Hero still is a market leader in term of sales..no matter if Honda is with them or not..Company like HMC won't go down just because of a dispute with one partner..they have more than enough money to buy different tech's or open their own R&D,which is happening now a days..so I think that Hero will go up from this situation rather than losing its way only because Honda won't be here from 2014..

among Hero's stable CBZ is a hottest buy & Hunk follows it..Impulse is still in doubts if HMC will continue this product or not but as of now there's NO news on street level that it'll get discontinued..still precautions are better than repenting later..

go for FZ/CBZ/Hunk..any of them & they'll serve you better..

But i am sure Hero won't be the same or over Honda in tech any given day!! Even after latching up with "Erik Buell Racing" They are still in process of setting up R&D not yet set up completely!!
Sales numbers matters to people who look for low budget bikes and affordable SVC. But i would look to better tech/advance tech and durability/reliability

Hero should not even think about of competing with Honda,instead focus on the current lineup as of now & bring some revolutionary product after sometime along with their new partner & R&D Team..HMC's products are still very reliable/durable..