Yamaha R15 V3 Long Term Review
Aggressive yet efficient, practical but not for everyone; the Yamaha R15 is still the leader in the 150cc segment
As soon as the Yamaha R15 joined our MotorBeam long-term fleet everyone who rides to work was keen on swinging a leg over the version 3.0! As the safety norms had kicked-in and BS6 was gonna kick-in any moment we got the R15 V3 with dual-channel ABS. More than anyone, I was extremely happy as even for a short time, the R15 V3 was going be the perfect motorcycle to ride in really good weather.
[flickr size=”center” float=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbeam/49093257381/[/flickr]
The new face and LED headlights say a lot about this motorcycle
The styling of the Yamaha R15 V3 is sharp and with the racing blue colour, it does grab a good amount of attention. I had picked up the R15 at just 1750 kms on the odometer. It was a brand new bike and had a UP registration which got me worried as it would be a cop magnet. As I got it home, it did get a lot of attention from the cops but as I was in our riding gear they never stopped me. Surprisingly the FK-R signature jacket and gloves went very well with the R15’s colour scheme. The icing on the cake wasn’t just the dual-channel ABS, it was the rear Metzeler tyre. The R15 with stock MRF tyres would grip well but this Metzeler offered even better grip.
[flickr size=”center” float=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbeam/49092744833/[/flickr]
Horizontal all-digital cluster has the perfect position, it does not bother the field-of-vision
I started commuting every day on this and while I did that, the aggressive seating posture had two effects. I was always committed to riding it the way it should be ridden while my back would give up on any kind of bad surfaces. Taking a light-weight pillion was easy too and they could even see where I am going as they would sit quite high. The seating comfort wasn’t the best for the pillion and the lack of grab rails made it quite difficult at times. The bike felt front heavy with aggressive clip-ons and they would weigh up even more if I had a heavyweight pillion with me.
