Shooting an ILS approach after 14 years. It was on Microsoft flight simulator, but it was worth knowing, it was consoling to know that I still know the things. I decided to fly out from Lakefront airport, as I was familiar with the environment. I decided to fly out to Gulfport airport which is just over 50 nautical miles from Lakefront airport at New Orleans. It was the flight path which was flown by me when I did my first cross-country flight. I asked for an IFR clearance and it was given as cleared for Gulfport airport as filed asking me to climb to 3000 feet. I was on runways 18R and decided to keep the climate foggy to get a real feel of using the ILS approach. I put in the throttle and climbed out, after a positive rate of climb I made a left turn to 067 degrees. The GPS showed that the airport was 54 NM from here. Since it was all white outside there was not anything to look around except to track the instruments. It was easy to maintain the altitude however, it was difficu...
I see very few Honda Unicorn these days in the Chandigarh area. Which is bit surprising as at present and Arguable Honda is dominating the two wheelers market in India.
Both its scooters and motorcycles are selling like hot cakes. If not more, as per my observation at least 50% of the total two wheelers market is captured by Honda. This I am saying without reading any stats.
I have observed that Honda Unicorn is the least seen motorcycle in Punjab and Chandigarh area.
Among all the two wheelers that are made by Honda motorcycles company, I guess and as per my observance, Honda Unicorn is the least sold one.
Ever since I saw the Honda Unicorn motorcycle, that was roughly 20 years back, I had fallen in love with it.
This love was admiration-from-a-distance kind of only, because this motorcycle had been little over my budget ever since it came out.
Our being a lower middle class family, we were only able to afford a platina motorcycle, that is easy to purchase and easy to maintain with high mileage.
After giving some little push, I was able to get my hands on Bajaj Discover motorcycle
Both Bajaj Platina and Bajaj Discover are good motorcycles, and I never had any complaints with them through the years I rode them.
I had Bajaj Discover with me for nearly 5 years, and it was my first bike and apart from some errors from the rider, this motorcycle was rugged and powerful in its segment.
When my brother got to a legal age to ride a motorcycle, the bajaj discover was transferred to him and my dad purchased a Bajaj Platina.
It is hard to believe but Bajaj Platina did give me 100 KMPL mileage many times, provided that you ride it at a comfortable speed of 60 KMPH, give smooth acceleration and do not throttle unnecessarily.
Although, once you are used to a 135 cc engine you will find a 100 cc engine less powerful and this was what I felt as I transitioned from Bajaj Discover to Bajaj Platina.
When it came to acceleration I had a bit of dissatisfaction at times, but if you want your motorcycle to give you 100 KMPL mileage that you have to accept this thing.
After being with me for nearly a decade and in many cases being my only companion in numerous long road trips, my dearest Bajaj Platina was stolen in November of 2018.
It was one of the most devastating days of my life. For many days I was not able to come to terms with this loss.
Many people complain that Bajaj Platina has a light engine and that it is not good for long road trips.
Well, if you throw in the scenario that two people are going to Leh-Ladhak then it is certainly a no.
But in plains and if you are comfortable with 60 - 70 KMPH speed then there is nothing that can match Bajaj Platina.
I had traveled almost 500 kilometers in one day, say dear readers, in 1 day, I have traveled 500 kilometers on Bajaj Platina, and it was daring to go more.
In one day I had traveled from Delhi to Chandigarh and Back. Why and how did this long trip happened I will write and publish some other time.
For the next 4 years after my dear Bajaj Platina was stolen, I was on public transport or on some occasion when our other two wheeler TVS jupiter was available from my wife. TVS Jupiter is another strong and sturdy vehicle which I will detail about in another vehicle.
When the time came to purchase one more two wheeler in 2022, I was considering a number of options.
Since I had experience in using Bajaj vehicles, the one option was Bajaj CT 110X, there was a new version on the market and it had quite a sporty and sturdy look.
It was within my budget, the money I had planned to spend plus it was providing me with good mileage as well. The only drawback was that it was coming in tube tyres, and since I was commuting most of the time on long routes than tube tyres was a clear red flag.
While using Bajaj Platina the only problem the only problem I had faced was because of tube tyres, Bajaj has come out with a solution to this problem, but back in 2015 around, it was not there.
So, Bajaj CT 110X had everything I was looking for in a motorcycle except for the tubeless tyres.
A distant thought I was giving to Honda Unicorn as well, which, even after 20 years or so, is still my favorite motorcycle. Unfortunately, it was still beyond my financial reach as it was 15 years back.
The on road price of a Honda Unicorn is 1.14 lakhs (114,000 rupees) which was not what I was thinking to spend on a two wheeler.
The big thing was that even after nearly two decades no changes were made in the design of this motorcycle. Few years back Honda Motors had experimented with some new designs for the unicorn but the good thing was that while I was planning to purchase a new bike, the original design was available from the manufacturer.
During the two decades, only one time I got the chance to ride a Honda Unicorn and I was highly impressed by it. The first amazing thing about this motorcycle was that it was silent as hell. This sudden new change from bajaj vehicles to honda vehicles was clearly visible.
Many times I thought that the engine has stopped running, it was so silent, there was no vibration and there was almost nil sound from the engine, it was just amazing feeling as I ride Honda Unicorn for the first time.
The second distinct feature was that this bike was much more powerful than the bike I was riding till now. And on many occasions I was a little out of control as I was not able to coordinate between the engine sound + vibration and the amount of power that it was generating.
So this was HONDA and this is why they are the best brand in the world.
So I was already aware of what a Honda Unicorn is.
During my decision making time to purchase a new motorcycle I was also considering TVS radeon. Since I had already used TVS vehicles and the trust the market has in their vehicles makes them one obvious choice.
TVS Radeon was a new entrant in the market, and it promised to provide 85 KMPL mileage, and the bike was priced at what I was looking for.
While I was juggling between the different options available, some words of motivation came from my wife who suggested I buy a Honda Unicorn. Reason was, a few days back I had disclosed to her that it had been my dream bike ever since it came out.
For design, I give 10 on 10 to Unicorn for it is simple yet it is classy, it is my personal choice and I am sure most young will differ from me, and it is also evident as so few Honda Unicorn are seen in Chandigarh.
After using this motorcycle for more than one and a half years (riding over 20,000 kms) I can say that it is pretty good. I did not get the same thrill that I got when I rode a Honda Unicorn for the first time a few years back.
The bike is comfortable and if you keep it between 60 - 70 Kmps then it can give you up to 60 KMPL mileage. This is something which was not available in the earlier version of this bike.
I should mention here that I very rarely do rash driving. I never accelerate abruptly and / or do abrupt braking.
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