A tale of two Hondas

We bought a Honda Unicorn in 2007. After the first couple of services, it never went within a mile of a service centre. Dad took it to a local workshop once or twice to change the sparkplug, other than that, it hasn't demand any kind of repair or even maintenance. My dad is not a motorhead not mechanically inclined, and I don't think he so much as lubed or cleaned the chain, let alone changed the oil. I got my license in 2013, this was the bike i learnt to ride on. Throttling it felt like the two wheels were suspended in air and propelled by a natural force, the engine just hummed under its breath, like it was only pretending to work. In the 100,000 kms it ran, it has never once broken down, never once left us stranded, and the 60kmpl saw us through the apprehensive rides back to home every single time. I went away for studies and work, Dad grew too old to ride a motorcycle, and the unicorn was left in the garage, without so much as a rain cover. It weathered the summers and monsoons, grew some rust, tyres got chapped, the plastic lost its sheen. Whenever I came home for holidays, i'd take it out for a spin, and it readily sprang up to life with no complaints, no begrudging reluctance at having been abandoned without a care for so long, it puttered along like an old friend happy to meet a long lost you. I am getting old and I decided it was time to get a new motorcycle. I heard honda had released a retro classic line and went with the CB350 with little thought or deliberation. I've found it an excellent bike so far, it's been nearly a year and I'm yet to discover a flaw with it, the long stroke makes itself heard when prodded, and leaps like a racehorse in 2nd and 3rd at the slightest provocation. It is as quiet as you'd want it in the city and whirrs like a chopper on highways and country roads. I recently took it on a 1500km trip and was beaming as it cruised the highways at 130kph without so much as a strain, never once stalled, or deceived into a neutral or threw a tantrum about the scorching sun and broken roads, and the 45kmpl saw me through the apprehensive rides back home. And if it corrodes and crumbles tomorrow, if the engine splits in half, if the fork comes off its hinges, I'll have no complaints, because Honda earned that trust over two decades for us and they very well deserve it .