Yamaha YZF R15 Specifications Modify Modification 150CC

Brake lights take a new meaning on the race track. On the road, you would want to decelerate the moment the bright red LED flashes on the Yamaha YZF R15 bike ahead of you, but while taking a tricky corner on a race track, the converse is true. It’s about waiting a bit more-before squeezing the lever. The ability to brake late;’dip into a corner with elegance and accelerate hard out of the apex as early as possible is usually the difference between a good and a not-so-good racer. Apart from the skill, it’s imperative that the Yamaha YZF R15 bike that you have between your loins supports your bravery, or it won’t take long before a courageous soul turns into dead meat. The RrS supports the fearle rider, and like no other Yamaha YZF R15 bike available today!

The link type, rising rate Monocross suspension of the Yamaha R15 has been extremely well tuned to facilitate superior r holding without having to compromise on t’ ride quality. The link-type mono suspension makes sure that the forces acting on the damping unit are manipulated through decreased leverage to make the suspension become stiffer as the forces working on it ge~ more vicious. Effectively, the arrangement works incrementally to prevent the suspensi from bottoming out when it gets loaded, ensuring great composure around corners and reliable road contact. The advantages of this bit of machinery are evident when you are holding the machine by its neck, powering it around corners on the track. The ease and elegance with which this Yamaha YZF R15 bike leans down and gets up again to change directions is amazing to say the least. The front suspension is equally well sorted and doesn’t dip precariously under braking. The Yamaha R15, as Aspi and I discovered after circling around the Madras Motor Sport Club race track for about 30 laps, is the best mass produced track tool available in India. The delightful link type mono suspension is supported in the handling department by the superb Deltabox frame that offers great longitudinal, lateral and torsional rigidity.

While the chassis and suspension are brilliantly sorted out, what took the cake for us, owing to their Indian connection, were the superb 80/90-17 inch front and 100/80-17 inch rear MRF Zapper IT and Zapper S tyres. Yamaha have developed these tyres exclusively with MRF, based on the testing data they acquired at the Sugo circuit in Japan. Yamaha didn’t want to compromise on grip and they didn’t want to use meaty tyres either, as it would have eaten into the performance of the bike. So they custom built these new soft compound tyres in association with MRF to equip the Yamaha YZF R15 bike with superior traction, without making the acceleration and top speed suffer. Even under hard braking, the skinny looking front rubber defies is diminutive width by providing loads of grip and assurance.

This superb trio of the link type mono suspension, Deltabox frame and gluey new Zapper rubber has been mated with an equally wonderful 149.8cc, 17PS liquid-cooled engine to create a peerless riding experience. The synergy makes itself evident by giving the rider a feedback that tells him exactly what is happening between the Yamaha YZF R15 bike and the road. You know when you’ve reached the limit while pushing the bike, and should we say, you have to go quite some distance before you get there. The R1S is an immensely forgiving machine and lets you correct your line mid-corner if you’ve committed a mistake while approaching or entering it.

By the looks of it, the YZFYamaha R15 appears to be a difficult machine to ride, what with its full fairing and an extremely sporty stance. Swing a leg over it and you’re in for a pleasant surprise. The riding position is comfy and relaxing. It’s adequately sporty without being uncomfortable or cramping. As admitted by the bike’s Japanese development team and in particular the project head, Takayoshi Mizuno, Yamaha didn’t want to lose sight of rider comfort while still aiming to provide a reasonably sporty riding position to allow for spirited cornering. The seat-foorpeg-handlebar position distributes the weight of the rider equally on the machine to facilitate a fatigue free, yet exciting riding experience. Dab the electric starter button and the tacho needle swings energetically towards its right, before settling on to a relatively high 1200­ 1400rpm mark – hinting at the revvy character of the engine. The tacho dial has 12000 as its final marking and is redlined at IOsoorpm. The peak power of 17PS is produced at 8soorpm and the peak torque of IsNm kicks in at 7soorpm. The S7 x s8.7mm engine is mildly under square and unlike most of those high revving mills, has a slightly longer stroke than bore. Fuel supply is through an electronic fuel injection system and the ignition system is a Tel unit.

Wring the throttle and the exhaust emanates a muffled sound – no sweet music here, thanks to the emission norms. But slot the Yamaha YZF R15 bike into first gear and it lurches forward with an urgency that’s quite uncharacteristic of any other I50CC Yamaha YZF R15 bike in the market. And even though we didn’t carry any data logging gear with us, we’re quite sure that the Yamaha YZF R15 bike will match the bigger nocc boys in terms of acceleration. Expect a 0-60km/h sprint to happen somewhere in the region of 4.5-5 sec. This is guesswork, but there’s no doubting that this machine is quick.

Shifting through gears reveals that the spread of power has been fabricated to provide sufficient grunt to trundle through the lethargic city traffic without any real issues. We tried pulling the Yamaha YZF R15 bike in sixth gear from as low as :woorpm at 20-25km/h and the engine didn’t lose its breath. Of course, it was not pulling convincingly at that rpm but it wasn’t really spluttering either. We’re sure the Yamaha YZF R15 bike won’t be a hassle to ride in the stop-start city traffic at all, though how practical it eventually turns out to be in real life is something we’ll be able to honestly comment upon only when we get the Yamaha YZF R15 bike for a thorough road test.

While survival power and torque is available at the bottom of the pile, the power really starts building up nicely only once you’re past 5500­ 6000rpm, after which the tacho needle just leaps towards the I0500rpm redline. It’s easy to hit the limiter often as the engine doesn’t mind being revved hard at all. Third was the lowest gear I shifted in, even around the tighter corners. There always was enough power on tap to slow down considerably and accelerate out reassuringly without having to shift down any further. The Chennai race track doesn’t have a very long straight, which meant that it wasn’t a wise thing to use the sixth gear. But Aspi registered a top speed of a very healthy I28km/h on the speedo in the fifth gear. With one more gear to go, this Yamaha YZF R15 bike seemed very capable of hitting the 140km/h on the speedo on a long straight aided by a slight tailwind and the rider properly crouched in. The engine performance, most definitely, is at par with the bigger 220CC bikes, whether the Yamaha YZF R15 bike manages to outclass its bigger counterparts will be clear only when we bolt our data acquiring gear on it and let the figures do the talking.

Apart from the sprightly performance, the new Yamaha is capable of winning over fans by virtue of its looks alone. We’ve seen the Yamaha YZF R15 bike for long enough now to appreciate every detail of its fully faired structure. One very interesting detail that we came across while inspecting the Yamaha YZF R15 bike is that the heat shield and the end cap on the exhaust are made of plastic. We are sure the material provides better heat insulation than metal, just that we don’t want to see it melting or cracking with time. The only visual letdown is probably the tyres which, had they been wider, would have made the Yamaha YZF R15 bike look aesthetically even more appealing. However, Yamaha India has made sure that the MRF rubber they have developed for the Yamaha YZF R15 bike provides more than adequate grip and is functionally the best option for the job. Without doubt, theYamaha R15 is the most stunning looking Indian made Yamaha YZF R15 bike around today and the fact will help Yamaha attain the targeted 25,000 sales units between June to December 2008.

Yamaha are claiming a fuel efficiency figure of about 35-38kmpl even with some spirited riding. We think, these numbers are fair enough for a Yamaha YZF R15 bike as fast and fun as the Rr5, and it won’t be a deterrent in buyers’ decision to shell out the money for it. At Rs 97,000 ex­ showroom, India, theYamaha R15 most definitely is an expensive bike. It’s substantially more costly than the bikes it intends to compete against. But then, it has the technology, the looks and most importantly the performance to justify that price tag. We’re sure that there are a whole lot of enthusiasts who’ve been saving up for this machine ever since it was introduced at the Auto Expo. And after having ridden the Yamaha YZF R15 bike exhaustively, we can assure all these friends that if they go in for the Yamaha R15, it’ll be money well spent. Yamaha are back to where they belong, and this time, they have a winner at hand.

Tags: apex, aspi, bravery, composure, converse, courageous soul, dead meat, elegance, front suspension, india, laps, led flashes, leverage, loins, madras, motor sport club, rrs, Supe, suspensi, yamaha r15