I did not have a lot of hopes in this being a handler but oh boy, was I wrong. What a chassis. It handles beautifully. Short corners / long corners no issue at all.
BHPian Grimlock recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I had the chance to ride the Xpulse Rally Edition for some time and wanted to share a little bit about it.
What it is – in short – Come to think of It, It is the closest thing we have to a rally bike for the road without spending a boat load of money. Love what Hero are doing with it – giving the user the flexibility to customize their bike like they want it with the optional suspension bits or get the fully kitted bike at a small premium from the stock bike. It is kind of sad that no other manufacturer has even attempted it (off roaders).
Things that I liked – Look at it – Hero factory colors – red, black, white, and that gray colored seat, It all comes together beautifully. In person, this bike is quite the sight.
Next best thing has to be the feel of it. No two words about it, the bike is tall. It has a 875mm seat height and you have to be tall to ride it comfortably on a day to day basis. I, being just about tall enough, was able to swing a leg over the bike, and basically had to one foot it from then on. Once you overcome its tallness and sit on it though, oh boy, it is quite the feeling.
Riding a tall bike day to day does have some nice pros. One of them is filtering through traffic. you get enough information to pick the choicest of lanes to filter into. Other small advantages that I’ve noticed are – the pegs are so tall that you can’t scrape them on any footpath + The exhaust being high up means you can be an absolute menace crawling slowly on the sides in traffic. The handlebars with the risers being tall also do not hit the mirrors of any hatch/sedan.
Another thing that surprised me is the handling. I did not have a lot of hopes in this being a handler but oh boy, was I wrong. What a chassis. It handles beautifully. Short corners / long corners no issue at all. The level of connection is impressive. The only fly in the ointment here is not having dual channel abs. Going fast on corners with these tires + an irregular patch of road is a nervous affair. The rear locks up easily, but the chassis comes to the rescue here, helping you recover in case the bike fishtails.
I have not been able to use the suspension to its full potential, though I did try to meddle around with it. I felt that the best setting for the front is the default 5 clicks. The rear suspension does require some math to calculate sag and then finding the ideal settings, but I didn’t have the kind of patience or the manpower to figure out all of that. I only have a long screwdriver to help.
Out of curiosity, the suspension was adjusted to the softest preload and the softest compression and it just glides over everything – very close to the magic carpet ride experience. The Hero mechs do not recommend doing this (as per them- it affects the longevity of the part), so I reset the suspension to factory settings, and things are still fine. It is a joy to ride on broken roads, protects the rider from every bump on the road, and this does help reduce the fatigue a fair bit.
Last and final thing is about the engine – I do like the low end, and climbing inclines is easy. That is about it. The refinement is okay enough for the city. There are minor resonance vibrations around 4k rpm and that gets slightly annoying as you tend to hit 4k almost all the time. Minor vibrations also start to creep in at 75 kph which is a shame. It gets tiring fast. That rumored 210 engine with 6 gears can’t come fast enough. If Hero can somehow plonk the 440 into this chassis and thin frame, it would be GREAT!
Some other pics –
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
