The CBR 250R has blown a lot of the competition right out of the water. Honda's latest two wheeled offering has created quite the stir in the segment and that can only be a good thing for avid motorcyclists. Why? Well, the Honda has certainly sent a lot of the other manufacturers to the drawing board, furiously sketching their own products that will compete with the CBR 250R.
When the Yamaha R15 was launched in 2008, it was a path breaking motorcycle. A rev happy liquid cooled motor coupled with a deltabox super-handling frame along with some air-cutting body work resulted in a motorcycle that was every bit as racy as it looked.
Many in the industry thought that the sales of the R15 would stumble and fall, for it wasn't really a cheap motorcycle. But what happened silenced these critics, for the R15 sold in large numbers and still continues to do quite well. This just went on to prove that the Indian motorcyclist was fast maturing and now knew precisely what he (or she) wanted from a motorcycle.
Well, they have and we've seen spy shots of that motorcycle already! From what we have seen, the new R15 is remarkably similar in its lines to the R125 sold in Europe. The sit is now a split unit, with the pillion getting his own pad to ride on.
We expect the performance figures to be closer to the CBR's 25 bhp than the R15's current 17 bhp. We also reckon that the new R15 will sport a thicker rear tyre and why we say this is because the older skinnier rear rubber, though being tremendously sticky, was a turn off to many potential buyers. And we are sure Yamaha knows this as well.
Prices will be competitive, and we speculate the new R15 should come in at about Rs 1.6 lakh, ex-showroom. Expect the launch to be within this year itself.
