Colt

People, meet Colt. Colt, meet people.

This is a new Hero Impulse. Yes, you can still buy a new Impulse even though Hero has discontinued the motorcycle years ago. If I had known this earlier I wouldn’t have spent the money, time and energy buying and modifying a KTM Duke 390 to ride trails. I’m averse to buying pre-owned vehicles and like everyone else I just assumed that I couldn’t buy a new Impulse.

While doing research for an article for my blog I landed on the Impulse product page at the Hero web site. I was surprised to see a “Book Online” button. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked the button. One thing led to another and I learned that there are Hero dealers in rural parts of India who haven’t yet been able to dispose off their stock of Impulse motorcycles.

Russell Pereira​ and I had been talking about replacing our KTM Duke 390s with Hero Impulses. Like me he is also averse to buying pre-owned vehicles and so we decided to become partners in crime. Using the Hero web site I found a dealer in Yavatmal, a small town in Maharashtra around 1,000 kms away, which had two Impulses and I struck a deal with them. Last week we drove down to Yavatmal, inspected the bikes, paid for them, got them temporarily registered, put them in a truck and drove back home.

I was quite surprised to find the motorcycles in excellent condition. The dealer had a third Impulse which looked a little sad. The body panels had faded and some of its metal parts were corroded. The chain seemed like a miracle was the only thing holding it together. Sadly, the motorcycle had been stored out in the open, unlike the other two Impulses that we bought which were kept in a sheltered storage facility. If after reading this, you decide to buy a new Impulse, I highly recommend you take the trouble of visiting the dealer and inspect the motorcycles yourself.

My friends have asked me, “Why not buy the Royal Enfield Himalayan?” It’s actually a very good question. But I don’t think you will like my answer. So I won’t bother. But the fact that I chose to drive 2,000 kms to buy a out of production motorcycle should be a good indicator of my confidence in Royal Enfield and it’s products.