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

The Dual Sport Dream

The idle wondering times of the day pass by gazing out of the window, sometimes flipping through old pictures distracting me just enough momentarily from the longing of going on a next excursion. Sitting idle and daydreaming has been the job lately. Spring brakes in this month marking the advent of summers and thawing of snow and the clearing of roads, luring they call. Bored, I now drop pins over the maps and curbs on the expenses eyeing to the high roads, passes and the Himalayas.

                       

Less driven this winters and the past season my motorcycle has been strolling itself through some engine and chassis malfunctions. The steering races has been a pain in the ass and the engine`s out of its order. Already into 45000kms on the ODO the mill needs an overhaul and the chassis some reconditioning. With the month gone by in struggling through the steering races, though all ending in vain, engine is up for a complete overhaul.

Eyeing forward to the high passes and long trips I long to get off the armchair and hop on the bike. Ride through the plains of Morey at Pang and the loops of Gata, gather some more landscapes from the saddle and more adventures on my dirt bike.

Well not a dirt bike but a dual sport motorcycle. Not a dual sport in fact either. Well that’s what the ambiguity is, I think, of the sole dirt/dual-sport bike India has, the Hero Impulse. The sole motorcycle launched back in 2012 and discontinued in the same year. The adventure purpose built bike was in turn an adventure for the guys at HeroMotorCorp getting some rise in their sale figures, unlikely to happen the bike was phased out leaving the dual sport enthusiast deserted with a spark of hope in the name of Impulse. Less applauded by the consumers and the biking crowd Impulse still has less recognition and thus a handful of owners. Thus is the sad state of the dual sport motorcycles in India. Yet to comprehend and contemplated by the biking enthusiasts, the dual sports will take a long time from now to seep in to the biking culture of today. Meanwhile we ride the sole off roader manufactured in India (thus making us potent to own it). Also the RE Himalayan.

Coming to RE (Royal Enfield), the “desi katta” of the Indian biking culture which to my liking and comprehension is a 200kg worth of iron which I love to ride to over smooth tarmac roads with a thumpy feel at the saddle. The torquey engine thumps itself to high speeds with less rpms on the tacho and vibes at the bars which I love riding on RE. This very emotion rooted deep has made RE what it is today, synonymous with long distance riding and adventure tours apparently. Hard as it always has been for me to understand the RE with adventure riding I take a slight inclination towards the Himalayan. The Himalayan launched last year with name “Himalayan” portrays the travelling/touring gesture of the travelling culture that’s hard wired between the biking enthusiasts and RE. Launched targeting the motorcycle tourers of India, and their very emotion of the same as a prey, Himalayan was looked upon and still is as a potent adventure bike which RE has built to go through all what the tourers may face while travelling in India and that’s true.

Apart from Impulse the Himalayan as a dual sport bike is a boon momentarily once offroads are concerned.  Himalayan is a great machine potent enough to get one through bad roads and river crossings and almost all high passes and Ladakh easily making it desirable and with a small price tag a great bang for buck but not to my liking though. To me it’s a soft tourer that’s it. What I think is, RE couldn’t just let go off its genes plonking a thumpy, long stroke, under-squared engine on, what they claim, an adventure bike. Loaded with off road goodies like the 21inch front and 17 rear, spiked foot pegs and less weight (only comparing to other Enfields) it surely gives a more practical off road feel to the machine. But nowhere close to what adventure bikes are, not even the same ballpark. Impulse with dirt oriented ergonomics and even on less power accommodated by less weight is more likely to be driven with ease and better maneuverability over long stretches of broken roads and adventure riding. But the whole discussion over the scenario of the only two dual sport bikes we have and what`s close to being a dual sport bike or a purpose built off roader or a terrain tamer is futile.

I admire dual sport machines like the Honda CRF 250, the Kawasaki KLRs, the DRZs by Suzuki and the XRs.  Driven by travellers over long distances crossing countries and borders on a saddle that was every ounce of worth it. A dual sport dream of travelling across the Latin America through Bolivia Chile and Argentina is yet to be accomplished someday meanwhile I drool over the pictures of those who do. I too eye forward for a dual sport machine manufactured in India thus easy on my pocket. The emotion meanwhile satisfied with mighty Hero Impulse which is under a lot of changes and up for Ladakh this year but in a whole another way. I can`t just wait to hit the roads after Manali to Pang and then the roads of Korzok where I shall charge through the long gravel road on the foot pegs and the water crossings and the famous Paagal Nala where the high ground clearance will get me through ease pass the boulders and rocks and the corners at dirt will be scraped fish-tailing the bike all possible and best done on a dual-sport machine.

But for the meanwhile bike gets reconditioned, I think of the roads and my last bitter experience of Ladakh. Anyways …for now the weather outside is dull and so is summers when not ridden, counting hours I flip through the old pictures still gazing out of the window with in mind a dual sport dream.

Just You and Your Motorcycle

I was alone so thought to ride and I hopped on my motorcycle, rode to the end of the driveway and turned right. At the first intersection, I turned left. Then right, left, and so on. My only goal for the ride was to keep to that pattern and see where it led me. This was with no cell phones and GPS, but I wasn’t too worried about getting lost. My home is in Dehradun Uttarakhand, pretty much surrounded by the great scenic views and forests. So i got away that day.

Sure enough, after a couple of hours I ended up at a tiny village along a river. A couple of my turns along the way had been dead-ends, and at one point I wound up circling the same roads in a subdivision, but for the most part I had stuck to my right/left/right pattern. I had no idea where I was, but — just as I figured — a short ride along the river put me at a fairly major town with familiar road signs. So I figured out where I was and soon bolted back home on a more direct route. Turns out I was late for dinner and I think my mother was pretty worried about me. Anyways nothing that was very spectacular about the ride; the roads in the area are mostly straight and flat, I had kept a mellow pace, and didn’t encounter any excitement along the way. Still, even after many years of riding on great roads all around with friends to several places, it remains one of my most memorable rides.

I was always a bit adventurous in exploring new roads on a motorcycle. I am definitely not comparing myself to some of the real adventure riders that are more deserving of the moniker, but my curiosity always seems to get the better of me. When my commute is normally around the daily Sahastradhara Road, I can’t go by a strange road more than a few times before having to turn down it and see where it leads.

I often strayed from the scheduled route and went exploring on my own. When you’re that far from home, literally every intersection is a new road just begging to be ridden. Luckily, I have a fairly good sense of direction and could usually find my way home without too much trouble, if a bit later than planned. Over the months I have found some fantastic roads and great places that I otherwise would have never found, just by wandering off the beaten path and doing something different. And, to be honest, I have met some nice people when stopping to ask for help — my sense of direction is not that good.

My point in all this is that we, as sportbike riders, can easily lose track of why we ride. For some riders it becomes all about style and looking the part. For others, it’s the camaraderie of hanging out with fellow sportbikers. Maybe it’s about having the latest bike with all the right go-fast accessories, or working hard at riding techniques, or following the races — or even being a racer. There are so many distractions in our niche sport that it’s easy for the actual riding to become a small part of the total experience, and then it becomes MORE WORK THAN FUN. The bike gets shuffled off to a corner of the garage and left to collect dust for months at a time, maybe even permanently.

I love doing  an afternoon on the rusted bike, a morning breakfast ride or even just a detour on the way home from the office. Sometimes, all it takes to rekindle the enjoyment of riding is just that — hopping on your bike and going for a ride. No pressure to look good, to work on your riding skills or to impress your buddies; JUST YOU AND YOUR MOTORCYCLE.

I say begin your Sunday ride by simply going in the opposite direction than you usually go. Or turn down that road you’ve always gone past on your way to the office and never checked out. I’d say don’t forget to take a map or your GPS, but…where’s the fun in that?

[MOTO TRAVEL] Chanshal Pass

Chanshal Pass

When we found the thrill over the hill at Chanshal last week. It was magnificent and surreal finding ourselves at the untouched Chanshal. Through treacherous terrains and mere 250 odd kilometers away from Dehradun and experiencing vistas and landscapes equivalent to Rohtang is surely is a thrilling excursion one can accomplish overnight.

Sharing few stills of what we witnessed up top.

Enduro uphill

Roads to freedom.

Enroute Chanshal pass

Chanshal Pass