R15: the bike that will help biking

Ever since its launch on the 11^th of June 2008, the R15 has been a target of appreciation as well by criticism all across the biking community. The appreciation has been for all the appropriate reasons, but the criticism is something that needs clarification.

The most common crib-factor that the bike has attracted is the 1-lakh INR price tag for a 150cc motor. What people don’t understand here is fact that the sheer cubic capacity is a factor that should not judge a bike’s performance and more so, the price. There is much more to a bike than just the engine capacity and it’s the overall package that matters and not the tech specs alone.

The R15, to start off, boasts of an engine that is made using high quality materials and better technology to handle the rev-happy nature of a performance enthusiast. The people around various forums and communities who claim to have dragged higher capacity competitors like the P220 and the Zma against the R15 and won are in utter misconception. If dragging skills were to be bragged about, then launch the bikes as if you were heading for a real professional drag. If you expect a 150cc bike to deliver as much low end grunt as a higher capacity vehicle, then its stupid. A drag launch means dumping the clutch close to the peak power of the bike in a way that revs remain at peak power when you start rolling. In the case of the R15, the clutch should be dumped close to 8,000 rpm to get the horses running the way they are meant to. A well versed dragger will definitely be able to pull it off against the 220 or the Zma. In a way, the R15 teaches its rider how to launch a bike from a racer’s perspective – at a power surge that is easy enough for even a newbie to control.Coming down to the chassis, the Dletabox frame is a heaven in its own right. It helps the bike achieve mass centralization in a way that the bike becomes track friendly in all respects. The handling for one, inspires the rider to start transferring his weight off the bike and get his knee down like a racer. The footpegs, though higher, follow a race-friendly posture and inspires the rider to go faster through the corners at a speed that can still give you some room for error depending on specific scenarios. With peak power coming high up the rev range, its gives the rider plenty of throttle room to play around with and in turn encourages the rider to learn throttle control while cornering. Braking too is top notch and gives you a smooth a gradual front brake feedback unlike the sudden on-off style feedback seen on the other Indian performance bikes.

While riding on the street, various supersport inspired bits like the low clip-ons, wide aerodynamic front fairing, high-mount rearsets, and a low seating, all on a 150cc package will give the budding bikers a perfect way to train themselves for the actual supersport bikes. It will train them to be able to maneuver such bikes better through traffic once they get used to such a riding posture. It will train them how to maintain (DIY) important bits like the radiator, electronics, dry-cell batteries, exposed chain etc. All this may sound too childish right now, but most on the newbies that I have seen on bigger bikes cant handle the bikes mainly because of the ‘weird’ riding posture, the ‘weird’ turning radius and the lack of throttle control.

The R15 is definitely the bike that will single handedly teach the newcomers all these factors. From drag launches and knee-downs to getting accustomed to the small bits which magnify once the riders graduate to bigger monsters. And the 15 does all this in a very forgiving manner – giving the rider a lot of scope for improvement. So does that mean that only newbies should buy the R15 so that they can learn a lot?

No. Even bikers who call themselves experienced, thanks to their 220s and Zmas have a something big to learn. If the rider has the ability to push the 220/223 to its limit, then the R15 teaches you how to ride harder. As I mentioned earlier, the power is developed way up the rev range. Riders who have got used to opening the throttle of the 220/223, will find it much easier to open the R15 throttle completely and exploit every bit of power from the 150cc mill. On a similar day, under similar conditions, the same rider can go atleast 10km/h faster through the corners on the R15, provided he has mastered the 220/223. Both these bikes on the other hand offer a quite relaxed seating, however, the R15 puts you into a track racing kinda posture. For a rev happy rider, this posture will train him/her for high end throttle control. This ‘getting used to’ is of utmost importance if the rider decides to upgrade to a 600cc and wishes to ride it hard than just pose around.

After all, the R15 is a performance bike and an outright premium product. If offers a much higher bang for the buck from its ‘puny’ 150cc motor, producing 17PS of power, than a 220/223cc motor producing 19PS. For any performance geek, weight lost is horsepower gained (this bit is not for engineers!), so the 131kg weight surely works in your favor. Its got the looks to match the performance too. So people who just love posing around don’t need to buy a Karizma and put on a sloppy fairing on it to make it look hap. The R15 gives you best of both the worlds and the 150cc barrier that everyone is cribbing about is nothing but a mind game. The bike’s potential and the sheer ability to teach its rider so many various aspects of performance is in itself a boon to prospective bikers. With 3,500 R15s already out on the road within 2 months of launch, we are sure the bike will end up creating atleast half its riders into responsible ‘sportriders’ in the time to come.