Well once again I am back to my passion, writing about the stuff I just love. And no y’all guyz out there it aint about girls :). It is about the bike I purchased last year december. The bike is Honda Unicorn and yes I love it :). Let me take you into my biking world now so that you can see it the way I see my bike. I had a Bajaj Caliber for 5 years before I sold it last year as the engine was feeling more and more unresponsive as the days progressed. Most of the bike forums lists this as a unique ’trait’ of Bajaj bikes. So when the time came for me to move on I had to check the market for the best in the 150 CC segment of bikes. Didnt want to go for a 180 CC bikes for many reasons, prime being that Hyderabad is just increasing on traffic day by day and the rates of petrol aint decreasing :).
I had the following choices in the segment I chose 1. Pulsar 2: TVS Fiero 3: TVS Apache (waiting period of infinity at that time) 4: Honda Unicorn. Took a test ride of all the mentioned bikes and took Honda Unicorn. You may ask why as Honda traditionally has a reputation of costlier spares and lesser servicing stations and support. Well to understand this you have to understand that I was looking at a long term partnership. I was lookin at an engine which would always be the way it is now without any loss in power unlike my previous experience. Whenever you take a new bike always look at customer/technician review. For me I got the required ’intel’from a simple site by the name https://indiabike.com. In case the site does not open up you can use the ip address https://203.115.112.44/ for the site. This site is as ’raw’ as it can be but then it offers plethora of information (india specific trustworthy info) on bike maintenance and reviews.
Post going through all reviews I came to the conclusion that the bike Unicorn delivers on 4 critical areas 1. power 2. engine
reliability 3. COG (simplification - centre of gravity) 4. Petrol consumption (which is a decider in most of bike purchases :). Prior to getting the bike I went to
some of my friends who have had their pulsars, unicorns and fieros for nearly an year and did some road tests on my own. My friends who own pulsars are very ’fierce’
in support of the bike and so trying to make my own choice was tough :). I took the bikes out on weekends testing them on highways and the ’actual’ city traffic. The
conclusion was as follows
1: Pulsar though beautiful and powerful is NOT a refined bike (pardon me pulsar aficionados). The riding position though aggressive (goes with the styling) gets a bit
uncomfortable in long runs. I am 5’9 and it wasnt an entirely pleasant experience to have.
2: TVS Fiero is a thought out bike and pretty powerful too. Refinement has never been much of a problem even after the TVS split with suzuki and it shows in the
recently released ’Apache’. My problem with Fiero was the ’end of product cycle’ scene with it. It has been around for some time and the styling is not exactly what I
call ’stylish’. But yea a good bike nevertheless and also I might have been reviewing a different bike if Apache would have been released earlier :)
3: Unicorn - The mother of all bikes in refinement. If somebody designs an engine this is how it should be! A wonderful bike to be had. I have had it for 6 months and
I love it. The COG I was talkin bout helps me in tough traffic conditions, getting past people is becoming a habit :). But I cannot be biased just coz I bought this
bike. There are specific areas which are possible improvement areas. The initial Unicorn graphics design though simple was good. The latest graphics on the bike is too graphic for a bike as ’gentlemanly’ as this one. Also the lack of mag wheels does bite into the ’oomph’ factor. The staff at Honda showrooms should learn to be a trifle more polite considering the fact that they are trying to
’sell’ a product (this experience is strictly restricted to Hyderabad).
Well, now that I am done I would move onto the tech specs for ya geeks out there
Specifications Unicorn
Dry Weight 126
(Kg)
Kerb Weight 138
(Kg)
Length 2078
(mm)
Width 749
(mm)
Height 1092
(mm)
Wheelbase 1337
(mm)
Seat Height 790
(mm)
Ground Clearance 168
(mm)
Fuel Tank Capacity (Full ) 13
(Lt)
Reserve Tank Capacity 1.2
(Lt)
Hope this review whets your appetite for a test ride and also make a choice when you to buy your wheels! Also to be fair to one and all do try out your hand on Apache and make your choice!