Know your bikes engine oil

One of the most important component for any 4 stroke engine is engine oil it gives protection to your engine components from regular wear n tear…you should always check and change your engine oil at regular intervals… as your bike runs the oil in your engine gets heated up and over a period of time it gets burnt and looses its lubrication. Normally for 4 strokes bikes u need to change your engine oil every 2500 km. so you need to keep an eye one the meter readings of your bike. Running the bike for more than 2500 km on the same engine oil might damage your engine and raise the friction in your engine…

Most of the companies recommend 20W40 as the engine oil to be used for 100 cc… now a days companies such as Hero Honda recommends 10W30 as an engine oil to be used for 100 cc. but practically you can use any above mentioned engine oil it wont make any difference to you engine…For higher CC engine even if company recommends 20W40 it is always better to use 20W50 for bikes such as Karizma, Pulsar, CBZ etc as 20W50 is slightly thicker than the 20W40 and it sticks to your engine more and works well in Hot engine temperatures.

So now that you know why you need to change engine oil regularly now the question arises as to which Brand of oil to use. So many brands of oil available in the market these days make anybody’s mind confused. The most important factor to see in engine oil is the grade and not the brand if you think any x brand is better than y than u might be wrong unless you check the grade… most of you would not know what are grades so ill try to explain u in a very simple way… all the oil companies are required to certify their products(oils) with a testing laboratory which in this case is API(American Petroleum Institute). So on testing API gives the product a certain grade. So on the oil bottle there would be print like API SF/API SG/API SJ/ API SL/ API SM. So what this means you have to look at the last letter means SF is inferior to all the other grades and the grades are given alphabetically… similarly SM is better than SL as M comes after L alphabetically. So you don’t have to think too much its very to simple to find out which oil is better… so next time don’t be surprised if you find a higher grade oil in market other than your preferred one.

Hero Honda Splendor NXG

It’s the trusted 100 cc motor from the Hero Honda which goes in the NXG is the same which is fitted in splendor/Passion/CD deluxe. But this model gives an optional self start option... As far as power pick up is concerned its all similar to the old splendor. Mileage has been always the main factor in splendor and the NXG would not disappoint you either. You would get an average of 65-70 kmpl on highway and 60 kmpl in city…

The handling is good, seating is also good, and suspension is perfect. It has all the ingredients for an office going guy or guys mostly traveling on bike for long hours.

In terms of looks it is one of the good looking bikes in the 100 cc segment…The alloy wheels goes well with all new tank, side panels, and tail panels…

On maintenance part Hero Honda has the best reputation among 2 wheelers manufacturers to be the least costly and easy maintenance. As the motor is same 100 cc all spares are easily available in the market… the quality of parts fitted in the bike is quite good so they would definitely last long.

Overall it’s a perfect buy for any person looking to buy a 100 cc... It’s an absolute value for money bike… and when I say value for money some people might argue with over price as bajaj or other companies offer same type products for quite less price, but friends once you buy a hero Honda product you would get a top quality product which would hardly require replacements of any major spares after u buy it.

125 – 135 cc Segment

Let’s compare some 125 cc bikes currently in market and see which is a good buy… ill just take few bikes to compare…
1. Hero Honda Glamour
2. Bajaj Discover 135 DTSI
3. Honda Shine

As I said ill just take few bike I just took 3 bikes who I think are good buys. Well both glamour and shine are 125 but discover is 135 so obliviously it goes ahead in terms of power and pickup. So in terms of power and pick up discover comes 1st, Shine 2nd and Glamour 3rd.

On Handling and suspension I would rate the 3 bikes as follows. 1st shine, 2nd Glamour and 3rd discover

In terms of mileage I cannot rate the bikes as all are in same category. You would get around 60 kmpl in all three bikes… but with a bigger motor yielding same mileage as other two makes discover sneak just a bit ahead of the other 2 bikes.

On maintenance factor Shine and Glamour leaves the discover behind… the quality and durability of parts fitted in glamour and shine are much better than the bajaj model. The availability of spares of all three models is not a problem… spares of all three models is available easily in the market…

On technological view one might say that the Discover has the better one but apart from the Twin spark plugs there is nothing else which u can say is different in discover from the other two.

The overall ride quality of Shine is better the engine sounds perfectly good there is no vibration on your hands or legs and you will just enjoy riding shine rather than discover and Glamour… Discover would come 2nd in terms of ride quality and Glamour last…

As far as looks goes Honda shine has the best among all… you would get ally wheels in all three models but the shine will definitely stand tall in looks… Shine has a classy finish with its rich colors and stickers

So the final result is that Honda Shine is the undoubted winner in the 125-135 cc segments…

Bajaj Pulsar 150/180 DTSI (Digital UG3)

Pulsar 150 and 180 DTSi (digital) is one of the latest bike in pulsar family.... with alll new tail pannel, Side pannel, LED lamps, Digital speedo, bike looks really modern n trendy. Engine is the same as that of old 150/180 DTSI but the gear box of 150 is changed to that of 180(1 up 4 down).

All seems to be smooth and fine when u take a ride of the bike. engine is really refine, gear change is good, handling is good except the front heavy part which is common in all pulsars. its a good value for money bike...

But the real problem starts 1 or 2 years.. the main prob of the bike is wiring and its electronic and electrical instruments which are simply not reliable and not long lasting.. too many wires too many instruments.. 2 years down the road you will have to change a few handle bar switches and some relays and may be the full wiring harness... which is not cheap... the bike is damn good but the quality of electronics really spoils the party... if bajaj could give a better quality of parts then it might solve the problem.

The suggestion from me would be not to go for this bike unless Bajaj comes up with some quality changes to make it reliable and back it up with some warranty.