Sunday, April 13, 2008

Get Educated on getting a new Bike

Education to me is knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process... Err... to be generous here am not trying to behave like one of those teachers who tells us what to do and what not to do... Wanted to put a across a a very simple thought of getting a new bike and thought i would share it with you folks with a different flavor to it...

Education has taught me how to do things differently and also made me wisely on how to apply myself in difficult situations... So before i thought i did something differently and tried to apply my brains, let me share something about that...

Bikes for me has always been a passion and i was wondering the times when i would own one... So the time came i had decided to own a new bike and with the same old passion i went in search of the beast.. This experience was indeed harrowing and fruitful until i realized this is what i want... To me the best thing you need to do before trying to do something is getting educated on what you are trying to do.. am might sound a little weird here, but its as simple as this - "GET EDUCATED"

How do you get educated??? Answer to this simple - Keep asking questions , you shouldn't worry about the kind of stupid questions you ask... Anything from how many employees are employed here to Do you have any idea what John Abraham is riding??? But these really wouldn't educate you much but rather give answers to ones of your interests.

Do you want to get educated, so listen carefully and maintain pin drop silence, again sounding like one of those mortals in classrooms.. The first best thing to do is try answering the following questions and you will be exactly at a standpoint where you wanted to be... Let me talk about this with my experience on getting a new bike.. What would be the first question to ask ,Which bike should i get Splendor, Pulsar, unicorn??? This is one of the worst first questions that you can ask yourself when getting a new bike... These answers came up just because one of your close buddies have them... But the whole point of getting educated on getting a new bike is missing... Let me not be so detailed here, the first and foremost is

Why do you need a bike now, Did you have one earlier and looking for a change or planning your first beast???

How many miles you drive every day or in a week, get an approximate number???

Is bike your only source of transportation???

Are you looking out for a gear or gear less vehicle??

Are you looking for one which would save your pocket or one which go just few miles emptying your pocket?? Basically the mileage, the fuel economy. Be careful here the number look little more than exaggerating. This hugely depends on the way you ride the bike..

Looking out for a one which would impress your opposite sex or otherwise??

Do you have a budget in your mind before getting a shock of your life?? This is really important before answering the rest "Money matters most".. Also decide whether you are planning for finance options or you just happy swiping your card with huge bank balance...

Fiance options, please be careful choosing the right one

Check out whether you are planning for a used one or a brand new based. This purely depends on your personal choice...

Check out the resale value of the bike you are planning for??? Is it worth investing money on this...

People might also prefer bikes based on the make.. Hero Honda for example has had a amazing affect to the common man...

You would obviously like to take test ride and do so with all the bikes that you come across, this is absolutely free. But these test rides themselves are actually not worthy testing how good the bike is.. Once you have started your bike, the test ride ends there...

For all the fundoo guys who talk about bikes, they might be more worried about the engine parameters like engine type, displacement, compression ratio ,maximum power , torque , bore etc...

Now not but the least decide the color of your choice, try not choosing attractive colors... info from the expert : black , blue , grey have a very good resale value...

And now if you have found the answers for these, you have chosen the right one.. If you still confused, then i would say you are not worthy getting a new bike.. forget the whole thought of getting it..

Answering these lead me to just one beast on road... I found out "Honda Unicorn" would be as ideal as i thought which would exactly suite my requirements of getting a new bike.. Not but the least i would like to thank all the people who helped me choosing the right one..

Guess i left you folks gasping for all the lessons taught today.. So learn these lessons for the questions that are to pop in future... So better get educated before someone starts teaching you...

Key notes : 1 .If you are in metros try avoiding vehicles with engine displacement
more than 180cc, save fuel , save breathing space...
2. Start the green revolution.
3. Try to pool in people whenever required, less vehicle on road, solves traffic snarls.

4 comments:

Vijesh said...

I din go thro this process, since when you are a student. There wouldn't be much choice! :)

For impressing opp sex does the bike really matter or the one who rides it? ;)

Srihari said...

The whole point on going thro the process was getting educated...

Here the catch is "The Skin speaks more than the inner soul"...The same applies here... So flashy bikes catch the eyes first and rest later...

Amudhan said...

hi there,
This post was a good one. Really made me think about my plans of buying a new bike. If you had not said anything about which bike you bought, it would be fine. But since, you had said you bought "Honda Unicorn", I demand some answers to these questions, which I am finding very difficult to solve.
1) In what way, Unicorn is better than CBZ Extreme?
2) Did you ever have XCD 125 in your mind? What made you reject it.
3) Why Pulzar failed your taste?

I am having, XCD (mileage minded), CBZ Extreme (Pickup and Style minded), Discover (loyalty to my first bike which is in my native and my favourite). I didn't think about Unicorn. If you could, just reply with your answers. Educate me!

Amateur biker,
Amudhan

Srihari said...

Amudhan,

Thanks for comments on the post. First and foremost all worthy investments that we make needs to be properly counseled. We are in an era of "Information"...
Let me go one by one on your questions,
1) Unicorn is simple , neat when compared to most other bikes in that 150cc range.. It doesn't have the jazzy looks check out the back lamps, the body , the whole design is simple, which to me is my USP.

2) It didn't have XCD in my mind , but i did have a test ride. XCD has a very light weight body and cant go at very high speed. But if you are looking out for mileage minded i think nothing can beat Splendor. Earlier i had a splendor and just loved the bike. And i already had in my mind to go for long rides and just for this the 125cc was never my cup of tea..

3) This was the toughest decision i had to make. But the test ride i gave on Unicorn was a dream run and just that it a "Honda" make i went on to finalize the deal.

The interesting and hidden facts that i learnt here was the number of constraints and questions that i had to answer while going through the entire process of getting a bike was mind blowing.. Investing always comes with some trade offs but you will have to decide which is lesser to affect you on a longer run..