Much Awaited Unicornnnnn

Unicorn has been India’s most important motorcycle launch this year. Honda's Activa has already captured a large share of the scooterette market and Honda's seriousness for the bike market would be gauged by this market. Honda has plans of increasing it's existing two-wheeler production from a current 5,00,000 units to 1.2 million by 2006-07. Here's what Unicorn is all about....

Sporty Looks...
Sporty and conventional are two words that best describe the Unicorn. However, it still manages to have that simple and yet elegant look at the same time. The bike comes in attractive metallic colours- red, black, grey, blue and Silver paints. Paint finish is of top quality and the bike looks very glossy, though lacks a parking light frill.It has the usual switchgeras and choke lever placed at the right position. The clear lens halogen fitted MFR headlight appears somewhat like that of Karizma. The Unicorn has a very efficient three-pod dials, infact the best available in India. There is a big speedometer at the center and a sporty tachometer on the left. The large fuel tank looks smartly angular with a rounded chrome cap similar to Hero Honda's CBZ. It's one of the few bikes in the country with knee recesses to fit all leg shapes. Unicorn offers large seat for the driver and the pillion rider, I believe it might be comfortable even for an occasional triple!! The silencer adds further glint value to the Unicorn, with its large chrome shroud and the aluminium footrest adds to the design. Honda Motors offers this bike in disc brake variant.

Handling and Performance and all that....
Unicorn's engine is designed specifically for Indian roads, which makes it special. The Unicorn engine is straightforward and delivers on all counts. The engine offers a pure silk drive, purring to life with a light kick. Displacing 149.1cc, it's four-stroke engine offers a max output of 13.3bhp. For the environment loving guys, there's paper air filter element which purifies air. A 2-way air-jacket for the air-cooled engine creates dual air streams creating better cooling properties around the head. As a result, performance loss is avoided in high heat conditions often faced on our roads especially in the scorching heat conditions.The motor offers an India unique feature through its offset crankshaft for reducing friction losses. Air injection is deployed for its exhaust port, as is a honeycomb catalytic converter. No matter which gear and whatever the road conditions be, it has always got reserves of cracking response and you can be guaranteed a smooth ride, always. The clutch pull is perfect, and gearshifts via the heel and toe one-down and four-up pattern, similar to Yamaha, works perfectly.

The Unicorn becomes the sole motorcycle currently plying India to sport a mono-shock suspension. The Unicorn's riding position feels slightly sporty and has yet been tuned to be comforting on city commuters. Ride itself is firm and a touch on the sporty side. The bike gives a rock stable performance and it has puncture resistant rear tyre. Surprisingly, it’s a bike that feels as much at home ripping the breeze on open stretches, as puttering around town at creepy crawly velocity. Though braking is not as efficient as Pulsar. Unicorn offers a decent average of around 45-50 km/lt in city conditions....

A good bike, no doubt.....