And the winner is

Yes, it's the Business Standard Motoring Bike Of The Year Awards 2005!

When Honda launches a motorcycle, you expect it to be superlative, dominant, all-vanquishing and so forth, right? Wrong! We expected the Unicorn to grab the title "� you've gathered from the pic that it has won "� but it wasn't straightforward.

Bajaj's Discover proved hard to beat. It came so close to winning that the final tally separates the two by 9 points. On 500! The Unicorn scored on the subjective and performance parameters, but the Discover nearly won with its lower price and fuel economy, which together form a huge chunk of the scores to reflect Indian buying patterns.

First, we created a list of 2004's launches and then excised the paintjobs, variants, re-pricings and tweaks with a thick red pen. Star eliminations included the newly tweaked Pulsars, the re-decaled Hero Hondas and the Fiero FX. The new Nova 135 was counted as a variant, and that meant there was not going to be a Scooter Of The Year 2005 Award.

Our final four were the Bajaj Discover, Honda's Unicorn, the Graptor from LML and Yamaha's slick Fazer. At this point, the Kinetic Comet was pencilled into the evaluation ride "� did it deserve an award?

We mapped 250 km for the jury to experience the foursome at their best (and worst). The route took in a good highway stretch "� we expect 125cc machines and above to be highway capable "� before turning off into the Western Ghats.

The State Highway selected had twin benefits "� it was deserted and had a poor surface for 30 km. However, the rest of the 120-odd km was pure bliss "� fresh tarmac, sweeping corners and pretzel-tight hairpins. We're told the scenery was fantastic, but we were too busy to notice.

We rode the four bikes, switching regularly to get a feel for the motorcycle, on its own and ridden back-to-back with others.

It quickly became obvious that the Yamaha and LML weren't in the ballpark on performance and subjective parameters, but the Bajaj was in for a close battle with the Unicorn. However, when we finished the number crunching, the new Honda was our clear winner.

The Unicorn is a highly refined motorcycle, with a sparkling powertrain, decent looks and solid brand identity. It edged ahead of the Discover with its smooth and gutsy engine. With good scores on instrumentation and switchgear plus decent fuel economy and reasonable pricing, the Unicorn was always just slightly ahead.

What we liked about the bike, above all else, were the engine and gearbox. The 149cc motor is highly refined, unstresseable and responds gamely to the throttle. The gearbox is its great ally, with slick shifts all along the way. The Honda did receive criticism for its ultra-safe styling, missing starter motor and its damped but bouncy ride quality.

However, the Honda Unicorn is a cleverly engineered, well-built, all-round performer of a motorcycle. It's built to a price and a specification, and is superbly suited to the role it is designed for.

Congratulations Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, it's time to celebrate!