t until my early twenties that I was properly bitten by the adventure bug. It was on bikes like the Tiger 800, the Africa Twin and even the Himalayan that I started standing up on the pegs and climbed over small rocks and stuff. Still, the thought of dropping these large ADVs and then picking them up intimidated me to a great extent. With the XPulse now my companion for the next few months, I hope to hone my skills and take it to some gnarly off-roading trails on the outskirts of Pune. Our office has a few off-roading enthusiasts, the ed Kartik and video wizard Arjun to name a few, who I hope to be pestering to join me every other weekend for some adventure.