Yamaha R15 Review, Test Ride

Yamaha R15 Review “Yes, it looks good”. That’s what I said when I had gotten up close and personal with the previous modeled Yamaha R15 launched in 2009. It was the first true performance bike for Indian roads and, quite honestly, we had nothing else that was even good looking on a miniscule scale – even the Pulsar looked boring then. After a while, and after we rejoiced for a couple of months, we then started to notice the subtle negatives of the R15. Firstly, the seat was that of a commuter motorcycle, and the petite rear wheel was shocking, and on top of that the exhaust started to look really ugly, and the rear tyre was just too skinny. Okay! So now we were criticising this bike, which we had initially perceived to be brilliantly designed.

Don’t get me wrong, overall the bike looked good and it handled brilliantly and for a 150cc bike it was the best track tool, if not the only track tool, made available to the Indian biking enthusiast. But hey, it’s almost 2012 now and things have changed tremendously. Harley Davidson is here, Aprilia and Ducati are here and Honda has parted ways with its India partner and has offered us the CBR250R. We now frequently see some mean and devilish looking bikes on our crowded city streets which means that the original Yamaha R15 has lost its spark – almost completely.