2012 Yamaha YZF-R15 Revealed for India

Yamaha unveiled an updated YZF-R15 for the Indian market featuring a R1- and R6-inspired facelift.

The original Yamaha R15 was released in India in 2008, representing market’s first premium sport bike. While other major manufacturers are now bringing their own premium models to the country, the early introduction gave Yamaha R15 a solid fan base and even a spec racing series.

For 2012, India Yamaha Motor has given the R15 a facelift and will be marketing the updated model as the Yamaha R15 Version 2.0.

Design updates include a redesigned layered fairing (Yamaha claims a 4% decrease in aerodynamic resistance), wider tires (90mm front and 130mm rear compared to the previous model’s 80mm and 100mm tires), split seat, redesigned tail with LED taillights.

Yamaha also updated the ECU but the engine remains a liquid-cooled 150cc Single with a claimed output of 16.8hp at 8500 rpm and 12.5 ft-lb. at 7500 rpm.

What does this mean for the North American market? Not much really, as the Yamaha R15 is only offered in India, Australia and Colombia. But with rivals offering low displacement sportbikes such as the Kawasaki Ninja 250R and the Honda CBR250R, fans of the tuning fork brand will have to look abroad to see what a similar product from Yamaha would look like.

[Source: India Yamaha Motor]

By Dennis Chung