Hey everyone, if you all remember, last time we discussed the Royal Enfield Himalayan, one of the most capable and loved touring bikes around the country.
But this time, we are going to be talking about its arch-rival, the Dominar 400. The one which is more suited to the roads than the off roads but won’t shy away if it ever needed to face some uncertainties.
So, starting with the design of the Dominar, being the most expensive Bajaj motorcycle on sale, Bajaj has put in all of their efforts into it, to make it the best of the best.
It’s built like the hulk from avengers and has got quite a lot of muscle around it, add the intimidating front end to the equation and you have got a motorcycle that has easily become the new cool amongst the youth.
Now, there are countless reasons why the dominar is so successful, the design has contributed to that hugely and then there are the taglines that bajaj used while they were marketing the dominar.
But these taglines weren’t just the average taglines that manufacturers use to market their products, a few of these advertisements were targeted towards Royal Enfield owners specifically as they happened to be one of the arch-rivals of the dominar back in the day. The tagline used to be “Haathi mat Paalo” through which bajaj made fun of the royal Enfield being slow, sluggish, heavy, and bad to turn and how the dominar was a better motorcycle in every way.
And one term that became quite common with dominar was the term “hyper”, the dominar just didn’t have power, it has hyperpower, the dominar just didn’t have control, it had hyper control, that’s why you don’t ride on a dominar, you go hyper riding if that term means anything.
The dominar did step up and presented itself as a wonderful touring option when the only decent touring motorcycles you could get were the classic 350 and the classic 500. It stepped up the game and the segment in terms of everything, be it power, torque, acceleration, comfort, the tech on offer everything, and for a long time it was the best motorcycle money could buy for under 2 lakhs.
Now, the 400 in the dominar stands for the 373.3 cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, even though it’s just a single-cylinder engine, it produces a healthy 40 PS and 35 nm of torque, these numbers result in the dominar accelerating from 0 to 100 kmph in just 6 seconds, that’s sportscar acceleration numbers and the dominar goes up to 160 kmph on the speedo which is 100 mph!
Now since the Dominar was launched in the market, it has evolved a lot, bajaj has taken the feedback from the customers and implemented it as the years proceeded. For example, lack of a gear indicator used to be a problem, but Bajaj ultimately sorted it out.
As a tourer, the motorcycle will be used for long journey’s thus you would like to get a motorcycle with decent mileage and a decent sized fuel tank so that you don’t have to take frequent breaks to fill up. But the case is the opposite, the capacity of the tank is only 13 Litres, and combining it with the not-so-good mileage of the Dominar, you end up taking a lot of stops to fill the tank and it might get annoying if you are on a 1000-kilometer trip.
The owners of the Dominar also say that there are very noticeable vibrations beyond 4000 rpm, now some of the best things they liked about the Dominar was that it’s absolutely value for money, it’s really fun to ride, the seating position and ergonomics are great, not just for the rider, but the pillion as well.
Being a tourer, there is one thing that the dominar has to ensure and that is reliability, cause it will be exploring places, that a normal motorcycle might never get to face.
The bajaj dominar is a very versatile motorcycle, of course, it can be used as a highway tourer, but in addition to that it can also be used as a daily commuter to your office and if you ever thought of taking it to the track then the dominar is sporty enough to do some laps.
Even handling-wise, the dominar is awesome, but the 187 Kg weight might be a bit too much to handle for some people, cause the dominar is built like a tank.
One of the key things that usually stand out with the dominar is its double-barrel exhaust that not adds to the muscular appearance of the motorcycle but sounds good too.
The suspension in the dominar has been taken from its KTM siblings, the brakes are good enough to stop the motorcycle from 100 kmph to 0 in just 42 meters they will work at the right time whenever you need them. Dual-channel ABS is standard on the Dominar, making it quite a safe motorcycle.
Most of the motorcycles either have a good low end or a good top end and very few have a good mid-range, well the dominar happens to be one of the very motorcycles that have great low-end performance along with a good mid-end and top-end, very rare for a manufacturer to master.
Touring Motorcycles tend to be ridden over for hours without a break, and if ridden in heated conditions, the engine can get pretty hot, but since the engine of the Dominar is liquid-cooled, the temperature of the engine remains the same, thus causing no problems to the rider or any drop in performance.
The 6th gear on the dominar will act as cruising gear, as you will be able to relax ride while on long tours. The riding stance on the Dominar is not too aggressive, neither it is too comforting like that of a cruiser, it has been perfectly aligned in between so neither does the rider become uncomfortable nor does riding the dominar becoming boring.
The Dominar is like the Indian version of the Ducati Diavel, do you think the same? If yes then comment down below. In the future I would love to see a liter-class version of the dominar, just imagine how sick it would be, it would probably give the Ducati Diavel a run for its money if it wasn’t for the Ducati badge.
As I said previously, the Dominar used to be the best motorcycle under 2 lakhs, but over time with the updates, inflation, and new norms being introduced, prices have gone up and it has gone towards the 2.5 lakh mark, well bajaj noticed this and they found a solution to it.
The solution? A toned-down version of the Dominar 400 in the form of the Dominar 250! Bajaj took the engine from the Ktm Duke 250 and built a motorcycle around the engine just with a bit of slimmer parts and it’s as wonderful as the dominar was when it was launched.
Thus, all the enthusiasts out there who are a bit tight on their budget can go and check out the dominar 250. With the rest of the money buy yourself some good riding gear and enjoy riding.
So, everyone that will be all for this time, I trust you liked this one, if you did then please do share it with your friends and do consider subscribing to Motordrift for more such content in the future.
Till then
Ciao
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