Hero Honda, a company that went on to become the largest motorcycle maker in the country and a household name. They continued to remain a monopoly till Bajaj totally changed the game of Indian motorcycling with the “Pulsar 150”. Since then, the 150cc segment has grown to become hotter and more exciting. Obviously, Hero Honda had to do something about this. And they introduced the Hunk (of course they had CBZ before that). The 150 cc segment has grown manifold since the Pulsars came but the Hero Honda engineers didn’t seem to pay much attention to this. Of late, maybe they have finally done it and thus they have introduced the new 2011 Hero Honda Hunk.
Styling -
It has got front fairings at the front of the fuel tank near the thigh rest areas. It also has miniscule additional fairings near the front shocks at the wheel arch location. This looks quite cool! The front lights look almost the same with no significant changes to it. One look at them and you will say that is the typical Hero Honda. The tail lights look nice with LED lights in it. All back finish has been provided to the engine, and exhaust tail pipe. The rear view mirrors have some solid amount of support material. All in all not much changes.
Instrument-
The new edition gets a digital speedo but the RPM meter still remains analog. The RPM meter sits at the centre and is dominant. The speedometer is kind of tucked away at one corner. It also includes the fuel meter, high beam and turn indicators. Overall, it is quite functional in the appearance with some chrome linings.
Performance -
The bike offers a 149.2 cc engine which makes a impressive 14.4 PS of power @ 8500 RPM and 12.8 Nm of torque @ 6500 RPM. Definitely the power offered is one of the highest in this segment and also you get good thrust at low RPM. The power delivery is not smooth though. You encounter a long straight, minimal traffic, you twist the throttle but the bike doesn’t start to instantly zoom past everything. We found this lag quite pronounced.
Fuel Economy & other salient features :
You get a good mileage figure (but that is altogether a different thing….). The biggest downside to this bike is the gearbox. Though, you get a standard 5 speed gearbox, but the gear shifting is not at all smooth. You are bound to miss a gear or two whether you shift up or down. Also, the bike has some pronounced vibration when you go beyond 3500 to 4000 RPM. Mileage is claimed by the company to be 55 kmpl. On road, you can expect a decent figure of 50!!!
Conclusion - Finally, at 75,313/- (OTR, Mumbai) for a dual disc configuration and at 71,893/- for a single one, is this raging bull worth the price? Well, we would say NO. This segment has seen a slew of products off late and some among them are really good, in fact better than what Hero Honda has to offer. Hero Honda has done their job but not quite up to the level what a consumer expects from such a product. There is a scope for lot more improvement.
