Apache RTR 160 - Myths and Facts

Hello Friends,

After very long time i am back to mouth shut, its been long i put my pulsar review on this web and now once again back with bike review.

After owning Pulsar 150 DTSi for 3 years i finally sold it out six months back and bought car for myself and after only couple of months after buying car, the biker inside me started missing winds hitting face at high speeds, zig zag through traffic, just miss the hit etc etc i started feeling like owning one bike and pulsar was immediately out of list as i already owned it it was really nice bike but no use to buy same thing again (be it any model 150 to 220 all are same)

i started checking with market and i definitely don’t like bikes without racy sitting position like unicorn or gs 150 so they were out of list too, somehow whenever i seen apache on road i was feeling like owning such bike but reviews about apache on internet making me really confused, BIke guru on indiabike.com keep on suggesting and many real time users keep on saying about vibrations and i was so much confused that i didn’t ever go to take test drive but today i went pass the tvs showroom and felt like give it a chance.

I entered in showroom and two apaches (160 & 180) were like welcoming me they both look really sturdy and must have bikes, i looked, sat on that and in a minute sales person arrived i took details and asked for test drive on apache 160 (well i didn’t feel like owning 180 in traffic in city like ahmedabad, 160 would be quite enough) he agreed to give me longer test drive, i got the keys, turned on the ignition, pressed the start button and engine got in to the life immediately, sould was really nice and fun to hear for any bike lover unlike old sibling apache 150. i pressed the clutch just a little press on gear sift and bike was in hurry to move, released the cluth and twisted the accelater and wow what a pick up, i started shifting gears as fast as i can and i was like enjoyi8ng roller coaster ride, i was happy feeling old days on bike once again and apache was right choice to get back to that world, i tested at high speed, i tested at low speeds on high gear and everything was perfect, you guys must have read many reivews but here i want to clear some myths about this bike.

1. TVS Build Quality
Few people kept on saying about build quality of tvs products but i checked whole bike, build quality is rock solid, parts used are nice quality and well fitting into each other and i seen many old apaches on roan in nice conditions, so guys no worries here.

2. Vibration
Too much said about vibrations on apache, its not 100% wrong but not right too, i felt little vibrations at around 45-55 speed and i felt because i wanted to feel, other wise its not at all noticeable and easily negligible it doesn’t hurt fun riding in facts it adds more fun to ride this bike, nothing to worry about vibrations in fact i ride this bike immediately after i rode FZ and believe me guys if apache is not smooth as FZ but too much smoothness makes FZ little boring, let your body vibrate little bit to have fun.

3. Road holding
some people say that due to tvs shreechakra, road holding while hard breaking is not good, to test this i rode bike above 60 and break tight and bike was straight in the line and coming to stop almost immediately with no glimpse of skidding, i don’t feel any problem like such.

4. Gear Shifting
I found gears much more better than it was in my pulsar, gear shift was easy through all gears, clutch was fine too, no complaints.

5.Riding position
well this is totally personal preference, i already said in start that i love raciest position i am 5’11" 65 kgs guy and i found bike comfortable for me, i took around 5 kms test drive in traffic and no wrist/back pain to me, and for some people such might be the cast, depends on your body time and sitting style but i definitely can say that some people saying that this bike is not good for height more than 5’8" is totally wrong, test drive yourself and find out whether its for you or not.

Few more things, it was just a test drive but it broke almost all myths i had in my mind about apache and i booked mine in Grey color and now waiting for delivery, I will update with mileage and other things after driving it for 1000 kms, if you guys want to know anything about this little monster, don't’ hesitate to ask.

Thanks
Manoj Soni