Hero Impulse : Long Term Ownership Experience

Time flies. I didn't know when my fling with Hero Impulse turned into a serious relationship. Almost 7 years now. I have ridden my Hero Impulse for over a lakh kilometres. It has been a great dual sport with yes a few problems but a whole lot of fun. I rode it to places very far, dirt trails by my city and what not. I have driven her to the mountains, high passes, trails, riverbeds, and some of most grueling roads all these years. 7 years is a lot to ask from a bike which demands so less and give so much. Few dual sport motorcycles were launched recently. Hero X Pulse 200 is one of them which is considered as a potent successor to Impulse after the Impulse was phased out back in 2012. Royal Enfield Himalayan has been there too since a while. Hero Xpulse came with an under powered mill yet again. Xpulse 200 new chassis isn't as good as the Impulse's (carried on from the Honda's legendary XRs) and was a turn off for me. I am not a big fan of RE. Moreover Royal Enfield and breakdowns have always been synonymous to me. The horror stories of Himalayan owners fuel the fire more. The new 650s by RE are decent though. Anyways, so I decided to stick with my machine a little more.

Pros and Cons of Hero Impulse

Cons : (only major issues which are fundamental to a motorcycle).

1.  Low on power : Goes without saying. The low power of Hero Impulse is a rant of very   owner. 
2.  Availability of Spares : Spares are scarcely available and will be hard to find as the time   passes by. Engine part compatibility is good with similar engines like Honda Unicorn, Hero   Extreme etc. Body parts and plastics and small bits like springs, rubbers, Impulse specific   parts are hard to source.
3. Poor headlight
4. Insufficient braking : Specially after performance mods on your engine. 
5. Rear Suspension : Tends to sag and hardly mendable. Brand new costs around 7k INR approx.
6. Faulty Speedometer console
7. Front Speedometer Magnet sensor : Doesn't come as a separate spare but the whole assembly instead. Too costly for dual sport maintenance. 
8. Carburetor Issues : Slide jamming, needle breaking etc
9. High Altitude Sickness

Pros 

1. Low maintenance 
2. Simplistic and easy to deal with a breakdown
3. Brilliant Chassis
4. A reliable Dual Sport
5. Ample seat space for pillion and luggage
6. Part Compatibility
7. Less plastics and easy to mod (a big thumbs up for a dual sport).

So, with no new decent dual sport in recent years Hero Impulse bike still is the apple of my eye apart from some imperfections which I discussed in detail HERE It was too long waiting for a good dual sport so modified my Hero Impulse into a dirt bike look alike. 

Hero Impulse Modified

A custom-made rear luggage rack enough to carry the luggage that is usually light. "Just Dual Sport things."

Inevitable ass fetish among dirtbikers. 

Details of the modifications :

1. Front fender and headlight: Got it from Ali Express here: Headlight and Fender
2. Rear tail is completely custom made with a lot of plastic welding to get a dirt type rear fender. I chopped off the rear frame in half, resembling a subframe from the KTMs. Had to cut short and fabricate the seat too for aesthetic purposes. 
3. ZMA engine : Got hold of an old Hero Honda Karizma engine. Reconditioned it prior to fitting. Went fairly simple with the process. CDI and Carb is that of stock Impulse, as the impulse CDI has a higher rev limit as compared to ZMA. Wiring is that of stock Impulse and charger unit of ZMA (it's bigger hence, charges well).
4. The headlight is running on DC along with a 20W auxiliary LED light. Bigger battery too 6Ah, for the extra electricals and the increased load on the starter motor, compared to stock impulse's 150 cc mill. 
5. Broader Footpegs from Himalayan make it easy to stand over a long period of time on pegs and provide better grips and planted feel on off roads. Plus they are not very sharp to fuck up your shoes soles.
6. 125 Mainjet and a 35 Pilot according to the altitudes I ride at.
7. Dropped down carb needle: Since I'm running on the stock VM28 carb of impulse, the needle height cant be adjusted for higher altitudes. The bike runs rich from 1/2 open throttle to WOT above 7500ft ASL. So I dropped the needle down to cope up with that. 
8. Aluminum handguards: A must for a good dual sport.

A rather short post and less to speak of my experience with Hero Impulse. It hasn't posed much problems and always has been a silent workhorse as I kept on going with my excursions.

More of me and my motorcycle on my Instagram