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From 1945, when they first started selling imported two-wheelers in India, to the time they went public in 1960, to the now famous jingle "Hamara Bajaj' with which they rode into the heart of every second middle class Indian, to the present times, the approximately Rs 12,000-crore Bajaj Auto, the flagship company of the Bajaj group, have straddled the two-wheeler segment like a colossus. Today, they are the second-largest motorcycle producer in the country, selling nearly four million vehicles annually and operating in more than 50 countries.

But they couldn't keep riding the scooter. With economic liberalisation under Rajiv Gandhi taking the forefront and the opening up of the markets along with the growing needs of a youthful India, looking for faster and more powerful motorcycles, Bajaj Auto began production of motorcycles along with Kawasaki of Japan. Till companies like Bajaj Auto, Yamaha, Hero Honda and TVS started motorcycle production, there were just a few well known two-wheelers in the market – Yezdi, Rajdoot and Bullet.

What Bajaj did was to produce lesser cc variants but, keeping in mind the Indian youth's thrill for speed, made them light, more fuel efficient and easier to manoeuvre in city traffic. However, the entry of the motorcycle into the Bajaj Auto fold also saw the demise of the 'pot-bellied' scooter of the Indian middle classes.

In 2005, after Rahul Bajaj inducted his younger son Rajiv as Managing Director Bajaj Auto, the latter brought in sweeping changes into the company and from the number of motorcycles it was producing it whittled down the different variants of just four – Pulsar, Discover, Platina and Enforcer. It also cut down on its huge number of dealers across the country. Today, apart from manufacturing motorcycles, Bajaj Auto also markets the more powerful Kawasaki two-wheelers in the Indian market.

S. Sridhar. President, Motorcycle Business, of the company, while giving a complete breakdown of the company's motorcycle business, told Bike India that in the entry level commuter motorcycles, Bajaj sells around 40,000 units with a market share of 33-38 per cent . Then comes the deluxe segment where they sell between 1,25,000 motorcycles and lastly is the sports bike segment, where they sell around 80,000 units monthly. Within this segment is an emerging niche market comprising the 500-1000 cc bikes.

"These two categories are the ones that have a huge impact on the Bajaj Auto business and this is where we have Pulsar and Discover – the first as the sports category and the second as the commuter bike, says S. Sridhar.

Today Pulsar and Discover are Bajaj Auto's biggest success stories in the last decade and these two motorcycles have accorded them the status of marker leaders. They began production of the Pulsar in 2001, when there was nothing called a sports bike. "It was a space shared by CBZ from Honda and Fiero from TVS and they sold just around 4,000-5,000 motorcycles between them," says Sridhar. "When they launched Pulsar, at the end of the first year, Bajaj Auto did an average of 3000 bikes, but now they do an average of 65,000-75,000 of this brand. Today the industry share of sports bike segment bikes is 17 per cent of which Pulsar has a 50 per cent share. "

64 per cent in the commuter segment is completely dominated by Hero Honda. A couple of years ago they had complete monopoly with Splendor and Passion. But Bajaj then launched Discover. "Today we sell between 1 and 1.5 lakh Discover bikes in a month," says Sridhar.