Yamaha YZF R15 review: Why I decided not to buy the bike

Reviewed by Jiljith C.P

Ok, so I realized I don’t have the money to buy this bike: so I’m gonna say some not-so-good things about this bike.

The rear looks sad — and nobody likes a sad looking rear. The rear tyre is small. Period. It might give great grip but it would have been better if it had been big and given great grip. Come on, it’s a lakh 11— we expect big things! We need to make an impression too.

Split seats are a must for so called race bikes: race technology alone won’t do, race-looks are also necessary. Even the CBF-Stunner has split seats!

150cc, 17 bhp for a lakh 11 will make you a laughing stock while ripping off the traffic signals: not everybody races on the track. Even the 2 decade-old Rx100 I heard can make it close to 15bhp or so.

Not everybody goes on the track or ring road, then what about guys like me who have to spend a lot of time at RPMs below 4k? What if someone huge sits behind? With such low torque at these rpms, I’ll have to call for an extra tractor to haul us.

The bike does not ‘wow’ you at once,it takes it’s time to impress you — and this is not wholly acceptable: it should ‘wow’ at first and continue to do the same. It’s not cheap now, is it?

I forgot to mention about the suspension in my last review — yeah, it is really good; and seemed to self-adjust so that we can always maintain optimum balance: like some ghost was in the rear adjusting it all the time.

Yeah, the bike is awesome; has many awesome not-seen-before features but those willing to pay 1.1 should be willing to pay more and get all the more. If it were less than a lakh, we could overlook these factors; but now, the bike as a whole feels a little dim for the price.

If performance is your only criteria, then yes, it shines else - 

The bike is awesome; the package is not.