The Bajaj Freedom is the world’s first production CNG powered bike and it has a lot of things
going for it, but also some negatives to consider. We’ll begin with the main reasons why you
might want to buy one
1. Low running costs
It really can cut your fuel bills by up to half
The entire reason Bajaj put all the engineering time and effort into developing this world-first
technology in India was to significantly lower running costs. The company claims that the
Freedom can reduce your petrol bill by up to half and when we tested the bike, we found that
claim to be entirely possible. You can click here to see what kind of fuel efficiency we
achieved when reviewing the bike, but even if you don’t ride as carefully as we do in our
mileage test runs, you will still be able to make a big savings on our regular running costs
with this bike.
2. Straightforward riding experience
It feels quite similar to a normal petrol powered bike to ride
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The Bajaj Freedom’s engine can be started either in petrol or CNG mode and Bajaj has even
designed it to periodically switch to petrol mode automatically for a few minutes in order to
keep the system in ideal working conditions. All you have to do is start the bike and ride it
like you normally would with any other motorcycle. Despite the fact that it has a large CNG
cylinder placed rather high up, the bike’s riding comfort and handling are both quite normal-
feeling.
3. Purchase cost
The Freedom is priced on par with premium 125cc design
Continuing with the first point, Bajaj has also ensured that the buy-in cost for the Freedom is
appealing. Priced between Rs 91,000 and Rs 1.11 lakh, the Freedom is on par with premium 125cc
options in the market, like the Hero Xtreme 125R, TVS Raider 125 and Bajaj’s own Pulsar
N125.
4. Appealing design
The Freedom has an eye-catching design
The Bajaj Freedom catches attention everywhere thanks to its unique design that can’t be
mistaken for anything else. Things like the round LED headlamp and flat seat are unusual in
this segment, but Bajaj has also made clever use of displaying parts of the chunky trellis
frame which also serves as a crucial safety element in keeping the CNG tank shielded from
impacts.
Those are the main appealing factors with the Bajaj Freedom and we’ll now move to the two
reason why you might not want to buy one. While some people might think that the tall seat
height of 825mm would be one negative our experience is that most people who see the
bike are happy to work around that when the hear how much money this bike can save
them. Similarly, while many people online have some valid concerns about the safety aspect
of sitting on a CNG tank, the fact is that Bajaj has great experience with making CNG
automobiles and safety has never been a pressing concern. The company has even shared
videos of the bike being run over by a truck to demonstrate its safety.
With that in mind, here are the two main negatives we have found with this bike:
1. CNG hassles
Standing in long queues for a CNG will be tedious
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CNG pumps across the country already often have very long queues and that will only
increase with this bike. Moreover, while 3 and four wheeler CNG vehicles will shield their
occupants from the heat and rain, that will not be the case for a CNG-bike. The CNG
network across the country is growing at a good pace, but Bajaj Freedom buyers will have to
be okay with standing in potentially long queues every few days as the bike has a realistic
range of 180-200km per tankful of CNG.
2. Performance of a 110cc bike
The Bajaj Freedom is not as fast as most 125cc bikes
While the Freedom does return very good fuel efficiency, performance is not a strong point.
It definitely feels peppier in petrol mode, but even so you can’t call this a quick or exciting
bike, even by 125cc standards. Once you switch to CNG mode, the performance is more in
line with a 100-110cc bike and we found that it can struggle a bit when climbing flyovers with
a pillion on board. That being said, performance is hardly an expectation for someone buying
a bike like this, but it is still a downside that you should be aware of.
