 As
far as I know, no single bike maker in the world has EVER sold four
lakh bikes in one month! Hero Honda has done it, in Oct.2005, and
THAT'S an Achievement. So Hero Honda launches Achiever, which is
the Honda Unikorn engine in different clothes, and unlike Unikorn,
highly Rural-Indianized or ruralized. The market feedback dept.
and design dept. of HH appear to share
an excellent equation. Thus Achiever comes with twin rear shox as
opposed to Unikorn's mono-shock. 30% of highly net-savvy, bike-savvy,
urban questioners on my portal www.indiabike.com express reservations
about the mono-shock. I also know that in the rural areas this percentage
is over 80%. I know this because I spend a week every month trekking
on foot in the remote areas of four districts around Pune. I know
the rural bike scenario very deeply. Point is, Hero Honda also knows
this. They've done their homework. Further proof comes from the
fact that Achiever comes with a 130 mm front drum brake option,
which Unikorn does not. Again, I know that 80% of rural folk DON'T
WANT disc brakes. So Achiever will fill in the RURAL gap left by
Unikorn. And I wouldn't be surprised if Achiever outsells Unikorn
in rural areas.
 So,
in case you didn't know, the Achiever engine is the same 149.1cc
(bore x stroke==57.3 x 57.8 mm) Unikorn engine with a miniscule
difference in power. While at 8000 rpm the Unikorn claims 13.3 bhp
(=9.9 kw), at the same (8000) rpm, Achiever claims 13.4 bhp (=10
kw). I know 17 technical ways of Achieving this difference but I
don't know even one reason why they need /
want this difference. Gear and sprocket ratios are the same, so
on-road behaviour would be same because wheel and tyres are same
at 2.75 x 18 front and 3.oo x 18 rear.
 Apart from the twin-shocks and drums, all other differences appear
visual, which is fine and necessary. But for those who do not know
much about Unikorn, let me mention other details about HH Achiever.
There are apparent air-skoops in the front below the fuel tank for
looks differentitation. For other visuals, just look at any old
HH Ambition photo, and you will know.
Built on a 1290 mm wheelbase (50 mm less than Unikorn), the Achiever
kick-start version weighs 139 kg, which is five kg less than Unikorn.
Fuel tank capacity is 12.5 litres as compared to 13 litres of Unikorn,
while usable reserve of Achiever is 2.3 litres as compared 1.3 litres
of Unikorn.
Thus reserve capacity of Achiever is larger, again because of lack
of petrol pumps in our rural areas, which makes it more rural-friendly
than Unikorn.
Electrics are same, ending with the same multi-mapped digital CDI
of Unikorn. Headlight is 12v-35w. Achiever is available in both
kick-start and self-start versions, backed up with the same 12v--2.5
Ah battery for kick-start and 12v-7 Ah battery for self-start version.
 The engine block, kicker and silencer are same while side panels
and pillion footrest sub-frame are differently adorned. The instru-console
(dials) is also different. The achiever has only two dials, but
is more useful. The speedo-odo dial at left includes a trip meter,
which the Unikorn does not have, while the right hand side dial,
which is the tacho, includes the fuel gauge.
Which brings us to the final question: Price. The on-road price
of Unikorn (kick-start) in Pune today is Rs.53,339/-, while that
of the Achiever (kick-start) is Rs.54,490/-. Does this mean that
brand equity of Hero Honda is higher than Honda? If so, then how
come the self start version of Unikorn at Rs.56,659/- is Rs.207/-
more than that of Achiever at Rs.56,457/- ? Strange? Not so, because
rural folk don't want self-start and since rural penetration of
HH is far more than Honda, the rural folk would not crib FOR A FEW
DOLLARS MORE!
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Author: Dilip Bam
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