Sep 23, 2014 03:25 PM
263565 Views
I am a 6 feet 90kg person and was using 12 -year old caliber before buying my new bike. The factors which I considered were
1) a 150 cc bike as I wanted more power and was bored of lack of power in a 100cc bike.
2) Comfortable ride- Caliber in the last 12 years has always brought me smiles, as there was no problem with comfort-hardly any back pain or neck pain I faced. I wanted a better or equivalent comfort in my new bike also.
3)Mileage- Yes, I wanted a mileage of around 45-50, as my monthly usage is around 800-1000 kms, didnt want to spend more for petrol.
4)Weight - I was looking for a stable bike with more weight. To me more weight, it is more safe.
5)Disc brake- Again for safety
6) Ideal for city usage, as 90 percent of my usage is with in the city.
Based on these factors, I selected the two bikes Unicorn and GS 150R
Unicorn- all my requirements are ticked. but my only worry was its mono-suspension. The suspension had mixed reviews and I have read many complained about its mono-suspension.
At 80k, I thought it was a risk to buy this as if things go worse, then I have to sell it.
GS 150R- Again my requirements are ticked. It had a nice digi-console, six gears, it was kind of a premium bike to unicorn. atleast one segment above it. The ride was also good, but I think its weight distribution is not as good as unicorn, at times you have to use your wrists to control the bike as more weight is there in the front, because of which you can get wrist pain. And I was in confusion, which one to select among the two for about three months. At last I decided to buy Unicorn over GS.Yes it was a gamble on its mono-suspension, but I also read many positive reviews about it also. I was thinking like, if I find any trouble on the hard setting, then I can go for the soft one. More importantly I was comfortable with the suspension in my test rides over pathole filled roads.
Few reason why unicorn over GS
I also checked used unicorns and GS 150 R to see how they age. I saw a 2009/10 GS 150Rs looked more aged compared to unicorn. Even performance wise, a five year old unicorn rides smoothly with out any issues. In the GS 150 rs which I tested, one of them had an engine issue, the other had a gear shift issue, the other 2010 model looked and performed worse than my caliber with too much noise and rattles.
Another important factor is service. The bike is sold very less and the service people would be handling more of access and hayates and they would have less experience in servicing GS. if any problem comes up they would use our bikes to do trial and error and we will have to suffer at the end of the day. I know one GS user, following up with the Suzuki service centre for more than two months, still his issues unsolved. I think more the bikes sell, more the technical knowledge the service people will have, as they lay their hands on it everyday.
And handling as I said earlier, Unicorn has uniform weight distribution, while GS has more weight in the front, which means you might have wrist pains. And by no means, GS is a fun to ride bike in the city. Yes its a good bike for a tourer, no doubts about that.
I am not the one to care about the resale value, as I intend to keep my bike at least 10 years. But in the resale market, if you have unicorn, there will be many takers and you can command over the price, but with GS you will hardly find any takers and you have to settle with some peanuts.
It has been two weeks I bought my unicorn and I am more than happy with my bike. Its suspensions are fine. and its handling is great. brakes are superb. I am totally enjoying it.
Regards,
Raja M
