May 2010 | BikeAdvice - Latest Bike News, Motorcycle Reviews, Electric Vehicle Updates

Call it a result of a lot of prayers or cursing, HMSI very recently launched the upgrade to its long time warhorse Unicorn and dubbed it as CB Unicorn Dazzler. This launch makes Dazzler the 5th bike to use the same 150cc engine in different tunings. It was first used on the Unicorn followed by Achiever, CBZ Extreme and Hunk and now on the Dazzler. The interesting part is that all the bikes are currently on sale, either on HMSI’s or Hero Honda’s showrooms. This new offering comes with a lot of firsts and luring features and here we take a first look at all of them: LOOKS: Honda has paid special emphasis on the looks of this bike. The bike has been laden with aggressive styling, fiery looking bikini fairing with screenless front cowl, Honda’s emblem embossed huge side cowls similar to Twister, twin tone seats, sporty half chain cover and an attractive pointed tail. ENGINE: Honda has increased the power output of this bike by 0.7 bhp with the output going up to 14bhp in contrast to 13.3bhp produced by the older mill. This makes it more powerful than Achiever and CB Unicorn but still lesser than Hunk and Extreme. The peak power is now produced 500rpm higher at 8500 compared to Unicorn’s 8000 rpm. Torque output remains constant at 12.8 Nm but again the engine produces it at a higher rpm of 6500 compared to 5500 of the older engine. All this signifies that the bike would be a higher revving bike. REAR DISC: Dazzler becomes the first bike among Honda’s 150cc arsenal to sport a 220mm rear Nissin disc brake as standard. Front remains the same 240mm Nissin rotor. DIGITAL CONSOLE: Better late than never! Dazzler also becomes the first bike among Hondas 150cc arsenal which has been endowed with a semi digital console. The assembly comprises of an analogue tachometer (which now redlines at 9250 rpm from the 9000 for the earlier model), regular information lights and a blue backlit digital speedometer which displays speed in big bold letters, tripmeter, clock and a fuel meter. WEIGHT REDUCTION: Seems like Honda has understood the importance of saving every little kilogram on a bikes overall characteristics, Dazzler is a full 8 kilograms lighter than Unicorn. As a result, we might expect it to be slightly more flickable than the older version. ALTERED DIMENSIONS: All the dynamics have been made smaller on this new bike. Length cut short to 2073mm (from 2095mm), Breadth reduces to 754mm (from 756mm) and height trimmed down to 1085mm (from 1100mm). Wheelbase also finds itself shorter at 1328mm (from 1340mm) and even the ground clearance has not been spared. The bike stands only 162mm taller to the ground as compared to the earlier 179mm. In all, Dazzler is a smaller bike as compared to CB Unicorn. This gives us a small glimpse of where has Honda gained those 8 kilograms of weight advantage from. OMISSION OF KICKER: In sharp contrast to Honda’s conservative thought process, the company has given away the kick start. A big question which struck our mind was, WHY? Others do it because their bikes have sporty riding positions and to save the rider of facing the CBZ Classic-like hassles of folding the footpeg to kick start the bike. Dazzler comes with a very commuter oriented seating posture and Honda could have easily accommodated a kicker at its original place. This would further shoo away conservative customers who still feel a machine is incomplete without a kick start. HIGH FUEL EFFICIENCY: Quite akin to Unicorn, Dazzler has also been claimed to return FE figures of 60kmpl under Indian Mode. On road, however, we feel this bike would be slightly less frugal than CB Unicorn. SMALLER FUEL TANK: Unicorn boasted a huge tank with a fuel carrying capacity of 13 liters but Dazzlers tank has been made slimmer with a loss of 1 liter in fuel carrying capacity. NEW TIRES: HMSI has reverted to 17 incher broader rubbers for this bike. Specifications for the front are 80/100 17 (from 2.75 * 18) and rear are 110/80 17 (from 100/90 18). Tuff up tubes on the Unicorn also makes way for Tubeless rubber on this machine. PERFORMANCE: Though no claims have been made by HMSI we expect this bike’s performance to be slightly better than the older Unicorn in outright performance. However, existing CB Unicorn might still remain a better in-city tool with Dazzler performing better where higher revs are required. OTHER TIDBITS: Vibrations dampeners, Maintenance Free 12Volt 4Ah Maintenance Free Battery (The older Unicorn comes with 12V 7Ah), Viscous Air Filter etc For owning this bike customers will have to pay a premium over the existing Unicorn and why not, this bike comes loaded with so much! On road Pune, Dazzler costs Rs. 71,790 which makes it Rs 4000 costlier than the existing Unicorn (CB Unicorn costs Rs 67,708 OTR Pune). With all the added gadgets and tweaks this bike seems like a good prospect. However, on second thoughts with the price tag lingering around the Yamaha’s FZ (FZ 16 costs Rs 73k OTR Pune), a comparison between these two becomes inevitable. Dazzler doesn’t have FZ like ground breaking looks, nor does it carry insane power like the Apache, nor the homogonous torque of the FZ but what it carries over is the decent-looker better mileage factor. So does it make a good buy at the increased price? Wait for a thorough test drive as we dig deep to answer the same question! - Saad Khan HONDA CB UNICORN DAZZLER: FIRST LOOK Call it a result of a lot of prayers or cursing, HMSI very recently launched the upgrade to its long time warhorse Unicorn and dubbed it as CB Unicorn Dazzler. This launch makes Dazzler the 5th bike to use the same 150cc engine in different tunings. It was first used on the Unicorn followed by Achiever, CBZ Extreme and Hunk and now on the Dazzler. The interesting part is that all the bikes are currently on sale, either on HMSI’s or Hero Honda’s showrooms. This new offering comes with a lot of firsts and luring features and here we take a first look at all of them: 1)LOOKS: Honda has paid special emphasis on the looks of this bike. The bike has been laden with aggressive styling, fiery looking bikini fairing with screenless front cowl, Honda’s emblem embossed huge side cowls similar to Twister, twin tone seats, sporty half chain cover and an attractive pointed tail. 2)ENGINE: Honda has increased the power output of this bike by 0.7 bhp with the output going up to 14bhp in contrast to 13.3bhp produced by the older mill. This makes it more powerful than Achiever and CB Unicorn but still lesser than Hunk and Extreme. The peak power is now produced 500rpm higher at 8500 compared to Unicorn’s 8000 rpm. Torque output remains constant at 12.8 Nm but again the engine produces it at a higher rpm of 6500 compared to 5500 of the older engine. All this signifies that the bike would be a higher revving bike. 3)REAR DISC: Dazzler becomes the first bike among Honda’s 150cc arsenal to sport a 220mm rear Nissin disc brake as standard. Front remains the same 240mm Nissin rotor. 4)DIGITAL CONSOLE: Better late than never! Dazzler also becomes the first bike among Hondas 150cc arsenal which has been endowed with a semi digital console. The assembly comprises of an analogue tachometer (which now redlines at 9250 rpm from the 9000 for the earlier model), regular information lights and a blue backlit digital speedometer which displays speed in big bold letters, tripmeter, clock and a fuel meter. 5)WEIGHT REDUCTION: Seems like Honda has understood the importance of saving every little kilogram on a bikes overall characteristics, Dazzler is a full 8 kilograms lighter than Unicorn. As a result, we might expect it to be slightly more flickable than the older version. 6)ALTERED DIMENSIONS: All the dynamics have been made smaller on this new bike. Length cut short to 2073mm (from 2095mm), Breadth reduces to 754mm (from 756mm) and height trimmed down to 1085mm (from 1100mm). Wheelbase also finds itself shorter at 1328mm (from 1340mm) and even the ground clearance has not been spared. The bike stands only 162mm taller to the ground as compared to the earlier 179mm. In all, Dazzler is a smaller bike as compared to CB Unicorn. This gives us a small glimpse of where has Honda gained those 8 kilograms of weight advantage from. 7)OMISSION OF KICKER: In sharp contrast to Honda’s conservative thought process, the company has given away the kick start. A big question which struck our mind was, WHY? Others do it because their bikes have sporty riding positions and to save the rider of facing the CBZ Classic-like hassles of folding the footpeg to kick start the bike. Dazzler comes with a very commuter oriented seating posture and Honda could have easily accommodated a kicker at its original place. This would further shoo away conservative customers who still feel a machine is incomplete without a kick start. 8)HIGH FUEL EFFICIENCY: Quite akin to Unicorn, Dazzler has also been claimed to return FE figures of 60kmpl under Indian Mode. On road, however, we feel this bike would be slightly less frugal than CB Unicorn. 9)SMALLER FUEL TANK: Unicorn boasted a huge tank with a fuel carrying capacity of 13 liters but Dazzlers tank has been made slimmer with a loss of 1 liter in fuel carrying capacity. 10)NEW TIRES: HMSI has reverted to 17 incher broader rubbers for this bike. Specifications for the front are 80/100 17 (from 2.75 * 18) and rear are 110/80 17 (from 100/90 18). Tuff up tubes on the Unicorn also makes way for Tubeless rubber on this machine. 11)PERFORMANCE: Though no claims have been made by HMSI we expect this bike’s performance to be slightly better than the older Unicorn in outright performance. However, existing CB Unicorn might still remain a better in-city tool with Dazzler performing better where higher revs are required. 12)OTHER TIDBITS: Vibrations dampeners, Maintenance Free 12Volt 4Ah Maintenance Free Battery (The older Unicorn comes with 12V 7Ah), Viscous Air Filter etc For owning this bike customers will have to pay a premium over the existing Unicorn and why not, this bike comes loaded with so much! On road Pune, Dazzler costs Rs. 71,790 which makes it Rs 4000 costlier than the existing Unicorn (CB Unicorn costs Rs 67,708 OTR Pune). With all the added gadgets and tweaks this bike seems like a good prospect. However, on second thoughts with the price tag lingering around the Yamaha’s FZ (FZ 16 costs Rs 73k OTR Pune), a comparison between these two becomes inevitable. Dazzler doesn’t have FZ like ground breaking looks, nor does it carry insane power like the Apache, nor the homogonous torque of the FZ but what it carries over is the decent-looker better mileage factor. So does it make a good buy at the increased price? Wait for a thorough test drive as we dig deep to answer the same question!

Monthly Archives: May 2010

Honda CB Unicorn Dazzler Review

Sales of Pulsar 135 Crosses 1 Lakh Mark

BikeAdvice Buyer’s Guide

TVS WEGO : First Look

Royal Enfield Bullet 350 Makes Way With UCE

Indian Motorcycles Sales Figures for April 2010