Saturday, April 29, 2006

how and why of my bullet

This is a loooong due post. Why i decided to get a bullet and how i got one...

I like bikes. And in bikes i love cruisers. Have seen cruisers from Harley Davison and from yamaha and there would be nothing better than riding one of those.

Anyways, the first bike i bought was a pulsar 150 cc. At that time it costed me 50k INR. I had a small salary and my dad financed the bike to me. So that i do not have to commute thru buses. The condition of buses in delhi is bad, very bad... The gud part was that i got my pulsar sometime in august 2002. And the bad part was that i had never driven any bike in my life till that time. Dad told me not to worry and go ahead. Welllll, so i drove the bike from the showroom to my office the very first day. Every thing does not go well all the time... so there had to be a small accident. Nothing was damaged except my leg where i got a bad bruise.

Pulsar is a gud bike and i am sure other variants of 150cc+ bikes would also be gud. I used to drive my bike at 100 kmph after the run in. Pickup was gud. And the bike was comfortable. Only problem was that at high speeds, the bike used to feel like a feather and it felt like even a small wind will blow the bike away with me on it... I had 2 accidents on the bike after the initial one and out of the two only one was somewhat major where i skid on the road and got some terrible cuts and destroyed a new trouser.

In fact, before purchasing the bike, i had a chance to take a look at bullet on some of the websites. I was impressed with it. The reason, i did not buy the bull at that time was that i was not so strong financially and owning a bullet is almost similar to owning a maruti 800. The price and maintenance come to be around the same.

After about 3 years of driving the pulsar, i had a chance to drive a bullet electra. One of my friends had got one and i just took a test drive. The bull i drove had gears on the right and brakes on the left. So i felt a bit uncomfortable driving the bull. But the best thing i noticed is the feel that comes while driving the bull. You feel different, a bit higher, something out of the world. This was the point in my life when i decided that i would need to get a bullet no matter what happens...

To start off the process i had to:

  • Do some research about what type of bullet i would prefer. There were 4 variants available, the normal bullet electra 350cc, bullet machismo 350cc, bullet thunderbird 350cc and bullet electra 500cc.
  • Get rid of my old pulsar
  • Get a finance option available for the new bike.
  • And the most major point, get the idea of a new bike across to my parents. It is difficult to explain to my parents as to why would i go for a bike at 80k when i can get a maruti at the same price.


I started off with the research and found that only machismo and thunderbird have left foot gear shift. Others had right foot gear shift, with which i was not that comfortable. Machismo and Thunderbird are almost exact. The only difference i could find at that point of time was that machismo had gas filled shock absorbers whereas thunderbird had hydraulic shock absorbers. And of course the looks were different. I liked the cruiser looks of the thunderbird, which is why i decided to go for it.

Went down to a local dealer, got a test ride and enquired about the pricing and finance options. And also a way in which i cud get rid of my old pulsar. What i got was this
Onroad price : 78k
Disk brake : 4k
finance - one time processing fee : 2k
value of old bike : 23k
Monthly EMI for 1 year : 4k

Almost everything landing into place, my final and most difficult job was to explain to my family members why am i going for a bike for 84k when i can get a maruti at the same price. With help from my sisters and some luck, my parents agreed.

So, on the 1st may 2005, i decided to get the thunderbird home. There was a bit of fun in that. I went down to the showroom and told the owner that i need to get the bike today. And that i dont care whether the loan papers are approved or not. If he can give me the bike today, then its ok, else i will move to some other dealer. At that time i wanted a black thunderbird. But the show room did not have a black thunderbird. So i took home a silver one and was promised that it would be converted to black as soon as the stocks were replenished. Gave up my old bike at the same spot. The show room owner was really confused with my being a genuine customer. So he sent a person to take a look at where i was putting up. Just in case i decide to run away with the bike!!!

Next day, i was supposed to go over and get the color changed to black and get the disk brakes installed. But most people told me that silver is a much better color than black and i also realized it. So i stuck to the silver color.

Thats how i got a bullet t'bird for myself.

There is something different about driving a bullet. You feel different. It feels as like a person instead of a bike. The thumps of a bullet sound like a heart of a person. You feel the weight of the bike, the hugeness and the heavyness. I cannot express all this much clearly in my words. In a single phrase "ITs Different!!"

Maybe some day i will own a harley VRSCD Night Rod.

1 comment:

style-sha said...

i was searching for a user experience of thunderbird in a simple english, especially with the price details. And finally atlast you did that in a nice way. Vut what is that EMI for 1 year. do you have to pay 4k every month?