I just did a Bangalore-Mysore-Bangalore ride yesterday. It was purely for the joy of riding the Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi.
Some stats first..
-A total of 333Km.
-My odo now shows 3050Km as done.
-Did my last servicing 3 weeks ago from Bajaj Pro, Auto-Service, Bangalore. After which, the performance and mileage both went up.
Issues...[ 1 to 5 ]
1] But, yesterdays long drive has set me thinking... The Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi just would not go beyond 117Kmph !!! Let me explain in details with some stats..
-My yesterdays ride was a solo one, I weigh 75Kg, the bike had 8liters of fuel, and not more than 3Kg of hand baggage.
-The day was cloudy, max ambient temperature during the ride would not exceed 28'C
-I normally get a speed of 85 @ 6000rpm in 5th gear
-If I continue to throttle more and build up rpm, I get 105 @ 8000rpm in 5th
-After this point, the 8200rpm mark is never breached, and this translates to a max speed of 115 and rarely 117.
I have tried various techniques to build rpm, but it never exceeded 8200rpm mark in 5th gear.
But,
-If I go down to 4th gear, I can touch red line @ 9000 rpm (and the rpm warning indicator starts to glow red), also I get speeds of 90-92Kmph at this point.
-If I now shift to 5th gear soon after this red line, the rpm drops to approx 7200.
-After this I throttle more and the rpm will reach 8200 max, with again a speed of 115Kmph.
Now my question is.. why does the rpm get maxed out at 8200 in 5th while in 4th it easily can go to 9000 (and I'm sure if I push it, it will go much beyond).
2] Another thing I noticed is.. when I'm at 8200rpm, speeds of 115Kmph, there is a lot more throttle left. I would estimate almost more than an inch of a throttle turn left. If I throttle more than this, or even max out the throttle, twisting it to its max position... the engine responds by changing its sound. It sounds louder and a bit faster. Some change in vibrations is also noticeable. So it means that the motor is responding to the throttle changes, but it does not translate to an upward change in rpm, meaning no change in speed.
3] One comparison that I can do here is... all my old bikes had their own max rpm, which could be reached in top and top-1 gears. My Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi wont do that. Also when I come down from max speed and max rpm to even half of it.. all my older bikes used to shudder (harmonic oscillations setting off vibrations).. the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi does not.. so that's a plus point noticed in this issue.
4] Another issue is that on this ride I noticed that over all vibrations after 6000rpm have increased over my last ride. I can just feel them. It feels very un-P220. The first time I did 85Kmph I had noticed that the vibrations were marginally increased. But not this last ride..
5] After riding at 115Kmph for 1-2 minutes (there is no straight part to ride any longer at that speed safely), the fuel pump malfunction lamp lit up. It stayed even if one reduces speed under 40Kmph. There is no other way than to stop, kill power (hard boot) and start again. And it happened on ALL of my 115kmph runs. After one such run, I decided to ride under 40Kmph and see what happens. But the lamp was lit all the while even after a few Km, and the motor never ran dry of fuel (if the fuel pump had malfunctioned the motor should die of thirst right?). finally I did a hard-boot.
So here is what I'm thinking...
-Is an ECU map doing this??
-Is the fuel pump to blame, that it cant supply fuel faster at high rpm's??
[A similar problem was noticed on my brothers Kawasaki Ninja previously; the injection pipes accumulated some wax kind of layers (just like cholesterol blocking heart valves); the Ninja would splutter to death at high rpm's]
-Is something wrong with the 5th gear itself?
Any other Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi owners reported similar issues?
I will be asking Venkat Shyam of Auto-service for advice and thoughts on this issue, and if needed inform Bajaj Auto too. Some how I need my faith to be restored in the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi !!
Some stats first..
-A total of 333Km.
-My odo now shows 3050Km as done.
-Did my last servicing 3 weeks ago from Bajaj Pro, Auto-Service, Bangalore. After which, the performance and mileage both went up.
Issues...[ 1 to 5 ]
1] But, yesterdays long drive has set me thinking... The Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi just would not go beyond 117Kmph !!! Let me explain in details with some stats..
-My yesterdays ride was a solo one, I weigh 75Kg, the bike had 8liters of fuel, and not more than 3Kg of hand baggage.
-The day was cloudy, max ambient temperature during the ride would not exceed 28'C
-I normally get a speed of 85 @ 6000rpm in 5th gear
-If I continue to throttle more and build up rpm, I get 105 @ 8000rpm in 5th
-After this point, the 8200rpm mark is never breached, and this translates to a max speed of 115 and rarely 117.
I have tried various techniques to build rpm, but it never exceeded 8200rpm mark in 5th gear.
But,
-If I go down to 4th gear, I can touch red line @ 9000 rpm (and the rpm warning indicator starts to glow red), also I get speeds of 90-92Kmph at this point.
-If I now shift to 5th gear soon after this red line, the rpm drops to approx 7200.
-After this I throttle more and the rpm will reach 8200 max, with again a speed of 115Kmph.
Now my question is.. why does the rpm get maxed out at 8200 in 5th while in 4th it easily can go to 9000 (and I'm sure if I push it, it will go much beyond).
2] Another thing I noticed is.. when I'm at 8200rpm, speeds of 115Kmph, there is a lot more throttle left. I would estimate almost more than an inch of a throttle turn left. If I throttle more than this, or even max out the throttle, twisting it to its max position... the engine responds by changing its sound. It sounds louder and a bit faster. Some change in vibrations is also noticeable. So it means that the motor is responding to the throttle changes, but it does not translate to an upward change in rpm, meaning no change in speed.
3] One comparison that I can do here is... all my old bikes had their own max rpm, which could be reached in top and top-1 gears. My Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi wont do that. Also when I come down from max speed and max rpm to even half of it.. all my older bikes used to shudder (harmonic oscillations setting off vibrations).. the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi does not.. so that's a plus point noticed in this issue.
4] Another issue is that on this ride I noticed that over all vibrations after 6000rpm have increased over my last ride. I can just feel them. It feels very un-P220. The first time I did 85Kmph I had noticed that the vibrations were marginally increased. But not this last ride..
5] After riding at 115Kmph for 1-2 minutes (there is no straight part to ride any longer at that speed safely), the fuel pump malfunction lamp lit up. It stayed even if one reduces speed under 40Kmph. There is no other way than to stop, kill power (hard boot) and start again. And it happened on ALL of my 115kmph runs. After one such run, I decided to ride under 40Kmph and see what happens. But the lamp was lit all the while even after a few Km, and the motor never ran dry of fuel (if the fuel pump had malfunctioned the motor should die of thirst right?). finally I did a hard-boot.
So here is what I'm thinking...
-Is an ECU map doing this??
-Is the fuel pump to blame, that it cant supply fuel faster at high rpm's??
[A similar problem was noticed on my brothers Kawasaki Ninja previously; the injection pipes accumulated some wax kind of layers (just like cholesterol blocking heart valves); the Ninja would splutter to death at high rpm's]
-Is something wrong with the 5th gear itself?
Any other Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi owners reported similar issues?
I will be asking Venkat Shyam of Auto-service for advice and thoughts on this issue, and if needed inform Bajaj Auto too. Some how I need my faith to be restored in the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi !!
9 comments:
1 . The problem with 8K+ barrier and sloppy 100plus runs was reported by all members who test rode the P200 at chakan...at least AFAICR . IT is there in the BN website archives and also on Vibhu's blog I think.
Anyway this is a problem thats there even on the P200 and if you sit straight the bike tops out at just a bit more than 115 and 8xxx rpm . If you crouch the tacho and speedo shoot up and you get more speed . I have reached 126 at ~9100 RPM on my P200 - only after crouching . Without crouching it seems the drag is too much to handle.
My guess is that this is the same on the p220 also .Just my opinion.
2.I have the same doubts about prob 2 as for prob 1 ..without crouching you don't feel the difference.
WRT problems 4 & 5 , The vibes are bound to increase as you start opening up the engine more and more . I am thinking that this is a very general problem unless the vibes are knocking your vision :D
Fuel pump icon - on the p200 the choked air filter and low oil level icon come on as soon as you start ripping the bike . The former comes on immediately while the latter is not consistent.This is a bug which is dealt with by doing a hard reboot ..exactly like what you did on your p220. So I think you are also experiencing the effects of this buggy sensor .
Anyway ..that is my take on it ..pls do as the "BIG BOSS" himself :)
Aditya,
Not hitting max RPM in 5th gear , now what RPM the bike can reach depends on gearing and power. At high speed if the drag is more than power then the bike cannot accelerate to higher RPM ( function of gearing ). Anyways I think the 220 is geared shorter than it should be ( top speed of 131km/h is supposedly at 9500 RPM which is past the redline and well past power peak at ~8000 RPM ).
Anyway 8200 RPM limite is too low to be normal with short gearing.It should very well hit about 9000 RPM if in good health .Could be caused by:
a) ECU problem causing ignition/FI mismatch and thus loss of power
b) Air filter/fuel line clogged leading to less power.
Revhard
Hey thanks for the comments and suggestions guys.
-Let me check again with a crouched position.
-I may be able to meet the 'Big Boss' soon and see if he can help sort out these issues.
Will keep posted :) Thanks again for your inspiration.. that helps lessen the sadness issue :D
Just another thing , usually none of the bikes will reach their peak RPM in top gear easily enough ...sometimes never .
The final gear is quite tall - meant for overdrive or cruising and not really for maxing the engine .
But you do get the top speed in the final gear - but not at the max rPM the engine is capable of . The CDI cuts off for all DTSi (from UG3 onwards) at 10000rpm
The max torque for a P220 is at 6500 rpm and max power is at 8500 RPM . If you shift up a bit closer to 8500 but not above it , the engine will fall back into the torque zone and carries on building speed . Revving upto 9000 and above in every gear before the fourth gear might not give you the same kind of kick .
For the vehicle to accelerate to its max top speed in the final gear , you must shift up to 5th such that the RPM falls back into the torque zone ..i.e around 6500 RPM .
That is why IMHO , its not really useful to rev upto redline in an effort to get max speed . People will point to the power curve peaking at 8500rpm but you must remember that the power curve builds even after torque curve starts to fall off so the torque zone is more important than the peak power point.
Hi,
The issues can be of three types.
Type 1) an issue specific to the bike : let us say a clogged fuel system, low tyre air pressure, over tight chain, Over tightened wheel bearing etc in your bike.
Put your bike on stand, turn the wheels by hand and see if they run well.. Check spark plug tip colour. put your finger in the silencer outlet (when the bike is cold) and see if you get too much carbon/oil in your finer.
It's possible that some one in the service did some thing wrong and that's giving you head aches now. Did they use the right engine oil ? Ask the service center guy to show you the lube oil used . Verify if he has the one with the same category/specification as your p220 manual says.
Type 2) a production problem (let us say, common to a set of / batch of p220s produced together) and
Type 3) a design & engineering issue (ie., common to all p220 )
Top speed of around 112 - 115kph is for P180 -the short gearing, Alloy wheel version, Rider weighing circa 90 kg. Sitting straight. ( Those with big bellies can't bend let alone crouch )
In this light, obviously one gets curious how come p220 is not able to get past 117..
At 3000 Km in odo, it need not be a running in issue either.
You need some one who knows p220 .. in the sense that some one who has faced similar problems in a p220 and solved them before. A p220 expert.
Given p220 is new model, why not you give a call to the Head / Incharge of Service & Support for p220 in bajaj ?
Keep posted.
Mohan.J
P200 is 7kg heavier than P180 and has only 1.5PS or 1.47BHP more . Then there is the fat tyre which offsets significantly , any "perceptible " perf increase.
P220 is 12kg heavier than P180 and has 3.5PS or 2.93BHP more and the fat tyre to boot . So the difference in performance must be more "perceptible" but still not earth shattering.
Then the difference in gearing ...
So taking into account all these things I would say its par for the course if a well run-in P220 hits 135 on the speedo on level road with a lightish rider and no wind whatsoever...
117 without crouching is good enough IMHO ...
hey aditya.. i really loved ur blog on the 220.. im the owner of the 1st 220 in b'lore(delivered from khivraj showroom)..wel im a member of xbhp...
any way.. i wanted 2 kno from where u got ur bike?? did u bring it down from pune?? also.. where are u put up??
I think your bike is fine. Were you trying it on wet roads? were there some winds? .. 5th gear is mostly overdrive and really doesn't give you the power you'd wish at very high RPMs that's the reason bikes struggle to reach their top-speeds / take a very long distance. Even slightly wet roads with light gentle breeze can drop your topspeed by around 10kmph even if you try to be as aerodynamic as possible..
Try your top-speed runs in dry weather on dry tarmac. You should do good.
I buy a new pulasr 220f in 21/5/14.when I single stand my byke .it's rpm is fine but when I dubble stand it or ride on it .it's rpm getting low and gatting off.I only run 155 km .get max speed 112kmph .help me.
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