I ask all the serious bikers out there, when was the last time you were really excited for an upcoming bike? If you are a 70’s or 80’s kid, like yours truly, then you have more options to remember. So was it the legendary Yamaha RD350 or any of those delicious two stroke machines from the era gone by? Or are you from the times when the CBZ (and later the Karizma and Pulsar 180) were among the ‘must have’ machines?
There’s not a shade of doubt that why these bikes were bought in large numbers by the performance hungry crowd in India. The kind of performance they provided at those times was as good as it could have got. And although India was quick to get a lot many more bikes towards the advent of the new millennium, none of them were able to create the same fan following as these aforementioned bikes did.
Around 2007, Indian Motorcycle industry showed phenomenal growth, with bike aficionados growing in number. People started getting involved in track racing or stunting. TV shows like MTV Stunt Mania were being created to provide a proper platform for the daredevils on bikes. Things were good but we were still missing on some counts. While we did have bikes like the Karizma and the Pulsar 220, which were designed to an extent for comfortable touring, what everyone sorely missed was the availability of bikes dedicated to track racing.
Come Auto Expo 2008, and Yamaha brought a fire cracker of sorts in the guise of the R15. For a lot of time, the R15 was the ultimate track tool one could have bought, that is, without having to sell of a kidney or rob the local bank. Yamaha also introduced One make race series in 150cc class, where anyone interested in racing can come and race.
Time hardly stops for anyone and this holds true for motorcycles too. A brand should always act swiftly if they want to stay ahead of their competition. Yamaha did not do that and meanwhile, Bajaj brought the KTM Duke models to us.