Hero Honda is a one of the stylish bike in the world. The Achiever is a good bike but is caught in the quicksand of mediocrity. It would have been a great bike about a year back but now with the Pulsar DTSFi, just around the corner and the Honda Unicorn firmly established, the Achiever is nothing but a plug, a plug for the premium segment hole left in the Hero Honda boat, rocked by falling sales of the once-wonderful but now Triassic CBZ.


Standard on all 1098 versions is a tubular trellis frame, optimized for stiffness, and massive, radially mounted 4-piston 330 mm Brembo monobloc front brakes (think dinner plates-large ones). Out back, 245 mm, 2-piston brakes take care of business. And yes see there –another throwback to the 916. Peek under the fairing and you’ll find an L-twin engine, producing a thunderous 160bhp (the top-spec 1098R makes 180 bhp- from a twin) and a frankly insane 12.49 kgm of torque with designed
If you are looking for comfort forget it. Superbikes are all about speed, handling, raw power and wagonloads of fun. The Honda CBR 600 had set the bench marks and has been the most exactly been sleeping and have manage to catch up with Honda in a big way. Suzuki GSX R600 is the new leader of this ferocious pack and gauging by the interest that it has generated worldwide, it looks like it will stay at the top for some time to come. GSX R600 was first launched I 1997 and all the post 1988 models are equipped with fuel injectors. It was the first bike in the 600cc class to be equipped with fuel injectors although in deep’s bike is carbureted. Of course the others also have injector now but the GSX R still holds the edge. Try
It was built purely for speed and then some more high speed. Suzuki hasn’t bothered to change the styling and the frame of the GSX R and they are the same as those of the bigger 750cc and the 1000cc bikes from its stable. A hell of a lot have been written about the excellent chassis and balance of the bike and seeing In deep bank the bike at high speed and then pulling it up without any apparent effort confirmed what has been written about it. It looked all very easy when in deep slides in the seat and adjust its weight while taking sharp turns but it is anything but simple. GSX R600 has an amazing exhaust note. The GSX R600 is a missile on wheels and there are no two ways about it. It has an engine capacity of 599cc and the four cylinders breathe through 16 valves. Fed by a well-tuned fuel injector, the engine develops a peak power of 101 bhp@13,200rpm. A powerful 6-speed gearbox that has an amazing mid range power propels this 165-kilo missile forward.
It doesn’t get any more apt than that, does it? When Yamaha was trying to match up to the large piece of American crap they call Harley-Davidson (crap obviously is totally insane biker talk for the good things in life, in as much as the rap singers term ‘bad’ which is in fact cool!), they didn’t want to reinvent the wheel so it was an unashamed copy of umpteen Harleys through the decades, replete with copious chrome and a super standard of external finish. But there is no doubting its visual impact because that is what Harleys deliver in abundance and if the drag star couldn’t pull in the birds, see the looks, it wouldn’t have served its primary role, that of being a cruiser out there but the drag star will do nicely all around the world. The XVS 1100’s pulled-back handlebars, teardrop tank (complete with instrument on the top, what instrument when it is just a large round speedo with tell tales in it!), stepped seat and valanced fenders are all mightily clichéd in the Harley mould. In fact nothing takes the Harleyeque theme to ridiculous height than the large air-cooled vee-twin mill which sports a round air filter cover and shotgun pipes for that so-called ‘authentic’ look.
Torque speaks louder than anything else anything else in this sphere and of the many fellow road users who would creep up alongside the Drag star at traffic lights, some enlightened gents did ask me (apart from the two typical question on what fuel efficiency does she deliver and what is the price) how many gears did the Yamaha have. But let’s get going in proper sequence. The bike is loaded with a gigantic 1063cc air-cooled SOHC 75-degree v-twin motor. The huge twin cylinder naked engine is fired by two Mikuni 37mm CV carbs. Keeping to the avowed aim of it being the resident Harley clone in Yamaha’s cruiser portfolio, the 1063cc mill features a simple two valves per cylinder layout but with tremendous attention to detail in the reciprocating parts. The bores are chrome composite-plated to reduce the friction, the piston are forged lightweight items and they are dynamically balanced along with the carbonized con rods to help reduce, may eliminate the one trait which scares the living daylights of non-Harley riders-vibrations.
Let’s get one thing straight at this point. Cruisers are normally spoken of as very comfortable armchairs on wheels which can be steered and leaned into corners some of the time at a very relaxed pace. As such one needs a beefy piece of kit to haul the born again biker who would very likely be large and overweight, in the mid-fifties (only then could the large have had accumulated enough money to have such a bike to show off alongside Merc and Cadillacs) and with agility to match. The frame of the XVS 1100 is a fairly conventional blend of steel twin-tube configuration into which is housed the engine. It comes with large non-adjustable raked-out front forks while the hard tail rear seems to do without any shock absorbers until you read the spec sheet and then peer even more closely into the tight crevice between the huge fat rear wheel and the inner wheel cover where you just about make out the bottom end of the vertical mono-shock.
Now you can’t argue on that front even without our test figures. The XVS 1100 Drag star rolls quite serenely into victory lane which is usually the most popular coffee bar on main Street. For testing this big cruiser (when we got the bike we looked disparagingly on it expecting it to be a foul-tempered ill-handling mule but boy were we mistaken!) taking acceleration into account first, nothing comes close when you take in the Drag Star’s times: 0 to 60 Kmph takes just 3.34 seconds; 0 to 100kmph is achieved in a mere 7.54 seconds, while 0 to 150kmph takes 19.8 seconds. The standing quarter mile was achieved in a mind numbing 15.46 seconds at a terminal speed of 139.4 Kmph. Nothing and we mean nothing comes close to this performance and let us not forget the fact that there are only two huge cylinders doing the business in an unhurried manner.
The gang of 600 is the most happening. This Super sports category has seen a pack of exciting motorcycles hit the road in the recent past and they are forever improving. All the major motorcycle manufacturers have their presence in this category. Bikes that have made their mark in racing like the Suzuki GSX R600, Kawasaki ZX 6R636, Yamaha YZF R6, Honda CBR 600 F and the highly improved Triumph TT 600. The road legal versions of these motors throttle all the way up. These bikes just scream to be pushed hard to touch the red line in almost every gear. The Yamaha YZF R6 is right up there with the leader of this aggressive pack, which at present seems to be the Suzuki GSX R600. Compared to other bikes in its category, the R6 looks kind of small. The sitting position is crouched and leaves you with very little space to maneuver yourself. The bike puts you pretty much where it wants to.
The R6 is absolute dynamite. If you know how to handle it right you can throw it widely into the turns and it is helped in no small measures by the fact that it weighs less than its contemporaries. There are times when the front feels a bit light especially when the rider can come out of a fast turn. But one gets used to this jerky feeling. Since the rider sits upfront, it’s almost an invitation to throw the bike around like crazy. The fine handling is also helped by the Dunlop tyres that feature a wide D207 180/55-17 at the rear while the front has D207 120/60-17. Yamaha sure knows how to promote their band. The R6 runs as well as it looks. The four cylinders develop a maximum power output of 102 bhp at 12500 rpm.
The four thirsty cylinders are fed through four 37mm keihin carburetors. These carburetors have both sliders as well as butterflies. The butterflies open initially and after a certain rpm when the needle crosses 100 kmph, the sliders start opening up. The sliders in these carburetors are not the usual cylindrical type and are thin flat ones. Shifting through the six gears was a rather unpleasant grinding sound while engaging first and the second gear. Since the R6 has low mid range power is constant makes the gears to keep the power up. Since these bikes take off like slingshots they need equally good brakes to bring them to a standstill. The front is equipped with twin 298mm discs with the rear has a single 220mm disc.
This was started by Eric Buell. This is today a Harley Davidson’s sister company, since Harley Davidson do not produce sporty image. Buell is the medium as it specialized in making sports bikes. Buell is currently offering three variants. They are Blast, Lightning and Firebolt. The Blast has a 429cc engine with carburetion achieved via a Keihin carburetor. The transmission is five speed gearbox which is capable of delivering 34bhp to the wheel. Both the front and rear is equipped with dick brakes. The XB9S or lightning XB9S is powered by 984cc, 92bhp engine offering a variable volumetric efficiency by varying the ram air intake. Firebolt XB9R uses the same engine as lightning is a real box of tricks, designed to grab the heart of youngsters.
This is a proud American motorcycle and typifies the larger-than-life American way through the bikes they made. Not only does the company build bikes with big Chevrolet V8 engines in them but also, there is a choice! One can choose between a small block 5.7 liter engine that develops 355 bhp and a 502 bhp, 8226 cc big block engine. All that power is transmitted through a two-speed torque converter automatic transmission which is operated like manual gear shift of a bike. A useful feature is the separate pillion pad which can double up as a backrest for the rider when he or she is riding solo. There is also touring package available which includes a revised fairing design and which incorporates an AM/FM CS stereo system. Top speed is a mere 200 kph, but that is not surprising considering that dry weight is just 615 kg!
