To Siddhartha From Siddharth

Dear Sir,

You are doing your best to thrill the patrons of your legendary motorcycles. Appreciate that. But you know what, your 'doing your best' is still traumatic for many of the fans. Are you even aware of that? Are you listening? We can only hope so.

You know how many (if not all) RE owners feel about RE motorcycles. They feel like a doting mother who knows very well that her child is an incorrigibly gone case but still loves him and feels hopelessly proud (even if there's no reason to) coz there's no other option.

Should you want to dig deeper and know a little more, urge to go to this link.

Not-so-royal experience @ Royal Enfield

Just came back from the Royal Enfield Bandra showroom. Went there to collect my refund cheque against cancellation of my booking made way back on 23rd Dec '09 for a Classic 350.

The showroom manager's smiling. His assistant's also smiling. Proudly (might say arrogantly too) announcing that the booking for 350 has been stalled for the moment and that the waiting period for a new booking is 8 months!!!

Downright pathetic. The guys have gone mad.

First, it's no happy moment that a customer is canceling his purchase no matter the high demand.

Second, it's no laughing matter that the waiting period is 8 months; it just tells us that you (the brand) don't care much about the customers.

Third, Classic 350 and the new engine converted quite a few non-Bulleteers into going for a Bullet. But that's just half the job done. If your service still sucks (like it did earlier), the same guys might turn their backs to you pretty soon.

Fourth, the company can't hold money like this and ask the person who made the booking to come and collect the money from the showroom. The least they could do is respect the customer, respect his time and the faith he put in you, apologize for inconvenience and try to make up in some form.

Sure there's only one Royal Enfield. And scarcity often leads to a favorable impression of the brand but guess they are stretching the loyalists much too far and far too often.

I can go on and on about my disappointment but the folks at Royal Enfield might not listen. Royal Arrogance or Royal Lapses sounds better.

Fastest Indian status for the P220 might be shortlived

If this piece of information is anything to go by, then Bajaj is gonna have a headache selling Pulsars. It says:

Next month, Yamaha Motor will launch an upgraded model of Fazer that, sources familiar with the developments said, would be able to do 150 km an hour. The company’s R15, currently on sale, can attain a top speed of 140 km/hour without the performance-boosting kit, and sources said the new Fazer would easily cross that. (read more here)

So if fast is what you are looking for, postpone your purchases.

Another red beauty - Yamaha Fazer

Another beauty from Yamaha. The touring machine.

Indeed, people will compare it with FZ16 itself (coz of the obvious similarities), Pulsar 220 & Karizma (for the nearness in prices and some lack of power). Pulsar220 may be the fastest India-made bike but there have been concerns about its reliability, refinement and comfort. Karizma is good but an old horse.

Yep, I know what you are thinking. Am not saying it's an easy choice. Go for it if you want style, refinement, and stability, and if you are not thrilled by some risky racy antics on the highways. Even so, this bike has awesome torque and won't disappoint. Touring spirit undoudtedly! Yes! Yamaha.

Yamaha R15 - nothing less than exhilarating

It's a sort-of review. Late one but adding to the positive ones and countering the detractors of this bike :).

For people familiar with Mumbai, my ride was about 25kms long from Bandra to Powai. Usually this road is choc-a-block with commuter coming back from office but today being a Saturday the road wasn't exactly empty but not really crowded and that made for a perfect test ride of my cousin's 2-week old R15.

Mind you I am not a stunt freak. Though am a motorcycling enthusiast and like to ride fast, I fear trying out any kind of stunts on my bike. I could even say that none of the bikes until now gave me the confidence to try any kind of stunt. May be it's the lack of feeling of good balance or sturdiness or any other factor but somehow I never got the confidence to try anything out on any motorcycle till date. I could even blame my own disposition. Perhaps my mindset has changed and unarguably am less fearful now than what I was a few years back.

So coming to the R15 ride. On a couple of traffic stops, when the light turned green I actually felt like I can jump off the mark and shoot ahead. Considering my conservative stance on stunts, it does say something about the confidence the bike instills in the rider after a little bit of riding.

I didn't go past 80km/hr but on Mumbai roads even 75km/hr speed feels like flying. And R15 makes it more exhilarating. On turns or while overtaking it feels so sure. There were a few stretches where I could enjoy the 6th gear - the bike really rides free in that gear. Braking is superb with disc brakes at the front and the rear working in perfect unison; indeed, you also need the timing right :). The gear changes are so crisp; at stops, changing to neutral was perfect. No false neutrals at all. That's Yamaha engineering.

Every biker I passed, at least paid a glance to the bike; without doubt it's a looker.

So the thing is, you can go on cribbing that Indian motorcycle makers aren't launching higher-end performance bikes and so on... The really high end bikes have already been launched and we know how many Indians can afford those bikes. So the thing is, no matter what anybody says, for an average motorcycling enthusiast who doesn't just vainly dream big and crib, Yamaha R15 comes as close to anything as sports motorcycling and, I should say, at a very reasonable price. It deserves every penny you pay of that 100 grands. You ride it, you'll know it.

Think of any other sports bike and you'll atleast have to pay double, nothing less. For e.g. Kawasaki Ninja 250R, it will cost you anything around INR 2.25 to 2.5. Got that kind of money? If yes, I would say go for it :); otherwise also no harm, R15 will give you as much thrill.

Good boy goes bad and we like it!

Suzuki stuns. Brings big guns to the market (they should've done it earlier though). That Red Hayabusa. 1340cc bike! Do I say more? You saw them in Dhoom and now you'll see them on the roads for sure. Find more about Hayabusa here.

That's not all. This one's also here. This is badder!!! :) The Intruder M1800R. Yup that's a whopping 1800cc!



I can't afford these. But they excite nonetheless. Would cost anywhere around 12-13 lacs.

Suzuki GS150R, Terrible

I won't get into the specs really. They are pretty similar to what we already have in the market. I will not even touch upon the marketing related issues here. However, I guess the one aspect where Suzuki really had a chance to make an impact was styling. My verdict: they've failed. GS150R might sound like it's in the league of R15, FZ16 and such, but that's the only similarity. Suzuki has continued to be rather conservative (to the extent of being archaic) in their styling. Heat, Zeus & GS150R. God save Suzuki. With the downturn showing its colors, Suzuki has quite a task on its hand.

Even the red isn't gorgeous. Side on, the bike looks similar to Unicorn with a bit of Hunk thrown in the front and Apache thrown at the rear. Thank you!