I’ve been looking to buy a bike since late 2006. I didn’t like the Apache too much and did not want to go the Pulsar way only because everyone else seemed to have it. Anyway, I’d sort of fallen for the Unicorn right then despite its stupid stickers. To be frank, I’d fallen for the first version Unicorn without the silly graphics.
Sometime late 2006, rumour started spreading that a Unicorn upgrade was in the works and that a March date was likely. I waited patiently for March 1. It came and went and no news. I gave up and went to the Hero Honda showroom and nearly booked myself an Extreme. Come March 19 and the Honda press conf happened. The changes didnt exactly blow me away but they made the bike very very non dislikeable. However, the price hike sort of put me off for a while.
The bike came into Hyderabad showrooms a week back and was priced at 64k after taxes (plus a random 1k for accessories which included the crash guard in front). So I went to the showroom yesterday, one look at the bike, a short ride and my choice was made, well, except for the colour.
It took me almost 5 hours before I fixed upon the silver.
The stickers come in a gray version and a blue version and the blue ones look sucky on all three colors (red, black and silver). I so wanted to go for the black, but I kept off it just because it simply cannot match the looks of the all black pulsar. The silver one with the gray stickers however is awesome with the new black colored engine and other black/gray body parts contrast exceedingly well with the silver. The only minus is the unnecessary chrome panel on the front.
Enough about looks, the bike is just mind-blowing when it comes to running.
At 40kmph in the 4th gear (with the engine running at just under 4k rpm), you just cannot feel the machine running, let alone hear it. The gears are real good to use and you don’t have the neutral finding problems of the pulsar. And it obviously feels like a tiger at all times. Control is neat and brakes are wonderful. The front disc especially takes a little getting used to since its really really quick.
Right now, the only problem for me is that I weigh in at 65kg and a 135 kilo bike is not the easiest thing to handle if you’re trying to push it around in parking lots :D Once you start the engine however, you are in free flight :P