That 2019 Bajaj Dominar it's finally the bike that got us all excited at Auto
Expo 2014 in the new upgrades it gets better Hardware more features and the
promise of more performance as well and let's not forget the Dominar has always
been the benchmark when it came to value for money because no other bike in this
price bracket offers as much performance and as many features so the question to
ask is just how does it perform in the real world and also what happens to be
stack it up again it's more expensive competition this new dominar makes a
full 5 PS more than the previous bike so how much of a difference does it make in
performance well in the run to 60 this is 0.3 seconds quicker compared to the
older bike but more importantly in the run to 100 it's a full second quicker
and it now sounds much nicer too with a lot more bass in the exhaust note
and also thanks the dohc setup the bike just loves to rev open the throttle hand
it's gonna pick up speed really quickly and it is a fair amount of fun in a
straight line but with this new update the Dominar power figure is actually
within spitting distance of the 390 Dukes just three and a half PS less but
that Dominar is still 21 kilos heavier now it doesn't make a huge difference in
the run to 60 just a quarter of a second slower but in the run 200 this view is a
whole second and a half quicker well that's what you get with the best part
of it ratio in class sure in outright acceleration this dominar
isn't as quick as the duke but then again it was never meant to be where it
matters this dominar does deliver if you factor in in gear roll on acceleration
it's pretty much on par with the Duke
you can carry decently low speeds in higher gears in fact in most conditions
will actually be carrying a one gear higher on the Dominar then you would be
on the Duke and then you combine that with the super light clutch action
and that butter smooth 6-speed gearbox you have an engine that can make short
work off any City commuter I will say one thing though I just wished the throttle was
a little bit lighter as well
with more power, you do get a slight drop in fuel efficiency compared to the older Dominar
but even then in the city impotency is pretty much on par with the Duke as well
as the Interceptor from the highway the dominar puts out a lot better efficiency
compared to those two bikes so even though this tank is slightly smaller
than the tanks on those two bikes, it has active longer highway legs
so why not Dominar motor works really well in the city there is a bit of a
problem and that is this bike suite it's fairly heavy and you feel it pretty much
all the time heck even the steering feels fairly
heavy as low speeds and when I start going into one direction you have to
really muscle it to get it back in the right direction now this is going to be
especially troublesome for shorter riders because the bars do require a bit
of stretch to reach them and then even the range of the steering
movement isn't all that great which means if you want to find your way
through a traffic jam it's going to take some effort and if you take a u-turn
well the high is going to be a three-point turn
and while the seat height itself is quite low because of the width of the
bike it pushes your legs further out so shorter riders will still have to
stretch to get their feet on the ground this is also a concern on the
Interceptor but not on the duke which actually has the tallest seat height
amongst these three
in the one word yes and that's because this motor is a lot more refined than
before there are barely any ripe to speak off yes you do get a slight tingle
in the handlebars but honestly it's not much of a deal-breaker and now with the
extra performance does a bike and actually, maintain higher to this speed
on the highway doing 120 130 on the highway, Dominar will do it no questions
asked and there's enough power in reserve to do overtakes at those speeds
it without having to downshift but these higher highway speed means there are
some new problems because at that point you do feel a distinct lack of objection
I think it's high tide Bajaj offered some proper touring accessories such a
tollar windshield and something more than these luggage straps to put on your
luggage
but then the question is does it do better on the highway than the
Interceptor well motor wise not really the
interceptors parallel to a motor is actually more refined than the Dominar
single cylinder engine so in 2019 you have a Royal Enfield that's actually smoother
than a Bajaj surprised surprised how things have changed and even knowing
those same triple digit speeds is a little bit easier on the Interceptor
another one area where the Dominar is a a lot better than the Interceptor even
it comes to the seat now this rider seat is actually fairly wide and it's
very flush so overall I will ride it very high on comfort and even the
handlebars they give you a fairly upright riding position which means over
long journeys you won't be putting too much pressure on your wrists even the
foot pegs they are rear set but not that much so overall if you're doing a long
stint on the highway you won't end up very tired
and when it comes to the pillion seat well it is fairly decently sized and
it's actually fairly alright far pillion riders more importantly the
pillion foot pegs they aren't set very high
unlike the Interceptor but it's it's fairly knees up at the back
so I guess pillion I'm not going to have much of a trouble if you're gonna take
them for a long ride but all these aspects actually haven't changed from
the previous dominar it's all the same what has changed is that rear shock and
the ride at the rear on the old Dominar there's only one word it was extremely
harsh this one is significantly better it handles bad roads fairly well however
if you show it some very sharp bumps it does give you a झटका at your back
but as long as you avoid those sharp bumps you shouldn't have any problems
when it comes to comfort now thanks to those beefy upside-down folks up front
the Dominar handling has definitely improved the bike turns in fairly
quickly but because you're sitting so far back on the bike and there's not
much weight on the front end the front end does feel a little bit too big in the corners
and the bike also feels fairly top-heavy so once you turn into a
corner that way it kind of drops into it which is fine for a single corner but if
you want to pick it up for another corner it does take a bit of effort on
long sweeping corners the double are feels just fine and is plenty stable but
for fast switchbacks not the best bike it's not going to give you those Duke
levels of hanging thanks to the new breaking hardware
braking performance has now actually gone up the bike now stops brighter than
before and it stops almost as well as the
current generation 390 Duke but in terms of feel the brakes will
definitely remind you of the last mission 390 because the feel at the
lever is very very spongy in terms of features there is not a huge change over
the previous dominar the instrument clusters layout has changed slightly and
now gets a fuel efficiency indicator as well as a distance to empty gauge the
tank mounted secondary instrument panel does look cool but looking at it while
driving needs you to tilt your head down completely taking your eyes off the road
overall though the small design tweaks make this bike look better than before
and the upside down folks add a lot of chunkiness to the front design making
the dominar look more premium and more intimidating than before
now the Dominar will check a lot of boxes for a lot of people it is very good on
the highway it's quite decent on the corners and it's not too bad in a city
either so in that sense it's a very versatile motorcycle and it's always
been creating value for money and in this new package is better in every
conceivable way so actually it's now even better value for money so the
dominar is a very sensible motorcycle but who said motorcycles have to be all
about sense so what I recommend Dominar if I speaking from my head definitely
but if I was thinking from my heart I would say in these in your budget