Battle for the berth.. Honda and Suzuki are one of the respected manufacturers in Indian automotive industry. After conquering the car market both have turned their eyes to world’s second largest two wheeler market – India. Suzuki partnered TVS and had produced good motorcycles like ‘shogun’ and Honda has been giving life support for its local partner Hero and Hero Honda has been the leader. Both have decided to go alone and tap the booming two wheeler market. Honda entered the market earlier and has become an important player in the scooter segment with dio, Eterno and activa. Honda’s unicorn is one of the top seller in 150cc segment. Suzuki made it entrance last year and currently offers 125cc bikes heat and zeus. Suzuki plans to launch a 100cc scooter soon that will take on Honda’s activa. The battle between Honda and Suzuki is a never ending one. The titan’s shine and zeus XCD fights for a berth in 125cc segment.
Engine and gearbox:
Honda shine comes with a powerful engine, only Yamaha gladiator and Honda shine have a power output 10+ (in bhp) also Honda shine has the highest torque in 125cc segment. Honda brand this engine as ‘optimax’ which is named to explicitly convey from shine you can expect maximum pickup as well as mileage. Actually this optimax engine is a scaled down version of the Unicorn’s 150cc motor. Optimax engine features multi mapping CDI, tumble flow combustion chamber, long intake pipe and connecting tube, CV carburettor, two-way Air Jacket and a pulse exhaust system. The engine is mated with heel and toe shift operated gearbox - four-speed and shifts all up.
Suzuki zeus is build for city commuters, it is the least powered engine in its class. Zeus makes 8.7bhp@7000rpm even most 110cc bikes make this. All aluminium, air cooled zeus engine breathes through twin valves. Zeus is one of the few bikes in the market that do not feature the more contemporary constant velocity (CV) carburettor. One more special with zeus is its peak torque of 10Nm kicks in as early as 3500rpm which means zeus demands lesser gear change hence perfect bike for city ride. The Zeus’ gearbox is five-speed and follows the well known popular one down, rest up shift pattern. Finally, shine is powerful while zeus has creditable torque. Shine is faster than zeus and also shine offers a combined mileage/fuel efficiency figure of 58kpl more than Suzuki zeus which offers 54kpl in combined conditions.
Styling and Engineering:
Clear lens indicator and aerodynamic front cowl gives shine a stylish look. Two tone shades, neat graphics, and chrome plated muffler are added design elements. There are no forced cuts, no sharp edges, just clean lines. Shine derives most of its design cues from its sibling Unicorn, rear cowl and front fairing is such examples. Honda shine has standard features such as switchgear, fuel gauge and speedometer. Other than Shine’s neat tank to seat flow and ‘Primary Kick.’ which allows the user to kick start the bike in any gear, without going through the hassles of finding the neutral gear, there is nothing to celebrate. Alloy wheels are absent in Honda Shine.
From the front zeus looks beauty with a unique headlamp fairing and a attractive visor The front alloy wheel mudguard sports an arrow-shaped front half. Exciting stickers and ‘S’ decal on the 12L fuel tank makes zeus a worthy competitor in fashion shows. In the rear the zeus makes you bored. Zeus offers best in class engineering with gear indicators that will help newbies, soft and simple palm grips, shining chrome bar end weights- to arrest vibration, wider rear view mirrors – will provide clear rear vision, switch gear, engine kill-switch, twin horns in addition to the standard push to cancel indicator, pass light flasher. Black and white speedometer and tachometer with yellow indicator makes it easy to read. No engineering is flawless, zeus handlebar locks on only one side instead of both. In styling both the bikes are not so magnetic but in engineering zeus scores more than shine.
Ride and Handling:
Honda claims shine features cutting edge technologies such as strong yet flexible diamond frame and Ergo Tec (Ergonomics and Technology) design. Both these enable offers superior absorption of shocks & vibrations thus providing excellent ride comfort & stability as expected on Honda bikes. Even though Honda shine features three step hydraulic suspension the useful tuff tube (reduces the incidence of puncture) affects the smoother riding.
An ergonomically designed, stepped up seat gives decent support and together with the raised handlebar offers an upright riding posture for the Zeus user. Though the bike is lengthier the ground clearance of zeus is shorter than many of 125cc bikes, Suzuki can claim that this reduces the saddle height of the bike making it more suitable for shorter Indian riders. Zeus chassis is a single down tubular member; zeus features the same tubular swing arm instead of popularly used rectangular swing arm which makes handling easier. Braking is via a 240mm disc in the front and 130mm drum in the rear.
Both the bikes are superior in handling but Honda is little ahead in the race.
Price and Verdict:
Suzuki offers warranty for 2 years or first 30,000kms for zeus (not much impressive when others offer 3 years) and zeus is priced in the band of Rs42,725 and Rs46,326. Shine is priced in the range of Rs40,945 and Rs45,844. Honda’s characteristic smoother engine, greater handling makes shine a better vehicle than zeus. But both Honda and Suzuki has to produce brand ambassadors such as splendor for Hero Honda, pulsar for Bajaj and Apache for TVS to get a greater share in Indian two wheeler industry and to get the confidence of Indian customers.
Current and future products:
Suzuki currently offers 125cc bikes zeus EU, Zeus xcd and heat. Suzuki plans to launch a 100cc scooter soon. Honda currently offers eterno,activa and dio in scooter segment and 125cc shine and 150cc sporty unicorn in bike segment. Honda plans to enter 100cc segment and it will also launch fuel injected Shine FI soon.
