CarBrandLogos archive · Bajaj Auto · 2012

Bajaj AutoPulsar NS200

Perimeter frame, liquid cooling, and the first real sign of the KTM connection.

Photo: 25 Cents FC · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Bajaj Auto history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Bajaj Auto Pulsar NS200, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Introduced in 2012 as the Pulsar 200NS, this was a clean break from the tubular-framed, air-cooled Pulsars that preceded it. It used a perimeter frame, a 199.5 cc liquid-cooled single with four valves, a single overhead camshaft and three spark plugs, and a six-speed gearbox, in a stripped streetfighter body with no fairing to speak of.

2006Honda CBR600RR-profile · Rich Niewiroski Jr. · CC BY 2.5

Design and engineering

The engineering reflected what Bajaj had learned through its stake in KTM, whose 200 Duke used a single of similar size and similar thinking. For Indian buyers it was the most sophisticated motorcycle the domestic industry had built to that point.

In production

Production stopped in 2015 as tighter emissions rules arrived and Bajaj concentrated on the faired RS200, then resumed in 2017 under the NS200 name, later gaining fuel injection and ABS. It remains the template for the upper end of the Pulsar range.

At a glance