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BHPian R15M_Rider recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Hi All!
Having been an 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 a introverty 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 :
On test ride, one very, very important factor came into picture and today after being fairly been 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, which 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 was an argument amongst ourselves whether to pick 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 definitely having falling 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 color for the R15 V4 and since the bike was readily available, registration and delivery only took 3-4 days since booking.
Upon delivery, my dad asked my bro to thoroughly do practice runs on the bikes for 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 an YZF R15 V4. As expected, on the very first day, there were number of cutoffs on clutch release. But soon as the days pass, 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, why people are so obsessed and passionate about motorcycles.
My brother's R15 V4 in racing Blue:
Few months pass, and having raked up enough funds, it was time for me to own one for myself. On my birthday, 13th Oct 2022, I booked an 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, 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 a start of a continuing journey of my "baby R1" as many on this forum refer to. Over a year and still feels like its the first time everyday I go for a ride.
The first photograph 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:
So, coming to the Pros and Cons over a year of ownership:
Pros:
Cons:
The dreaded light showing the inevitable thanks to a non-functional fan
Gauge Cluster:
Riding Gear :
until I switched to Dainese X-Moto Gloves image attached below. A bit overkill and expensive, but I tend to try and get the best wherever possible. With helmet and gloves being something I daily use
Riding Jacket- Rynox Helium GT 2 Jacket :
My General Usage Pattern:
Night & Rain Riding :
After a wet downpour ride in the monsoon:
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 there are people who use handle-bar 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 really is not a big deal to get used to the committed ergonomics. Just requires sometime, persistence and you won't regret it. Same goes for exhausts, though this is subjective, for me atleast stock exhausts sound the sweetest and especially for a single cylinder bike, louder exhausts really 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 atleast, high performance motorcycles make a bit more sense than a high end car, 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, its the only motorcycle I have ever ridden and I am very young in the motorcycle scene, but maybe its the magic of Yamaha. The last Yamaha in my family was the legendary RX100 in the early 2000s, and its no surprise the R15s are considered to be next great legend from Yamaha's stable. I honestly don't see myself ever moving on unless its something really special- R3 maybe one day ? Definitely 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 for everything.
Hope you had fun going through my first ever automobile / motorcycle review! Signing off with few more photographs of this incredible machine below.
Thanks & Safe Riding!
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