Honda Unicorn

The Honda Unicorn is a good-looking commuter offering from the Japanese manufacturer. When it first came to the market, it was offered in a 150cc engine configuration and now has been updated with a larger 160cc engine. Here’s how the bike performs in the real world.

The Honda Unicorn features a simple, commuter-oriented design and this hasn’t undergone any major changes over the years. The bike looks quite simple, with the plain headlight setup, regular tank and metallic badging. 

Overall, it remains quite understated. . Which is not an issue as with most commuter bikes. The most important thing is reliable performance, which the Unicorn is known for, ever since its launch in the mid 2000s. 

The Honda Unicorn is powered by a 162.71cc, air-cooled engine which outputs 12.91PS and 14.58Nm. In the real world, the engine offers a really refined riding experience with good low-end torque. The low end torque makes it a good bike for riding in the city, it also has enough power and torque to handle riding at the highway speeds. The engine is quite refined and doesn’t feel vibey at all at everyday urban speeds.

Though, as the speed increases and revs increase, there are slight vibrations. However they aren’t unsettling, rather, more like feedback to let you know what the engine is doing. Overall, the Unicorn has good performance for both city and highway riding making it quite versatile overall.

The Honda Unicorn gets a telescopic fork and monoshock, the suspension setup is quite well tuned. It is plush and can handle most bumps and undulations in the city, while also keeping the bike stable at highway speeds. While it's not a fast bike by any means, it has no problem maintaining highway speeds once you eventually accelerate to those speeds.

Coming to the brakes, the Unicorn gets a 240mm disc at the front, with single-channel ABS and a 130mm drum at the rear. The brakes perform decently and also inspire confidence in emergency situations, the addition of single-channel ABS is a welcome one which improves the bike’s safety as a whole.

The Honda Unicorn offers a typical upright  riding posture. The seat is also well cushioned and comfortable, it manages to accommodate both short commutes in the city and slightly longer runs down the highway. In conclusion, there’s nothing much to complain about when it comes to comfort. The Unicorn doesn’t compromise in this department.

The Unicorn is a bit too plain when it comes to features. It still offers a triple-pod analogue instrument console, which is quite uncommon in today’s digital world. However, the console seems a  bit dated now, though there are some who would still prefer the simplicity of it. It has a tachometer on the left, speedometer in the center, and the fuel gauge and other tell-tale indications on the right pod. We hope Honda updates it in the future to bring the Unicorn into a modern era. 

The Honda Unicorn is a really good bike which manages to bring Honda levels of refinement and reliability in a simple and accessible package. The bike is priced at Rs 1,11,601 (ex-showroom Delhi), which is quite affordable for a bike in this segment given the performance it has to offer.

Sure it is a bit too simple and doesn’t have enough features on offer, but it manages to make up for it with proven reliability and adequate performance. 

But if you are looking for something that is a bit more sporty, then the Bajaj Pulsar 150 will be a choice worth considering. It is priced at Rs 1,15,418 (ex-showroom).