I am writing this review after six months of owning CB Unicorn. I chosen this bike after reviewing other bikes in this segment. My main criteria for bike are
comfortable daily commuting to office
good breaking and stability in city traffic
decent mileage
good service and after sales support
quality
I have chosen this bike with good expectations. But I can say that it disappointed me with quality of parts, availability of spare parts and after sales support. The availability of spare parts is a very big problem with honda. For very commonly required spares like shock absorber oil seals etc, I had to wait for a week. And responsiveness after sales is bad with many dealers. I have searched for oil seal for nearly 8 dealers but now one has it.
After couple of weeks of purchasing this bike, I have observed oil getting leaked from front shock absorber. I have notified to dealer immediately but they didnt care about why leak developed in brand new bike. They postponed to 10 days due to unavailability of the oil seal. Mean while I have get it examined by a local mechanic and found there is small bubble on shock absorber road and it causing the oil seal to get damaged and allowing the oil to leak. Since there is no company guarantee on the rod, I have to purchase it with my money even though it is a manufacturing defect. Even to get this spare part I had left my bike in service center for 15 days. And after several calls and visits and constant followup they replaced it after 15 days. How can we keep bike idle for 15 days and wait wait for spares. I had to commute using public transport or autos all these 15 days. This makes me think that any future problems may repeat the same. I am also facing problem with gear slips some times.
Within 5 months after purchase, the self start switch developed problem and it made self motor direct. It is a major problem that I can not use my bike again for few days till it get fixed.
Simply it is not dependable and honda does not stand on their slogan "enjoy quality".
On the good side the engine is very smooth, breaking and riding quality are very good and they keeping me to get addicted to ride it even with disappointment of other cons :)
My conclusion is it is as bad as any other bike of its segment and good at quality of ride.
Honda has to improve its spare parts supply chain a lot. How can we depend on a product to which there is no guarantee of availability of spare parts within reasonable time. Before this bike I have used hero honda splendor for 5 years and never felt disappointed with it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21 Augus 2012
After one year of ownership:
I came back to update my feedback after approximatly 14 months of owner ship of this bike.
I am almost edicted to its riding experience., it is one of the best in its class in terms of performance and comfort. Every day end when I park it, I think of next days ride on it., I love its ride that much. I am getting an average of 50 kmpl in hyderbad citry traffic.
Now after one year I got to understanding that we should not believe what ever the honda service people tell about problem with it. One recent experience is that, my bike started problem with low head light beam and not able to serlf start. Initially I though that battery was gone. And I get it recharged but same problem persisted. Then I remembered that I have changed the problematic ignition button some time back and this new problem started from that time.
And next day I went to service station and mentioned that this problem is due to problem in wiring. But service person persisted that it is problem with battery and he suggested to request for a battery change since my bike is still in warranty period. I did., but evern after changing battery same problem persisted., Then I informed the service person that problem may be due to wrong wiring. But he still dont want to listen and raised a request for another new battery, and finally even after changing second new battery same problem persisted. Then I strongly told them to do a complete wiring check, and it turned out to be the cause and now it is fine. But this entire process took around one month to resolve. So what I am going to tell is, just listen and sense your bike than just following what ever the service persons tell you.
My take is, overall the bike is of good quality but it is depleting only by service persons and poor handling of dealers. That is why I am increasing my review rating of this bike to 4 today.
Happy riding :)