I got my first bike Honda CB Unicorn from my hard earned money on April 2010 from Globus Honda, New Delhi.
I had chosen Honda Unicorn because(1) I wanted a bike with good power and good mileage, (2) my friends had suggested me(though they don’t own this bike themselves), And(3)the perceived quality expected from a honda product, (4)I blindly followed positive reviews on websites about this bike.
But after 3 months of use bike started giving me strange problem of cold start. Let me explain this problem first. whenever I take out bike for driving after a gap of 4-5 hrs its behave like there is no petrol, acceleration is not constant, the sound from engine is also not consistent. This happen for almost first 3-4km. And this problem becomes worse in winters. The bike refuse to start even after 2 hrs of idle condition and you have to put on the Choke to start the bike and keep it on for at-least 3minuts to bring the bike in normal operation.
Many time I have complained this to service center and even to the Honda website but they cud not solve the problem, and most of the time their service mechanic tell me that this problem is in all Unicorn so don’t bother and make it a habit.
About mileage: in first 3 months it gave me good mileage of 50-55kmpl in city. As time passed its started declining very fast and in this winters I have recorded a 40-45kmpl.
About power: no doubt power and pickup is good when engine is in warm condition.
About service: poor.on my complaint sometimes they cleaned carburetor, sometimes cleaned oil pipes, sometimes increased rpm to 1800. but nothing solved this strange issue.
After 4500Km of driving experience on Unicorn, I won’t suggest this bike to anyone. You wud be surprised to know whenever I got chance I have asked some of the Unicorn owners about this problem(cold start) they say they also face the same problem. But don’t do anything to report this to honda. And even some Stunner owners also have this problem with their bike.
Perhaps Honda has some design issue in carburetor. Thats why even their best mechanic cud not solve this problem.
Anyway buddies I want to warn you. please please please don’t buy this bike either go for Pulsar or Hunk or Yamaha, I have seen these bikes to start and run within seconds even if they are standing in open in delhi’s freezing cold.
Rest is your decision.
Thanks
Hemant