The No-nonsense Machine. Review on Honda Shine 125

What extra can I say about a model that has been around for ages! But for the sake of writing this article I will do a bit of talking. Disclaimer: I am not a Honda addict; neither am I addicted to any particular brand. I take things as they come and judge motorised transportation purely on the basis of the merits they offer.

I was born in the early 80s and grew up at a time when the 100cc four strokers ruled the roost. These were the econo-misers from the Hero Honda stable and they could stretch the litre to the moon and back! Or at least, that is what the office going babus loved to believe. There was the CD 100 and the CD 100SS and make no mistake, they were built like tanks! Some of these bikes are still around albeit with good care from their owners, a.k.a lovers. But for the swanky adrenaline junkies of the 80s the most accessible bike was the Yamaha RX 100. I have intentionally omitted the RD350 because it did not make quite a ripple as what its younger sibling did, and I am talking about the mass market here. Don’t get me wrong here, I am a huge fan of the piston seizing, jaw dropping RD 350! But we are talking commuters here. The RX 100 was a mean machine built for purpose. It took away all the depression stashed inside the rider after a hard day’s labour. Yamaha tried to beef it up with a 135cc engine later on, but could not create the same magic. As the 90s loomed and the emission norms became stifling the two strokers had to go. Even the Rajdoot was gone and with it the sheen of Yamaha. So, Yamaha tried to shake up the market with something exciting, or at least what they thought would be exciting. Two models – YBX and YD 125 – rolled out of their stable. These were supposed to carry on with the flavour of the RXs(both the 100cc and 135cc iterations), albeit in a four stroke avatar.

I remember laying my hands on a Yamaha YBX while still in school. It belonged to a senior chap and he was generous enough to let me test-ride it(Yes! I began riding in school! But it was an illegal thing to do, wasn’t it?) The YBX immediately came across as a torque-y mill and the acceleration won my heart. The love remained in a remote corner of the heart only to resurface later. The YBX and YD125 were quickly killed off by a pincer attack from the Hero Honda joint venture. They rolled out the revelation called the CBZ! And the pitter-patter 100cc menaces were already there to bug Yamaha!

A few months back I was out in the market to buy the quintessential commuter bike. And because I am choosy and my wife keeps chiding me for that, I decided to keep things simple. I sat with my diary after hours of research which yielded a thesis on commuter bikes and wrote down three names – the TVS Victor Premium edition, the Hero Super Splendour and the Honda CB Shine. I had narrowed down on the 110 – 125cc class and wasn’t going to consider anything else. The tempting offering that I left out from my shopping list was the Bajaj Platina H gear. Call it a foolhardy if you will, but Bajaj has left a stigma in my mind. So, I went to the TVS guys first and test-rode the TVS Victor Premium. Now, the Victor has been a bastion of old fashioned reliability for a long long time. It has been the number churner for TVS for ages and it was only monumentally stupid on their part to have ceased production of the bike for a while in the past. No wonder they had to bring it back! The bike is good.in fact very good. It’s built solidly and nothing seems loosely packed together. I am very short – just 5’7 and 1/2” – and it suited my height well. The engine seemed a bit vibe-y though and the gear box was a bit clunky. The showroom guys tried to reassure me by saying that it was just a demo bike and the actual products are butter smooth and all. But I couldn’t wrap around my head why anyone would want to put up the worst for purposes of demonstration. So, I headed on to the Hero Motocorp showroom.

What fiasco waited for me in the Hero Motocorp showroom! Now, Hero Super Splendour has been a revelation for Hero Motocorp. This model has started where the legendary Splendour left and taken the sales figure – which were already in the skies – to galactic regions! But now there is a peculiar situation at Hero. They have two Super Splendors being sold side by side – the horizontal engine powered older model that uses the trusted Honda power mill and the “New” model which uses the more powerful home grown vertical engine! As I walked into the Hero showroom and enquired about the model, two different sales executives mobbed me and began pitching their products – one was pitching the new model and the other the older model. Each claimed that his model was the better of the two. How peculiar! After taking a test ride I was left without a wide grin. Both seemed docile and very commuter-ish in their riding stance and engine performance. But the older model did seem marginally smoother and had a better gear box. The new model does have a better initial acceleration but it quickly fades away as you push the bike to its limits. The gearbox isn’t as smooth as the older iteration and some chit chat with the workshop technicians revealed that the new version was indeed causing some butt-ache among its buyers. So, I moved on to the Honda showroom.

I was told literally like a million times to choose the Shine SP over the plain old Shine because of the fifth cog. But I am a bit headstrong and my wife chides me for that as well! I love the look of the traditional commuter bikes simply because I have grown up among them. Why even the RX 100 had very traditional looks! After a brief test ride I came back home with my new Honda Shine. But what about the bike? How is it anyway? Let’s look at it a bit closely.

Engine, Chassis and Handling: With its handsome 10+ horses and 10+ NM of torque the Honda Shine is not a slug. It pulls clean even in top gear, which in my case is the 4th cog. Because of its light kerb weight of just around 120kg, the bike is incredibly nimble and flick-able and you can throw it around with ease. It cuts through the thick of traffic like a razor blade and passes through crevices in traffic jams as neatly a thread through a needle’s eye.Because it generates its torque low down in the rev range, frequent gear shifts are not needed. If you are graduating from a scooter, you won’t miss the automatic transmission. And boy o boy! Can Honda make smooth engines! I have wriggled the throttle until the bike reached 80 KMPH on the highway and all the vibration I could feel was a light buzz on the handle bars and foot-pegs. The bike never felt like falling apart. Now this is not a machine built for 100 KMPH tarmac scorching. It is meant to move your butt from point A to point B anywhere on this globe with comfort, and to that end it succeeds with flying colours. The suspension is softly sprung, and while this limits its capabilities as a corner carver, the ride becomes plush even on the pockmarked Indian roads. The chassis is sturdy and does not squeak or squeal even when pushed hard.

My rating in this category: 4/5

Tyres: The 80/100 section tyres are skinny to say the least. They are a huge let down when it comes to sheer size, but narrow and light tyres do help with the fuel economy slightly and cut down on the overall manufacturing cost of the bike. That said, the MRF tyres are not rubbish. They grip the road fairly well. But I still believe a 90/120 section profile would have been best for the shoes. The fuel economy drop wouldn’t have been too prickly that way and the handling characteristics would have improved quite a bit.

My rating in this category: 3/5

Braking: The 240mm disc brake coupled with the 130mm drum does a decent job in stopping the bike even in harsh braking conditions. The CBS works just fine but overall the braking performance is nothing to write home about. Besides there is nothing much you want to achieve as a manufacturer with the brakes in the mundane commuter segment. As long as the bike stops safely you have achieved your target as a manufacturer. I would still suggest the disc variant over the drum variant any given day. The rear drum brake is just not as good as the front disc brake. The bite is spongy and doesn’t inspire confidence at all. Time to think about a rear disc, may be!

My rating in this category: 3.5/5

Reliability: Well, hands down, this is probably the most reliable bike in India. The other day I took an uncle’s 6 year old Honda Shine on a spin just to compare it with my new kid. I wasn’t surprised to get the same feeling as I get with my machine – it’s a Shine after all! The bike is a measly commuter, yet it is built like a tank. The build quality is phenomenal and will put to shame many fancy offerings in the market.

My rating in this category: 4.5/5

Kitna Deti Hai?: Well, well! The age old question of all Indian bikers - kitna deti hai! Well it is good enough for an average of 55 KMPL considering my style of riding, which is tame riding in traffic and wriggling the throttle on stark empty roads. I have ridden my bike as fast as 85 KMPH and the average hasn't dropped below 40.

My rating in this category: 4/5

Overall, I would say it doesn’t take much to love your bike no matter how large its mill is. A mere 125cc commuter can be a trusted companion on long tours and many bikers have already proven that. YouTube is full of tons of such videos about commuters making it to Ladakh. I don’t know if I am going to Ladakh on this any time soon. But I have owned such bikes as the mighty Thunderbird 500 and I have no shame in admitting that this baby commuter – the Honda Shine 125 – puts as wide a grin on my face as the TBird did.

Happy Riding!