For people who want to buy the bike or have just bought it. It took some time for me to carefully observe & appreciate one hell of a beauty. Magazines gave me more than the required details of the specifications, but made me all the more confused.
Last night, I was cruising along the highway over 100 km/hr effortlessly enjoying the low steady grunt of the brilliant Honda engine. 50 days since I got my blazing Red Beauty & well over 500kms. I recalled the past few eventful months in which the bike was introduced, launched, booked, purchased, received, ridden & tested.
In mid-October, I had finalized on the Pulsar-150cc DTSi, after riding & preferring it to the 180cc Pulsar in terms of mileage & false neutrals. I had the Yamaha RX-100 for a year.
Just then the Unicorn was available for test-rides; it had not yet been launched. I didn’t like the looks of it from the pictured on the net; I still thought nothing was sexier than the definitely-male Pulsar. Well, the new-Pulsar wasn’t out yet & Unicorn scored a bit higher on my technical comparison in terms of displacement, tuff-up tubes, mono-shock suspension, though I kept insisting it was a new-bike in the market & the Pulsar as a seasoned machine was the safer buy just because I couldn’t digest the ordinary looks.
Anyway, I decided to go in for a test-ride after loads of people insisted at Om-Sai Honda showroom in Malad. My feelings about the looks of the bike reversed 180 degrees. I had made up my mind, this was the bike I wanted, surprising isn’t it, even before test-riding it?I obviously took a ride, brief as it was, it wasn’t a bit disappointing though.I kick-started it & yes I just couldn’t make out whether the engine was working or not, quite noise-free, already impressed.
Again old habits, prompted me to rotated quickly the accelerator & yes the bike was up with a soft-roar, the breaks were impressive, I found the horn a bit slack. So anyway I got the bike booked at Jhaveri-Honda.
Luckily, the waiting was only 2 months then. After a month of impatiently waiting I finally made my payment . Red is my favourite colour & personally I think it looks noticeable even at night; black is awesome too, but I think its’ not as passionate & vibrant although more solid, but its’ becoming a bit too common on Unicorns. Another month of heavy anticipation, I got my bike in the first week of December 04. And that?s when the journeybegan.
Must complain, bike dealers are quite sheepish, even after taking 55 grand they charge for battery locks, leg-guard, etc. They didn’t even mention about what a Teflon coating is. I was glad, by sheer luck I got the no. 3210. For those who are bothered about the Self-Start, don’t know why they haven’t installed itbut there’s a provision for it all-the same & you can get it installed at the company next month for around 2 grand. The kick-start has never given me a problem & usually starts in a single kick, unless its’not been in use for a few days.
In the city of Mumbai, on the trafficky & bumpy roads, its the suspension that makes the difference. The Unicorn’d Monoshock suspension is neat, with 3 levels of rigidity. Can’t really differentiate it with the Pulsar’s suspension in the city’s bumper-to-bumper traffic, but on empty roads you certainly feel a noticeable difference, its non-jerky and ensures a comfortable & less-tiring ride (the seating is spacious even with the pillion & not at all problematic).
I have personally never sat as pillion rider on a unicorn, but all my family/friends unanimously agree that the ride is pleasant. The bike is stable at high speeds. For the first one week, I kept staring at the bike, just couldn’t take my eyes off it. One thing that bothered me about the Pulsar was its over-popularity & thus it was too common on the roads.
Good for me, wherever I went & wherever I go still with my red riding passion , people ask me loads of questions inquisitively or simply stare appreciatively at the bike, obviously I enjoy it & answer as any proud owner would do.
Get a Teflon Coating done, will cost around Rs.700 at the Honda service centre for a period of 2yrs, once every 6 months, it will also avoid minor scratches, bird-dropping’s marks, water-marks, etc besides maintaining the new-look of your bike & you won’t have to apply an anti-rust coat on the chrome-plated parts during the rains.
So a buck a day for the up-keeping of the bike isn’t a bad deal at all. I got to know this from a technician at my bike’s 1st servicing. Initially, the bike returns around 35km/litre before the 1st servicing, after mine got serviced it gives just over 45km/litre in the city which is reasonable. Ok, let me tell you what I though could have been better.
The wheels for instance I thought were a little too thin, they should at least increase the width of the rear wheel to provide greater stability on uneven, unsurfaced & bouncy roads. Then, of course, the horn, please make it more man-ly guys. Well, no gear problems yet (except that when you suddenly get it to the 1st gear, it tends to bounce on your foot a little), smooth acceleration.
Please don’t race the bike & screw it up initially, simply because it’s supposed to be the running-in-period of the bike. I know, you will feel like the king-of-all-bikers once you’re riding it but don’t cross 70-80km/hr before the 1st service, you can well do without it. Hmm, I’ve tried my best to follow it myself, after the 1st servicing at the Mahim centre, I was all geared up to test the real machine, fine-tuned & at it’s best, the more I increased the throttle, the swifter was the flying (ok I’ll be modest; the smoother was the ride).
People were first complaining about the so-called flimsy petrol lid but I infact think it is quite ingenious. Also there is some storage space under the seat where they provide a med-kit & you can place your bike papers or a small pouch on the sides. Ok, another thing’s that, the bar at the back of the seat is too broad to fix a helmet lock & the sides are a little awkward to be able to fit any side-box, but guys don’t fret I’m sure the market will be up with some custom made accessories for the Honda pretty soon.
The only hitch now is that the booking-period is really long, but people it’s definitely worth the waiting & by the way, if you’ll aren’t that fussy as I am, go in for the new-Pulsar, it’s definitely marginally better in some aspects than the Unicorn & besides I’ll be pleased if I spot lesser Honda owners on the road ;-)
P.S: People I am fully for the Helmet Implementation in Mumbai. Not that I used to wear it regularly, just for rides over 15kms, which were seldom for me, but I’ve realized ’’better safe than sorry’’ is quite a fact. It is not quite Wise to think that you are lucky to be Alive after each ride, especially after performing an Act of Foolishness by not wearing a Helmet. The end of our lives indeed defeats the entire purpose of our existence & I have seen many torturous incidents, i.e. accidents, in the past with 2 wheelers, so there is no reason I see why anyone should be against it. Thanks. Safe Riding!