I won't dwell much on the other candidates.
The GS150R was recommended by a colleague, but Suzuki has the Honda attitude, without the sales ...
The Hero bikes with derivatives of the Unicorn engine weren't considered; none apart from the Extreme appealed to me, & none justified being priced more than the Unicorn. I actually didn't test-drive any of them after seeing the Karizma ...
I didn't even bother with Bajaj; the experience people I know have had with Bajaj has been machines that might be good to ride, but aren't long-lived (almost on purpose so that another Bajaj can be sold); I know of exceptions too with longer-lived Pulsars, but it wasn't common ...
If its height isn't an issue, the Apache RTR 160 is a sweet deal of a mean machine. But I felt it was too short for me & only half-heartedly enquired about it ...
I had never ever thought of considering a Yamaha. I had alteast 1 eye on F.E
![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png)
!
I was just looking to avoid the almost-150kg bikes. Leaving out Bajaj & TVS, there was only Yamaha. People I know vouched for Yamaha bike quality & decent service. Hopefully they are right.
I felt the FZ wasn't that pillion-friendly & were very petrol-pump-friendly, so I had to let it go out of the picture. Ditto the Fazer (I was just about OK with the looks, not a fan anyway). The R15 was anyway too expensive & F.I to boot, the maintainence of which I wasn't comfortable with.
The SZ was a very different proposition altogether. At almost 10K lesser on-road price than the FZ, it wasn't that expensive. At 153cc, it quoted a very modest 12.8 bhp when others quote 14+bhp. Internet opinion of its top-speed was just over 100kmph. Is it a Yamaha
![EEK!](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/eek.png)
?
Thankfully there were other un-Yahama points too. With max.torque kicking in at 4500rpm, low-gearing just like the LML Freedom & the rear tyre being a modest but sane 100/90, it looked better prepared & less petrol-pump-friendly on a commute than the FZ (losing out a little on highway kicks). And at 134 kgs, it wasn't that heavy.
It looked quite convincing.
The whole feel you get when you step into a Yamaha showroom is that its all about motorbikes! Not about F.E, cost of ownership, resale value, number of service centres ... about motorbikes. That actually might have had more of an impact on my decision than anything else.
The salesperson was cordial & filled me in a few details on the bikes. I went for the SZ straight-away & took a test-ride. The test bike was decently maintained. The test-ride was very short, maybe a couple of hundred metres. I couldn't find a comfortable posture until a second test-ride.
The first thing I realized was that the torque numbers & gearing translated into terrific in-gear response! I later read about it elsewhere on the Internet too; it was great to be able to ride at 2500rpm+ in any gear without knocking. Engine response is very linear & all the revs I could build up made their presense felt. Acceleration was smooth, convincing but not thrilling. The bike was very agile & hassle-free to maneuovre. The seat was great, well-cushioned and resulting in a good posture - not entirely upright but leaning forward just a little bit. Pillion comfort was good too. The suspension did a very good job to taking the edge off road imperfections.
The main drawbacks I felt were a slightly "loose" feel to the engine (I was used to the "tightness" of Hero Honda engines, which was matched by LML) & the switchgear which was good quality but lacking for someone used to LML's complete switchgear - the SZ has no engine-kill switch, no pass-light flasher. Colour options were meagre & I went for the only non-black, non-red colour - a dark blue officially called 'Deep Purple'.
The purchase & delivery experience was good but not great. While they had somebody to buy my LML & handled the transactions smoothly, they were a bit opportunistic with the timing of the delivery. All along they had agreed to delivering the bike on Ganesh Chaturthi, but the day my cheque amount landed in their account, Ganesh Chaturthi was "suddenly declared a holiday"! I compromised, but just wrangled the delivery out of them immediately.
Next up - some pics & a not-so-great-but-improving ownership experience.
The only servicable pic I have ... am no great shakes as a photographer anyway.