Why 'Honda Dream Yuga'?

I am very much biased in the case of two wheeler. I personally favor Yamaha and Honda  in the case of two wheeler due to quality of product, service and resale value. I own a Honda Unicorn (in my native) and Mahindra Rodeo (in Bangalore)and I needed a commuter class bike which can take me from home to office and back. Rodeo is great but really not economical. I get about 20-24kmpl in Bangalore city traffic and which was the core reason for me to look for a new bike.

Initial phase when I have gone throught various websites and short listed the following (in early May 2012).

Honda CB Twister
Hero Splender Pro
Yamaha SS125

Being a Bajaj and Suzuki hater in case of two wheelers I didn't consider discover or hayate (even though they are pretty popular).

Now the criteria for choosing the last pick was comfirt, relayability and economy. I've taken the test drive for Yamaha SS125 (the dealer doesn't have one, he given me the older version which is the Gladiator). Then I target others who drive SS125 in traffic signals and asked their feedback. The feedback on mileage and product quality was nice but they were cribbing about the quality of service and the parts availability. Even googling on those issues scared me and decided to say NO to SS125.

Next went to a Hero dealer and asked for Splender Pro test drive. Having driven only Unicorn (I've test driven Pulser, Karizhma etc but not a 100cc before) felt like driving a dead body. Quite a lot of vibrations and almost like zero power. Then the mechanic guy in Hero told me that I won't get the same Splender Plus milage in Splender Pro and hence go for Splender Plus. But driving a Splender Plus made me feel really sick and I was disappointed and was thinking of quitting the idea of buying a two wheeler for fuel economy. Also splender is dead cheap on maintenance side too.

Finally I reached the Honda show room. CB Twister was an eye candy till I see it very close and take a detailed look. I felt it like a plasticky bike. Plastic plastic every where. Also the pillion seating position is little high and that could make it difficult for my father or some one little old to get in (even though it might not happened in every day I do care about it). But a test drive made me really happy because it didn't give me a feeling like a dead body which the splender did. Also the feedback from others using CB Twister was that its a great bike for economy, almost 50kmpl in city is sure but feels lite and it could skip pretty fast. I test driven it with a pillion and I didn't feel any skidding for at reasonable speeds and braking. But again the plastic plastic plastic every where nature and the tall pillion seat was the problems.

In a confused state, I decided to hold the idea or buying a new bike for now. In between I came to know about the Honda dream yoga and I have seen one parked in my office parking lot. Google couldn't help me find out much on dream yuga since its a brand new avatar and thats one of the core reason for me to start this blog.

Whatever information I can find out from the internet says that its a fine tuned CB twister engine for mileage and a practical version of CB twister. The overdrive video review claiming 70kmpl in city and 80kmpl in highway impressed me. Also I see a review in mouthshut claiming almost 85kmpl!! I went back to the honda dealer and I was really impressed with the first look of the vahicle. Its very much practical and neat finish. Driving it made me even happier. Felt like an old wine put in a new bottle (compairing to CB twister). Took a quote! Whoa! less than 60K, sounds nice and booked it with out a second thought. I had to choose the color based on the brocher since no vahicle was available with the dealer that point of time other than black. Anyway I selected the 'Alpha Red' almost blindly (on July 9, 2012) and now the waiting for the delivery starts :-)