A Reliable Bike from Reliable Hero Honda. Review on Hero Honda Achiever

Hi Folks,

Here's a review on Achiever, and most points are based on Autocar Dec2005 shoot out b/w Achiver,Uni & Pulsar.

1. The one flawless asset on the Unicorn is its Honda power pack. And Hero Honda’s move to use that tried-and-tested formula with the Achiever is both wise and welcome. The gearbox is smooth as Unicorn and there's no clue of false neutrals or gear hunting.

2. Achiever & Unicorn’s Max power is 13.3bhp . Peak torque achieved on Achiever remains 1.3kgm but at 5000rpm, which is creditably made a useful 500rpm lower than on the Unicorn. Pulsar's max power is 13.5bhp & develops 1.25kgm at rather higher rpm of 6500. So, Achiever has best Low-End-Torque.

3. Accelerations (kph achieved in secs), Achiever is clear pole winner, reaches 100kph in just 17.83 sec, Pulsar reaches in 22.03 sec.

kph Achiever Unicorn Pulsar

40 3.02 2.83 2.75

60 5.63 5.86 5.35

100 17.83 22.6 22.03

1. Max speeds in Gears (kph/rpm), Top speed of Uni is highest at 111kph next is Achiever at 109 kph

Achiever : 5th 109/8300;4th 101/8800;3rd 84/8750;2nd 62/8850 &1st 36/8850.

Unicorn : 5th 113/8600;4th 101/8800;3rd 84/8800;2nd 62/8900 &1st 36/8900

Pulsar : 5th 108/8900, 4th 95/9200,3rd 81/10000, 2nd 60/10100 &1st 41/10200

1. Mileage, Hero Honda has maintained it's tradition of producing fuel efficient bikes through stringent QA-QC. Achiever beats Pulsar & Unicorn in all riding conditions.

Achiever : Highway 55.3; City 51.3 & Overall 53.3

Unicorn : Highway 53; City 49.2 & Overall 51.1

Pulsar : Highway 54.5; City 48.2 & Overall 51.3

1. Looks : No doubt Achiever gets beaten by Pulsar & Unicorn in this department with excessive stickers on its' body, Quality of headlight on Achiever is very good.

2. Marketing Strategy, While Bajaj & TVS are very aggresive & effective in advertisment which is attracting youths & young men with funky punch lines like... "Definetly Male", "All men are born equal, then there are men on Apache", their bikes are far superior in looks. Hero Honda has not jumped into funky advertising but they can definetly improve on looks & cosmetics to please young folks.

3. Hero Honda's vast service network, spare part availability and excellence in their QA-QC & after sales is yet to be matched by competitors. There are some complaints of unfriendly plus cosltier service at Honda service stations, In contrast HH's service is less costlier and even spares are about 30% lesser than Hondas.

Overall, Achiever is a decent package missing some trivial features(rather important for youngsters). The pricing is traditionally not higher compared to their 100cc bikes like splendors and passions. I have personally set eyes on this bike and have test ridden this bike several times (at Milinium,Chandana & Shreyas, B'lore) and there are distinct improvements over Unicorn in some departments, I'll go for this bike once my Ambi(with which I'm totally satisfied) completes about 40K kms. Even if this bike fails in market, the HH reliability & service will ensure peace of mind for atleast 5-7 years. I strongly recommend this bike for the 150cc bike hunters.

Regards,

Srini

B'lore

Complete shoot out article is available @ https://indiabike.com/roadtest/shootout/shootout_3bikes_dec05_a