Hi Bikers,
I purchased 2 Honda Unicorns one for my brother and other for self.
1 Black-Kick Start in the month of March 2005. (Has run around 12000 KM as on Nov 06).
1 Grey-Self Start in the month of April 2005. (Has run around 15000 KM as on Nov 06) .
Here goes our experience with the bike after having to use the bikes for one and half year. The bike is indeed smooth with decent pickup, but is a delicate horse. Its mono suspension is fine and neat. Mileage is fine, I get around 60 KMPL (average) in the city ride and my brother gets 55 KMPL in the city ride. I build quality of the vehicle is average.
After around some 4000 KMs the bike starts giving some unpleasent noise either from the front or back of the bike, when it goes to the service, it would be fine for 2 or 3 days, but the problem would be back. I can feel all this noise when I drive my bike in the mid night or on any silent roads in the city with out the Helmet
Seating: Good for age group less than 18 - 25 year. Hard and uncomfortable for the driver and pillion. I lower portion of the body goes num if you try to travel on it beyond 40 KM in one go (that distance hardly any one travels in a single go).
Electrical: It has a decent focus of light and electrical’s but I am not impressed. Especially the Horn in the 2005 model is very bad. I replaced it with the Horn which you get with the New Bike (that is the bike with the stickers). Horn in the new bike is decent. The whole Electrical line is not properly safe guarded (I am referring to the line which runs below the seat). In one of the rarest incidence, A good size RAT go in below the seat and what to say, within one over night it ruined my bike electrical lining completely, including the fuse, tail lamp etc etc., I had to spend around Rs 2500/- around to replace the whole stuff. Person in the service center gave me an option of either replacing the whole lining or take a risk were in they would join all the cables and insulate it, but also told me that it is risky as it can lead to major problem. I decided to replace it as it was just a bike which was 6 months old. Here I would attribute this to the design defect of the bike. As there is enough of provision and space for the rat to get inside the bike (I mean below the seat). Any way it was a rare case, but bike manufactures should have a look at the design.
Battery: Batter for both the bikes self start (has a big battery) and kick start are very average, they become little less performing after any year.
Braking: Braking in the vehicle is average, I am not impressed. For the first 500 KM, I had a major problem with my front disc break. It was very noisy, sounded similar to old BUS breaks, I use to hear this noise from my city run busses (BTS) when I was a kid, but I feel today city run busses in bangalore make less noise when braking. After 5 to 8 visits to the service center (within the first one month of I purchasing the vehicle) the noise reduced. But even today I get the noise some time, very bad quality from the manufacture.
Wheels: Both the wheels are delicate. They need to be tuned every alternate service even with the city road in Bangalore. Bike some time after bumping over some small hump / Chambers/pot rings on the road at the speed of around 40 KMPH tends to move to the right of the straight line and some times left of the straight line, you get a feeling that the back tire is gone flat. Problem started after driving around 6000 KMs. The service guys fixed this problem after going to them 2 times, but it seems to be coming back very often. Both our bikes have this problems, it is just that I am very observant of things.
Cleaning: The design of the bike according to me is not good enough to do a quick cleaning. In addition to this there are few un- finished edges close to chain case and the silencers which always leave you finger with minor cuts. Same is true with both the bike I have.
Accessory: Accessory with the bike is bad, the leg guard, engine guard; it started rusting with in the first 2 months it self, but the show room guy are not claiming any responsibility for this. Even some accessories that come with the bike, like mirrors etc are bad. I some time happen to make my bike stand in the sun when I go to shopping on some wk ends. Both my mirrors back have turned almost dirty ash color. My bothers bike mirrow are fine as he hardly parks it out of office or house.
Weather it is HONDA or SUZUKI or any international brand, we in India should not expect the international quality. As these are all manufactured and serviced in India and by Indians.
The biggest draw back with the bike: The sales guys, and the ground level service guys, who would never under stand what should be the difference between a HONDA bike and any other bike. I have just put that in milder terms. I hope HONDA some day comes up with a completely automated SALES AND SERVICE centers.
I have just shared my experience with the bikes both self start and kick start, it is up to the reader to draw decision about this bike.
In spite of all of this I more or less recommend this bike for smooth driver, but please do your quality check of the bike even before it goes for registration.
SERVICE GUYS ARE NOT TRAINED TO TROUBLE SHOOT PROBLEMS, THEY DO A BAD ANALYSIS MAKE YOU SPEND UNNECESSARY.
Regards Sathya