Yamaha R15 Version 3.0 – First Impressions

The Yamaha R15 saw the light of day in India about 10 years from today and in September 2011, the v2.0, was launched in India. While the motorcycle enjoys its fair share of fandom in the form of novice and amatuer atheletes, it is mostly found in the garages of speed demons who are looking forward to unmatched performance and handling or those who want a bike that is NOT the competition. With its “high chair” seating for the pillion, the Yamaha R15 wasn’t really a hot favorite among them however a sure hit with the college lasses who digged high performance motorcycles.

Today at an event organised by Yamaha Motor India, we got an opportunity to brush sliders (see picture above) and lean in on corners better than what we are otherwise capable off. Giving it a go on the the race track today were two motorcyclists who are novice level riders when it comes to riding on track and who otherwise are akin to the tarmac, concrete and dust roads wherever it may lead them to. What are we trying to establish here? For our comrades who have spent comparatively a considerable amount of time on the circuit all they would have required was to close their eyes and listen to that deep mellowed down voice of the machine. In our case, we needed to keep all senses open and ensure we completed the session on schedule, well that is what we would have thought so at first. While one had slipped into his comfort zone sooner, the other was ensuring that he didn’t blink…

Keeping a tab on the “racing lines” was all that was required in terms of technique and the Metzler rear tyres that held onto the track while we managed to top the motorcycle out at about 110 kmph or so. Given an all new motorcycle all these features that are already spoken about, suffice to say this is an all new motorcycle which seemed to have found place not only in our hearts but in that imaginary space of our garages too!

In two words – YES YAMAHA!