I confess that I love:
Being ogled at while waiting
for lights to turn green
Fielding queries from massed onlookers
Pushing dream bikes to their limits
Blasting past slowpokes
Hoiking the front wheel
Scraping a knee around corners
And most of all
Cleaning a violently scraped knee slider
Blame it on being a motorcycle journo but I do feel like a rock star doing what I’m asked to in the line of duty. This year a lot has been asked of me. Like riding the Yamaha YZF-R1 from Pune to Bangalore. And back. Riding the Ducati Monster. Testing the plethora of bikes launched this year that for the most part have been rather fast and flashy. Thank the lord that our manufacturers have finally shed the shackles of the 100cc econo-commuter syndrome and that includes the Japanese. The one making the biggest headlines though is a newly revitalised Yamaha, a company that has finally returned to its roots, performance biking.
In the wake of the stunning YZF-R15, Yamaha has now launched the equally stunning FZ. Hugely inspired by the big naked Yamaha FZ1, the FZ16 is a bike that was until recently a pipe dream for Indian bikers. Just look at it! Mean, aggressive and pure muscle, the bike redefines what 150cc bikes should (or could) look like. It’s clearly redefined every styling rule in this segment - when the Pulsar was first launched we went into a frenzy and thought things couldn’t get better. Ditto with the Apache - there couldn’t possibly be any way to make a 150 look meatier or sportier. But Yamaha has done just that. Seriously, this is a bike you could pluck from your neighbourhood Yamaha showroom, plonk it in Paris and she’ll look at home. Of course being only a 150 she’ll struggle to keep pace with bikes out there but her styling will turn heads anywhere. Then there’s the smooth and potent powerplant allied to a super handling chassis that, out here in India, is good enough to kill everything else in her class. At least that’s what we thought during our initial riding impression in Goa. But now is the time for her to prove her mettle against the best of the 150cc bikes, on roads around Pune that we know will stretch these bikes to the limit.
To the competition then. Barring the YZF-R15, which shares little with the 150s except engine capacity, this segment has seen no all-new offerings, the Hero Honda Hunk and TVS Apache RTR being upgrades of existing bikes. The Hunk shares internals with the Hero Honda CBZ X-treme (and Honda Unicorn) and is by far the best-looking Hero Honda in a while. Big, relaxed and quick, the Hunk is a jack-of-all-trades. With great fit and finish and bulletproof reliability synonymous with the Hero Honda brand as its USP, the Hunk must rate among FZ’s prime rivals. But it’s our reigning champ, the Apache RTR that the FZ really needs to beat to claim the win. Since its launch, the TVS has been the closest one can get to a race bike for the road. Endowed with a revvy engine, edgy looks and sporty ergonomics, the Apache is the most focused bike of the lot. No surprise, it has hovered in the FZ16’s sights all through the development stage. |
