A recent post by Facebook user Mohsin Patel (whose profile has apparently been deactivated or deleted) reported that his Bajaj Pulsar RS200 was the reason behind a major accident involving his wife and himself. According to the post on the social networking website, the wheel allegedly broke during braking, tossing the occupants off the motorcycle, on the tarmac, causing some serious injuries. Both the occupants were hospitalized. Bajaj Auto, in an official statement said that the company was investigating the incident. Bajaj Auto has now released a statement with findings of their investigation. Here is what the Pune based two wheeler manufacturer has to say about the incident
Here is the official statement from Bajaj Auto:
Bajaj Auto was informed on Wednesday, 22 July 2015 of an incident where a Pulsar RS200 was reported having a major alloy wheel breakage. We had immediately sent a team to the workshop in Mumbai to conduct a full analysis of the accident vehicle.
Our team has now completed the investigation and the detailed results are as follows:
- The breakage of the alloy wheel was caused by a side impact of a rigid object on the front tyre and rim at a speed of approximately 80 kmph from the right hand side.
- The high speed side impact broke the alloy spokes and caused the front fork to bend to the left. The direction of forces on the wheel are clearly borne out by visible marks on the front wheel rim and distortion of the front fork.
- These physical external marks are consistent with fracture analysis displaying directional stress fracture and crack propagation perpendicular to the plane of the wheel from the right to the left. The initial fracture took place in three (3) spokes closest to the impact point. The rest of the spokes failed on account of dynamic overload.
- The rider had claimed that the wheel rim broke under hard braking. Had this been true, one should have seen the fracture initiation from the front of the spoke & end at the back of the spoke. The fracture is from right side to left. Hence it can be concluded that this is a clear case of side impact. The wheel is not the cause of the accident, the opposite is true – the accident has damaged the wheel. This wheel cannot break under hard braking. The speed of impact can be estimated from the nature of wheel breakage and the extent of bending of the front fork
- No defective component has been found on the said Pulsar RS200 motorcycle.
- Due to the side impact and corresponding damage, the rider lost control of the bike and fell.
We reiterate that Bajaj bikes are manufactured to the highest quality standards and are designed for safe operations. Over the past 14 years Bajaj Pulsar has earned the trust of more than 50 lakh customers in over 25 countries.
You can share your views about the report by Bajaj through the comments section below.
Ha ha ha…..
i am telling the same since from the day of post….mohsin patel did’t share any photos regarding RS200 except the last one(accident photo)..
We belive Bajaj..
Also if we see that photos clearly then you may understand that the alloy broke in even size……..
haters and fakers may hate us but we will rock….
we are die hard pulsarians…..
It would be great if bajaj auto shares fractography report from lab. This would clearly show the crack surface, crack surface will help in finding whether failure happen due to overload or through initiation or flaw in material.
so can i use again my RS without any worries or fear?
At 80 kmph there was a ‘side’ impact at the front wheel. And the rider and the pillion did not sustain major injuries. The bike must be awarded 5 stars on the safety front. Our automobiles are safest and finest in the world be the swift or the indicas or the pulsars or the HM ambassadors. Hats off to the manufacturers.
Despite this report, there are still going to be people among us so messed up inferiority complex droning the usual cry of ‘Bajaj is a crappy company’. Of course Bajaj is not upto par with a Japanese machine maybe in terms of quality or engineering, but they have to be given props for trying and appreciated when they genuinely make something good. Case in point are the 200NS and the newer bikes. I’ve owned it for last 3 years and I knew I was taking a huge risk paying 96k for a Bajaj. I’ve had honestly zero problems mechanically till now, although service experience is a pretty bad still. The same guys who can’t accept the fact that Bajaj can make a good bike would have no problem in going gaga over an over-priced 50 year old engineering antique that is still being sold under the moniker Bullet , aka Royal Enfield.