Too hot , yet too forgiving :-)
The thought of second bike may sound infidel to avid bike lover who already has a great bike. But then, I mean no offence to the one I used to ride. Its just that, I want to move on to something more exciting. I am glad it isnt as complicated as a marriage. The bike, is definitely very very personal topic for me. So you may ask, why this thought now?
In 2008 Yam came up with a new bike, in fact 2. The FZ and the r15. By looks, I ve to admit, I was floored by the FZ to begin with. The tag of a lac for a bike then seemed too far fetched for me , besides the looks of the R15 , read( R One Five) puhleezz, atleast the rear tyre of it did not impress me at all. As time passed and I learnt more about the bike, I wondered why Yam would wanna have a bike with that price tag at all? It wasnt until my last few months , that I am convinced its priced very fairly indeed. Here are few tech pointers-
1.17 PS of refined(very refined if i may say) power.
2.Twin discs , which gives it the best braking I ve ever experienced. Be adviced not to tail babe with your normal disc + drum combo for both yours and my safety:-P.On a lighter not,she just allows liberty of time to out the gorgeous looking faces around ;-). Just too forgiving :-).
3.Rock steady grips on the road which results in amazing handling, which of course even my current bike is good at. :-). But combined with the weight this ones a dream.
4.Electronic fuel injection does away with choke starts, which is kind of religious with my current bike, every morning as a practise.
5.Mono chross suspension, something that lacks in my current bike. I hate HH for doing that to my bike while its parent had it.
6. It is the only bike in the current set of so called premium segment bikes, barring the sbk's , that has liquid cooling.Now for some aesthetic pointers-
1. Absolutely gorgeous console, i just fell in love with it the first time i saw it fire up the ignition.. XoXo..
2. Agressive seating posture, a break away from our traditional bikes. For me, its a more closer to the bike posture. On a romantic note, you may say that its like leaning on to your GF as if you were to kiss her :-P.
3.Its not a very heavy machine afterall. All it weights is 120kg dry or 131 with fuel. Thats atleast 10 kilo's less than my current bike.:-O.
Few skeptical points-
1. The R15 simply doesnt like going through bumper to bumper traffic. If you can handle her well enough, you can manage not to heat her up, but more chances that you feel the radiator fan rotating in such cases and feel the temperature rise along your rightinner thigh.
2. Touring without proper troubleshooting knowledge on this bike can be disasterous since its hard to find a mech to be doing any repair on any remote places not that the bike ll break down all of a sudden.
To top it all, it comes from Yam stable,who have manufactured legendary bikes like the rd350,rx100,rx135,rxg which are still craved for.If not the emission norms, which I think is also very important, Yam would ve been ruling the roost in performance biking in india.Yam has no one but itself to be blamed by trying to produce the aam aadmi bikes,which is more like trying to act like a cow , when they are actually a raging bull. After a forgettable decade or so, they are back, and how!
The mileage of the R15, I ve known it to be 35 or above under normal riding conditions. Now match this with 30+ that a 223 cc bike gives with as much power as the r15.The top speed, it can clock in excess of 140 with more to come.I ve touched 130 already with the few stretches of empty roads that are rare on the ORR. The power/weight ratio is a killer :-).
