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!

Honda doesn't have anything better! Honda Unicorn yet again!

Or is it that I can't see the beauty?

Unimpressive from a company which boasts of amazing machines like CBRs, etc. Stunner looks better, I would say.















Even the red one doesn't shake me! Something's really really wrong.

Bullet Classic

No, no, no! No dream or photoshop job! That's the Classic Bullet unveiled at the Intermot 2008 in Germany. Here's another pic. My fascination with red is getting fuelled all the more... Have a look:





There's been no announcement about its launch in India but I sense that it's gonna be launched here as well and perhaps very very soon.

How many bikes would you like to own?

Yamaha FZ16 & my predictive analyses

And if one wasn't enough, Yamaha has another warrior in a different armor. Back in early January this year, just before the annual Motor Show in Delhi where two bikes - R15 and FZ16 - were displayed, I had analyzed the motorcycle market in India and suggested what TVS needed to do to really break the shackles and capture certain important segments. Of course, my basic assumption was that Yamaha would not wake up in time to grab the position it had left vacant for years together.

Irrespective, Yamaha ends up doing almost precisely as I had written on my other blog called fork-blog.blogspot.com (it's all about business and marketing strategy using the concepts of divergence and focus). And I am so glad about that. If I were to express the emotion, a motorcyclist is witnessing a second revival (the first was launch of Bajaj Pulsar) of performance motorcycling in the country.

That's FZ16 for you. The lord of the streets! Ravishing red!

R15 Red

In one of my earlier posts on 5th July '08, I had expressed a desire to see a red R15. And how soon does it come true :). Reason enough to plan for buying one soon.

The pic's from the Yamaha India website. Does look smashing, doesn't it?