Some more juicy bits on the Hero Impulse dual purpose motorcycle emerge!

My first tryst with the Honda 150cc four stroke engine, which has come to become the staple amongst many offerings in both Honda’s and Hero MotoCorp’s line up, was way back in 2006, when I road tripped from Bangalore to Goa. Back then, Volvo B7R buses were still a novelty and on the Honda Unicorn, tailing these behemoths at speeds of 80-90 Kph was a breeze, many thanks to the super refined 150cc engine, which almost felt too smooth to be true at lower rpms at speeds of 40-50 Kph.

Hero Impulse 150 Dual Purpose Motorcycle

Hero Impulse 150 On-Off Road Motorcycle

The engine was and still remains the strongest point of the Honda Unicorn package, underscoring the legendary Honda smoothness and refinement that made long distance touring a veitable pleasure. In comparison, the competition, read the Bajaj Pulsar 150, which incidentally had just got the twin spark plug layout at around the same time, felt agricultural in the engine department. Soon after, a raft of motorcycles featuring this very Honda engine albeit with a few changes hit the market.

You had the Hero Honda Achiever first, followed by the CBZ X-treme and the Hunk. Then came the Honda CB Dazzler and now we have the Hero Impulse, in what is the first product from the Hero MotoCorp stable post the split from long time joint venture partner Honda. While the 149.1 four stroke SOHC single in an almost square layout was identical to that on the Unicorn in the Achiever, Hero Honda gave this engine a more radical high lift cam to boost top end power delivery in the CBZ X-treme and the Hunk.

Hero Impulse 150 On-Off Road Motorcycle

Honda too followed suit with a higher lifting cam in the CB Dazzler. Even so, the original engine configuration on the Unicorn to this day remains the smoothest of them all. So, the Hero Impulse too gets this 150cc super refined engine. So, what is different in the Impulse that Hero is projecting will serve it well for its role as a dual purpose motorcycle, India’s first in many years? Well. the differences are quite a few, in keeping with the character of the Hero Impulse.

First of all, the Hero Impulse goes back to running a camshaft that is more suited for low end mid range power delivery than outright top end power. This is evident by the engine producing a lower peak power of 13.6 Bhp at 7,500 rpm, 500 rpm lesser than that of the hero CBZ X-treme and the Hunk. This change in the Impulse’s engine is to give the rider more usable power lower down the rev range, a key requirement when the going gets dirty on off road trails.

Hero Impulse 150 On-Off Road Motorcycle

Another big difference is the torque number that the new cam helps producing. The 150cc engine produces the highest torque amongst all its applications in the Impulse, and that too at the lowest possible rpm. The 150cc engine generates 13.6 Nm of peak torque at 5,000 rpm, again a clear indicator of the low end and mid range strength that this motor had been tuned for. The carburetor of the Impulse is another item that is different from its stable mates who share the same engine design.

The balancer shaft on the Impulse also has been changed while the biggest change that will make all the difference is the gearing of the Impulse that is optimized for the low and mid range power suited to the on-off road positioning of this motorcycle where top speeds won’t really be the concern. So, expect the Impulse to clock a slower top speed while acceleration numbers could be brisker than its siblings sharing similar speced engines. So, the Impulse is bringing a lot of new stuff to the table. We’ll be riding one soon to see how much difference these technical changes make in the real world.

Hero Impulse 150 Dual Purpose Motorcycle

Summing it up, here are a few key differences between the Hero Impulse and its 150cc siblings.

* 149.1cc four stroke SOHC base engine

* New camshaft

* New balancer shaft

* New carburetor

* New chassis with additional strengthening at key stress points for off road use

* Non adjustable monoshock rear suspension

* Long 180mm travel front forks

* 244mm ground clearance

* Full DC headlamp

* No center stand, in keeping with its off roader credentials

* Light kerb weight of 134 Kilos

* 3 years/40,000 km warranty

* Ex-showroom Delhi price of INR 66,800

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November 28, 2011 | By Jay Prashanth · Tags:

Comments

One Response to “Some more juicy bits on the Hero Impulse dual purpose motorcycle emerge!”

richard on November 28th, 2011 7:10 pm

wow, this is what indian roads looking forword, hope this model will rock. i’m just looking forword with a bigger version mean to say a bigger sized bike same feature n shape in future….thanx to hero…

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