This week get featured has a very different entry, where Kodieswaran has not only answered our questions but also gone ahead by telling us alot about himself and how is passion started along with reviewing his Karizma R. He hails from Salemcity and is just 18 years old. So now, its over to him.
I developed a passion for automobies when I was in 7th standard. My inspiration was my friend Sanjay in the sense our school is nearly 20kms from my house we used to go by school bus. It is a 45 minute travel and we used to play spotting the cars on road. He has more knowledge than me and he used to win most of the times. Then a passion towards automobiles took away both of us.
We started to read about automobiles in local magazines, visited local biking showrooms (we are often not treated well by them). I started liking the Karizma. It was kind of a beast. Spotting a ZMA is tough in those days, thankfully an uncle near our house had a ZMA. We were amazed by is size and instrumentation, it was a superbike to us. I dreamt about buying it one day. During my age of 16 I got a Karizma R with red alloys. I was informed by the showroom men that I was the first to take this colour. They were shocked seeing me buy ZMA. Before buying it we used to do stunts on Scooty pep.
When we both rode the beast around our city, all people were dumbstuck on seeing us. Thanks to my parents who helped me realise my passion and promised to buy even most of the safety gears as they knew about my style of riding. But I don’t look like a small boy. I am 5 ft 10 and I weigh 85 kilos. We got caught by cops thrice and got out using my parents. I had done three major accidents. One was on second day when unknowing the power of discs I slammmed the brake and we both fell, thanks to my MPA helmet that literally saved my head. Then another one was when doing a christ, it was a devastaing accident and costed around Rs. 10,000/- besides insurance claim. The third was done by my friend, it was just minor but besides all these my parents only encouraged my passion. Thanks to God for giving me gem of parents. We also used to drive around our new Honda City bought just 4 months ago. We are lucky in our teenhood to get beyond what all we needed.
What urged me to buy a ZMA was that it was designed from head to toe. Hero Honda has done an excellent job concentrating on design even on the key. The front fairing looks majestic and resembles a lions face. The windsheild speaks the history of its own. The all black theme and red alloys touch, I bet it grabs all attention on. When caught on signal everyone would stare as if I am an alien. My friend and I were feeling all pride. Mostly we are noticed by our opposite sex and we are remmebered by others as Karizma guys. I was even called as Karizma kodi by all my peers.
The front suspension was the best, tolerating all pothholes across and it has even travelled terrain, muddy and rocky roads with ease and grace. It fell as if u are in a Benz. The rear was also fine doing its job. The R graphics impressed me the most. It denotes rivalry racing revolution for me. The handle bars which many ZMA users dislike is actually the best fiited for easy travelling. Other rivals such as Pulsar 220, R15, Apache 180 roar very much that at some point it even feels annoying but nice most times. But Karizma sounds like lurking beast ready to go on throttle. The ZMA doesn’t squeeze all power from the engine giving it greater life and reliability. It feels like u have very good grip on road, thanks to the Zappers and weight distribution. The bike masters the higways as it is referred as highway queen.
I had once been to bangalore on my ZMA. I was cruising at around 100-110kmph with ease. With that speed it gave an amazing mileage of 42kmpl on that ride. Normally it gives around 33-35kmpl. Another importent feature is the slim and sleek tank actually holds 16.5 litres of petrol.
The front 276mm disc (the second largest in India) does its jobs excellenlty. The front disc and rear dum works out really well. Thanks to HH, the ZMA I have beaten the fastest Indian Pulsar 220 both on 0-60kmph and on top speed drag. The zma hit a top whack of 142kmph (on speedo)whereas the p220 hits around 135kmph (on speedo). Another major advantage about ZMA is that the stability of the engine, it really supports long rides and it hits it top speed every time you check, not like p220 and R15 which hit top speed on 4 out of 10 trials.
Yamaha R15 is more a track tool and it has a poor pickup which makes it nearly unfit for traffic urban racing. Pulsar 220 is powerful urban street racer but it loses on the highway. Karizma serves its owner both on the highway and on urban streets. The all yellow backlit anlog console is the best I have ever seen in this world. It looks great at dark. The rear tail lamp clusters is also the best around the world with those twin multireflectors. Most of the rivals of the Karizma were well designed only on front end, the rear set was not concentrated. But HH designed the ZMA the very best. The sitting posture looks majestic as the Karizma is the only bike in my consideration which is well fiitted to very few. I am lucky that I am one of it. Proud to be a owner of ZMA, you never regret after buying. You only start loving it more and more everyday and on every ride.
My review on my ZMA may seem one-sided but I urge all bikers to keep a hand on it and taste the beast. You will be very much impressed,then realise I am true. I can write on for pages about my beauty Karizma but no space. All ZMA owners know it i guess. Just last month, on the 25th I turned 18 and now I hav my LLR which I got on my birthday and waiting for my license. I had done 8000 kilometres on my bike and it still revvs and looks like a brand new one. Now I am doing my B.Tech in automobile engg in SRM University 1st year.
Answer to your questions : –
- I currently own a Karizma R with red alloys.
- I bought it in may 2008.
- Small aged passion for its design and styling and performence.
- I hav done 8000+ kms on it and daily around 7-15kms average.
- I like its style and ride posture and high speed crusie.
- For me no cons on my bike, because from the very day i bought it, I started liking it day and day.
- I wont trade and ride untill last drop of petrol on this planet.
- I drove from my city Salem to Bangalore which is 220+ kms.
- The fastest on the speedo against wind is 133kmph, along wind side is 142kmph.
- It gives an average of 33-35kmpl but highway cruising at 100kmph it gave 42kmpl.
- A major accident to my bike while doing christ stunt. I almost spent Rs. 10,000/- beside insurance claim.
- I want my bike to be natural. In future I want to install only an ABS to my front disc.
- Its everything special, its my priceless possesion, its my betterhalf.
- My dream bike is the Karizma and after buying it, I added another choice of the famous Hayabusa GSX1300R.
- Motorbeam is best Indian biking portal i have ever seen, thanks to its admin. Continue your good work. My request is that make the site still more vivid with many graphics and advertise your site on TV.
