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Yamaha R15M ownership review: How it ignited my interest in motorcycles

25th January 2024, 16:30 by Rahul Nagaraj

The last Yamaha in my family was the legendary RX100 in the early 2000s.

BHPian R15M_Rider recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi All!

Having been a silent observer of this esteemed forum for years, I finally found the right time to share something from my side. Apologies if I miss certain details, but I have tried including everything that came to my mind, as per guidelines shared by mods for reviews.

A little bit about me, till I got to experience R15, I was mostly an introverted rail enthusiast, particularly Indian Railways, and on the automobile side, I was more of a JDM fanatic- the Supras, Skyline GT-Rs and even some interest on sporty hatchbacks- VW Polo TSI in particular.

On the two-wheeler side, until 2022, I have only driven a 2017 Honda Dio scooter, right from my college days. We still own it and as usual, this being a Honda, true to the reputation was as reliable as anything 5 years + of ownership.

Booking, Delivery & Into The World Of Motorcycles

Fast forward to 2022, the need for a motorcycle for my younger brother grew for college commutes. As I mentioned earlier, I was never in the run to get one as I never felt the appeal even till this point. Both of us were new to geared motorcycle riding, having only driven scooters till this point. My brother had some practice on one of our neighbour's commuter bikes for a few weeks before the exploration for a new bike.

Options explored

Suzuki Gixxer 155 SF / 250 SF: Found it decent, lack of power was evident (but being a new rider, and not experienced much can't comment much on this). 250 SF was too fast it seems
Honda Hornet 160: Brakes were comparatively weaker compared to others.
Bajaj Pulsar NS200: Not sure about the flaws as I was only there for the above two test rides, probably my brother being a new rider, might have something to do with the clutch release and engine cut-off.
TVS Apache 160 4V: This was one of the considerations to get, no particular flaws to report on a test ride.
KTM Duke 200: Almost settled on this except for ground clearance, where he told me, he scrapped the bottom on a speed hump. Apart from this, he didn't like the exhaust note
Yamaha MT15, R15: Here is the interesting stuff, we went to Yamaha first itself, before even the 155 SF test ride, And as you would imagine, they didn't have a test ride vehicle at that time for the MT-15 (we weren't even considering the R15 at this point). We got a call later on after a couple of days that a test bike was available NOT for the MT-15, but one was available for the R15. And this call probably changed the decision entirely from the KTM Duke.

On a test ride, one very, very important factor came into the picture and today after being fairly experienced, it seems silly, but the major reason my bro opted for Yamaha was that the engine never cut off once despite the possibly improper clutch release due to lack of experience. I believe since the R15 was the only motorcycle in the segment that came with a slipper clutch at that point, it probably aided a little and made up for the lack of clutch control.

Soon we made our decision and decided to book the R15. Even now there is an argument amongst ourselves about whether to pick the MT-15 or the R15, mainly with the committed riding posture coming into the picture of the latter vs the relaxed riding posture of the former. My bro was having to fall for the absolutely beautiful R15 V4's design and who can blame him? But practically, one more safety feature on the R15 was the dual channel ABS compared to single channel ABS on the MT-15 (I guess currently MT-15 also gets dual channel ABS and TCS on par with the R15). We booked the racing blue colour for the R15 V4 and since the bike was readily available, registration and delivery only took 3-4 days after booking.

Upon delivery, my dad asked my bro to thoroughly do practice runs on the bikes for a few weeks before taking it for college commutes. Now this is where my first experience on a geared motorcycle comes into the picture. Yes, a guy who has never ridden/touched a single-geared bike and was not enthusiastic about motorbikes before (all the test rides before were done by my younger bro and my dad) was going to start his motorcycling journey on a YZF R15 V4. As expected, on the very first day, there were several cutoffs on clutch release. But as soon as the days passed, I got the hang of it. Gradually I was starting to see the light. The reason why so many people get hooked onto such tremendous machines is why people are so obsessed and passionate about motorcycles.

My brother's R15 V4 in racing Blue

A few months passed, and having raked up enough funds, it was time for me to own one for myself. On my birthday, 13th Oct 2022, I booked a Yamaha YZF-R15M in the beautiful metallic silver shade with the design borrowed from the R1M superbike from Bikerz Yamaha, Nandanam, Chennai. I was in a bit of a dilemma between the 60th Anniversary of Yamaha in MotorSports edition versus the silver R15M but eventually settled for classy silver. Once again, with the bike being readily available, got the delivery within 2-3 days of booking. Delivery Experience was decent, with nothing much to note. Both the bikes being available readily was indeed a bonus as there wasn't an abnormal waiting time. That would've made things a bit harder.

This marks the start of a continuing journey of my "baby R1" as many on this forum refer to. Over a year and still feels like it's the first time every day I go for a ride.

The first photograph was taken of the beast right of delivery and reaching home.

On-road pricing came around 2.34 L, which I believe is a pretty premium price tag for a 155cc motorcycle. But We will come to the pricing argument once we go through the other details.

Service Schedules:

1st service is at 1000 km, and thereafter 5000km, 7500km, and 10,000km and the next one for me scheduled as of now is at 14,000km / 9th Feb, whichever comes first.
First 3 services are free with only labor costs included. I am going to have my 4th service soon which will be paid one, will comment on the costs once done.
Overall the service cost ranged roughly from 2k to a max of 4.6k. The 3rd service involved a brake-pad replacement and a chain replacement due to worn out and rusting issues which pushed the price quite a bit.
Additionally, over almost two years of ownership, the radiator fans required replacing twice due to failure. I heard this is a common problem in the R15 V4 generation, if any of you have an idea about this, please let me know.

So, coming to the Pros and Cons over a year of ownership:

Pros:

An absolute gem of an engine. 155cc doesn't seem like a world of power, but the engineering that has gone into this, the refinement and when the VVA kicks in, that feel is in another league! The dual nature of the engine is a treat to experience and gives the best of both worlds- mileage and power. 18.4 BHP at 10K RPM and surge of power is best to be felt rather than explained.
The quick shifter is beautifully integrated. It's for up-shift only, but it does the job well. I found myself using it more often than I thought I would. Slip & Assist clutch helps new riders a lot as well. Butter is smooth and easy to operate.
The Design: Need I say more? Just look at it! I am damn sure this won't get old for a decade at least.
Handling: This above all is the biggest pro for this machine. The nimbleness, the forgiving nature, and the absolute razor-sharp precision on offer are nothing to complain about. The committed riding posture with clip-on handle bars though was painful initially, actually adds a world of value to the handling aspect. USD forks must be having a role too, but since I have never ridden a geared motorcycle apart from an R15M / R15 V4, I can't comment on this. High-speed stability is evident, have pushed up to 120 kph on an empty stretch of ECR for a brief period and no sign of strain/discomfort was observed.
Exhaust Note: IMO, this has one of the sweetest exhaust notes in this segment. Combined with the refinement, even at low speeds I love it so much!
Safety Features: Dual Channel ABS (I believe this is the most important feature on our roads of unpredictability) is always welcome. Coming to TCS, while it does seem unnecessary on such a low-cc bike, safety features are always welcome any day.
Build Quality: It's solid as expected. The quality of plastics used and overall fit and finish are good. While I have heard of rusting issues, personally while there are some areas of rust, namely in the tool section under the seat, I didn't face a huge problem despite being around 500m from the beach.

Cons:

Service has been a hit/miss. Quality of service varies from one location to another. Bikerz Nandanam seem to be good having experienced the past 2 services compared to others in Sky Motors Besant Nagar and Samyukth Motors, Mylapore
The radiator fan failure seems to be an issue with R15s. I have had it fail 2 times both in my and my bro's bike and required replacement. Stocks aren't always readily available so this can be an issue.
Stock indicators are halogen and are pretty weak and seem out of place from the rest of the motorcycle.
Battery drain if kept idle for more than a week happened once. This was caused by Yamaha Bluetooth Y-Connect. Once it was removed. issue hasn't occurred so far. I never cared for this feature anyway.
Pillion sits on another floor compared to the rider but this is a sports bike. It is typical of its character. But an important point to note is whether you ride alone most of the time or not.

Gauge Cluster:

It is an LCD unit (currently the R15M alone comes with a juicy TFT display, which looks amazing). It has probably all the information you require apart from the speedometer and rev-meter - Gear position, Coolant temp, average fuel economy, battery voltage etc.
Visibility is good too, under sunlight, nothing much to complain about.
It even has a track mode (just display, mechanically nothing changes) where RPM starts at 6000RPM, maybe one day, will drive on a track with this.

Riding Gear:

Helmet: I used to use a generic Vega Helmet for a year until I got myself an MT Hummer MIR :
Riding Gloves: Used a pair of Rynox Gravel Dualsport Gloves

My General Usage Pattern:

My daily usage consists of an office commute of 44 km of commute considering both to and fro. The committed riding position was indeed a bit uncomfortable at the beginning, but I soon got used to it and I don't feel the pain I used to have initially.
As far as long rides are concerned, I have done Chennai-Marakannam(Near Puducherry)-Chennai, a total of 246 km roughly and it was an absolute bliss of a ride. So long rides, are totally possible once you get used to it.

Night & Rain Riding:

While I do return from the office after the sun goes down, and most of my commutes are within the city limits with street lights, and on some occasions when they are off, I found the headlight range to be decent. For the size of the projector like LED in the middle, I felt it does well.
The stability of the bike while riding in a medium-heavy downpour is amazing. Thanks to the dual-channel ABS and other electronic aids, adding to the already forgiving and friendly nature of the R15, rain riding is a breeze as long as you stay within reasonable limits.

Accessories added:

Nothing much, only indicators have been changed to LED after one of the halogen indicators got damaged. Personally, not a huge fan of modifications apart from the indicators. Would like to keep it as stock as possible. I guess the present R15M comes with LED indicators as standard and a TFT display too.

Also, coming to modifications, I know some people use handlebar raisers to make things more comfortable. My Honest Opinion: DON'T, don't ruin the character of the bike. It is a sports bike. Treat it as such. So much engineering has gone into it to make this so friendly, forgiving and at the same time engaging and fun! It is not a big deal to get used to the committed ergonomics. Just requires some time and persistence and you won't regret it. The same goes for exhausts, though this is subjective, for me at least stock exhausts sound the sweetest and especially for a single-cylinder bike, louder exhausts don't make things better.

Conclusion:

All things considered, I am so grateful to have experienced this machine and it truly has changed my perspective on motorcycles and truly turned me into an enthusiast. In India at least, high-performance motorcycles make a bit more sense than high-end cars, so that's an additional bonus.

With over 12K on the odometer, honestly, the more I ride, the more I get the feeling that this is a keeper for life. I know, it's the only motorcycle I have ever ridden and I am very young in the motorcycle scene, but maybe it's the magic of Yamaha. The last Yamaha in my family was the legendary RX100 in the early 2000s, and it's no surprise the R15s are considered to be the next great legend from Yamaha's stable. I honestly don't see myself ever moving on unless it's something really special- R3 maybe one day? Japanese for sure.

Finally, I want to round off this review by saying, what Shumi from MotorInc described quite a few times. You don't ride the spec sheet. Who cares that it doesn't have a so-called feature a competitor has, who cares that the bike produces only 18.4 BHP and comes at almost 2.3 L on-road (I know pricing doesn't always make sense and it is not for everyone, but it must not be considered a dealbreaker always, if you can afford it, take a test ride and decide), what matters in the end is the experience. The grin on your face matters so much more than what reviews / opinions of others say, including mine. It applies to everything.

Hope you had fun going through my first-ever automobile/motorcycle review! Signing off with a few more photographs of this incredible machine below.