Ok!! One crazy byk lover!!! And the secret for that shine?? I mean the painted parts??

Wash and wax
I use motomax liquid polish (started using it in my P220 days for 3 years) and the results were fine for me. And still using it. Got to buy a new one this week.

Wow, you have got a mini Yamaha showroom over there!!! And you have kept them all in the showroom condition as well.

A typical Yamaha lover

Re: Yamaha Ray

Hi. Just booked Ray today. Was looking for Activa. When called their showroom in Mumbai, was told to pay nearly 65k for white or black colour. They said I must take compulsory accessories if I want early delivery. Otherwise it retails at 58k and waiting for 3 months. Very callous attitude.
Had read your thread and so went to Yamaha, took test ride of Ray and paid full amount on the spot. 55k. Delivery time 4 days. Guys at the dealership were extremely nice, helpful. Entire colour range of Ray was displayed. What a difference compared to Honda! Got anodized guards, bike cover & teflon coating as complimentary.
I have FZ16 and so know of their excellent service. Have owned RX 100 twice earlier.
Thanks for a nice info. Encouraged me to make the purchase.

Re: Yamaha Ray

Congrats on your booking.
Completed my first service yesterday. Rs.215. Oil change only. Butter smooth now. Completely happy with this thing

Re: Yamaha Ray

Good to see that your Ray is doing nicely. I have booked Burgundy colour. Though White & Black were really nice. Well family choice prevails !
How do you find performance with pillion? Actually I am 82. With a pillion of around 60 kgs, hope Ray will cope up on flyovers.

Re: Yamaha Ray

Absolutely no problem. I have had stop go situations numerous times with my mom as pillion(read 70kg)on a hill like road, and it really performed great. No hassles. Perfect.

Re: Yamaha Ray

Thanks. Gives me a lot of confidence. Eagerly waiting for delivery.

Re: Yamaha Ray

Hi. Its been 14 days since delivery. Speedo reads 500. Had problem with shocks as on riding 10 kms I got backpain. So went to KamlaYamaha Borivali workshop. They replaced the rear shocks immediately. Back pain went away. Bike became smooth. I feel front shocks needs checking. Will go to them in a couple of days. Kept 40 kmph for first 150. Bike gave nearly 50 + FE. Been doing 50-60 kmph since then. Bike is silky smooth. Acceleration till 40-50 is very good. And its so flickable ! OMG ! Its like a sports bike ! You can flick it thru traffic any which way. So nimble. So light. After Enfield Desert Storm, this is fun!
I was also happy with ASC service. Yamaha service has always been good, since my days with RX100 going back to 1987. Just waiting to get run in period over. Will test the power n max speed. Will do a long highway run.

Safe riding.

Re: Yamaha Ray

Guys yamaha recalls 56k Rays to fix handlebars.. Please check with SVC immediately

Source: Times Of India ( Today's paper)

Sent from my MT11i using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Yamaha Ray

Got a call from the dealer yesterday itself informing about the change. They said they need a day to do it and the parts to be changed has already reached the service a week ago and was awaiting for official confirmation.

Re: Yamaha Ray

Got the handle changed few days back. I couldn't notice any difference in handling or anything. It is as it was after the change. But certainly felt the small vibrations on the handle were missing after the change. Overall a good work from Yamaha. Customers were given a gift and food to eat and coffee or tea too during the change. They didn't want the customers to get annoyed. Took approx. 35 mins for the job. We are allowed to watch the changing of the handle. Also got a registered post about the same. The Ray refresh campaign has supposedly ended on 2nd of this month.

Yamaha Ray Ownership Experiences



Introduction

"Sticker Job" on hearing those words what comes to your mind? Hero motors. Many companies do it but no one excelled in that like Hero motors. They do slight modifications and release a new bike every year or so. With so many bikes at across price range, the intention was to keep product line fresh and give people the option of choosing. If you think this is wrong, look at the growth of hero. "Sticker Job" is very helpful in plugging the hole in product line up.

Many companies has their own way of doing sticker job. Yamahas' way is to add a visor along with stickers and call it macho. Like Fz, Fzs, FZ16, Ray Z follows this glorious tradition in Yamaha and comes up as a "Male" centric scooter. So how do you turn something that's made for women into male centric? We the bikers would say add a bigger engine, increase the bore size, increase the bhp, increase the top end, add some sharp lines, split seat, higher Ground clearance, etc etc etc. Yamaha designers listened to all this and said "Yaaa We are gonna go with adding the visor and stickers and some checkered flag"! Lets see how does Yamahas' male centric scooter fair.

The Need

My father retired around 2 years ago and bought a Hero Super Splendor (add pro plus if needed) for riding in town. It was serving its purpose until my dad started getting too old for that shift. Constant shifting, bike weight (125kgs) and his slow riding style was making him prone to wobbling while riding. One day he got hit by a auto/car and luckily nothing happened. I decided that its time for him to move to gear-less scooter and went for scooter shopping.

Shopping

Took him to Honda showroom straight. As usual, the Honda sales person turned to be a arrogant bunch. Their attitude was "You were lucky to buy Honda. You are blessed so don't ask for test ride. While I was busy talking with others you shut up and take out the check book". My father, as a the polite one, didn't care much about these and started looking at the aviator disc brake version. It was good and all but priced at around 64k on road and additional accessories costing a bomb we decided to make it second choice.

Next stop, Hero. We went into the showroom and every sales men were busy as bee. Seeing us standing in door way, the supervisor in-charge of cash came running and helped us. I was very impressed with customer service. We went and looked at Maestro. With its matching mirrors and sharp lines, it was not offending any one. Enquired all the details and asked for a test ride and was politely refused. The supervisor gave some reason about having only one scooter, Saturday blah blah blah. I was Disappointed. Price was around 55k on road trichy.

We went to the nearby TVS showroom. On seeing Scooty pep, Scooty teenz, Scooty Streak and Wego parked side by side my father said "I am not buying girls scooter" and walked away.

Next stop Yamaha showroom. We went in afternoon. There was only three sales men. Service is average (service became good once we paid the amount). Looked at Ray Z. Even thought it was modern, I was not impressed with the sticker job. Asked for test ride and was refused. Collected price 56.5K on road and came out in 15 mins.

Lastly Suzuki showroom. For the first time saw sales girl in two wheeler show room . I immediately settled down and let her speak for 10 mins about Access and swish while my father was looking at the parked scooters. Access looked like Active in some angels. This was a proper 125cc scooter. This was the only showroom where they offered test ride and we refused. My father was not impressed at activaish looking scooter and we were already hungry so we left collecting price. 56xxx on road trichy.

Decision

My Uncle has a Ray. We went to his home and my father took a test ride in our uncle's Yamaha ray. After returning from the ride my father said we are buying Ray z. Confused I took a test ride in Ray. Rode for 10 kms and came and said "We will buy Ray Z tomorrow". Ray's ride changed our mind.

Design

After settling on Ray z, i started looking into the design of Ray. It was youth centric and modern. As Deepika padukone Ray has curves at right places at the right amount. Yamaha could have improved on this aspect for Ray Z but they played it on the safer side. Intelligent color design, visor and sticker job helps. Front light and Scooter Head reminds Dio but it can be ignored. New Plastic hand grab rail at the rear creates the illusion of longer scooter. Instrument console is from pre-digital era and basic. Fuel gauge does not even have reserve indicator (Scooter will switch off and on to indicate reserve).



Key hole does not have any security feature. Choke looks like a sore thumb. DO NOT put any coins in the front pockets. There is a possibility that the coins will go places where our hands cannot reach. One Grocery hook is present. Front foot rest design is good. It looks like, its been covered with mat. Space is at a premium at the front. Aviator has better space at the front. Back foot rest placement is only good if your pillion decides to hug you. Otherwise buy a outside footrest.

Steel rims does not scream "Male". Yamaha should have given black alloys. Steel rim looks and feels cheap. No color matching mirrors. Seat is good. Firm and contoured with dotted design. Feels good to sit in. But if some child sits at the front, the driver cannot move back due to contouring. Back is slim and sleek unlike all other scooters. Even though seating is higher than Aviator(Yes it is), anyone above 5.5 can place foot firmly on ground courtesy of lowest ground clearance (128 mm).

Fit and finish is of high quality. No panel gaps. No rattling. Plastic looks good but still cheap. Handles and break levers are average. Paint is above average. Vespa still rules here. Under seat storage is lowest in its segment.

Engine

A normal 113cc, 2 valve (vespa has 3), four stroke, air cooled, single cylinder engine. Power @ 7bhp lowest in its class and 8.1nm torque. Yamaha should have given 125cc engine. Transmission is V-belt automatic. 0-60 comes around 12 sec as per auto sites. Mileage 53 Kmpl as per Yamaha. I asked few customers who have came to service their Ray about mileage. The answers varied from 35 to 55 kmpl. Fuel tank is 5L and range is 250 kms.

Ride and Suspension

My initial impression of ride is based on Ray. When my uncle bought it for the first time I got a chance to ride it with my sister at the back. I didn't notice the ride at that time. Ray is powerful enough in the city. I weigh around 100 kgs and sister around 60 kgs. Ray pulled us both in some steep slope with ease. There was no strain on the engine. At that time the feeling was the ride could have been better.

Let me be very clear. Ray is not the quickest to reach 60. Its not the fastest to reach 20. But it is the most fun to ride scooter. During my second time, i.e after my dad told me we are buying it, I concentrated more on ride and suspension. I decide to take a long test ride. My ride was in state highway which include a very long over bridge, nice 'S' turns, rough roads and nice patches in between, very mild traffic (Sunday afternoon) and one signal. My uncles ray has already some kms so I decided to rip it if needed.

Immediately after leaving the house I reached the over bridge. I stopped the ray at the very beginning of the upward slop and opened the throttle. The ray was quick of the line and climbed the slope with ease. The engine was at peak rpm at all gears. It climbed the one km bridge like it was nothing. I was reaching 70/75 kmph at the peak. I kept the throttle open at the slope and immediately I was reaching 80. I braked hard at the very end of slope and stopped in 2 or 3 secs later. The brakes were good. Brakes would have been a bench mark if Yamaha had provided disc brakes.

After the bridge there was some curved road ahead. So I decided to test the cornering ability . I opened the throttle and kept the speed at 60. The suspension was very superior than competitors. It was stiff and fly over potholes. Due to the sleek back design and lower center of gravity, the cornering was better than most competitors. I didn't slow down in any of the corners and confidently rode without any doubt. The scooter was solid at the corners. Maneuverability through traffic was child's play. Yamaha is still the leader in corners.

After the corners I reach a straight road with signal. Ray was not the quickest to get of the signal but was not slow either. 0-30 comes around in 5 secs. It will be easy for stop and go traffic. The highlight of Ray is the mid range 30-70. The mid-range of ray's engine was good. 30-70 comes in 8 seconds with a solid pull. Imagine you are riding around 20 kmph in slow moving traffic and suddenly the road opening up. You can flip the throttle and ray will jump ahead than most of the bikes. Traffic will be in your rear view in mere seconds. This particular aspect blow me away. Once I was doing around 40ish with another friend in the corners, suddenly the road opened up. After one flip I was ahead of my friend and before i realize my friend disappeared in my rear view.

While returning back I decided to test the cruising ability of ray. I did around 50ish for 5kms. At the beginning the on board brain of the CVT gear keeps the Gear as low as possible. i.e it try and keeps the engine at peak rpm. So power delivery was higher. But once the brain realizes that I was not increasing or decreasing the speed, it switches to high gear. I can hear the engine settling into a strong hum after few mins of cruising. This should give good mileage in highways. Those of you who knows CVT will say that, this was the characteristic of CVT transmission. But let me says that the usual disadvantage of CVT like lower power, unnatural riding feel had been over come in Ray. In my opinion Ray's V-belt automatic transmission is very good.

I have rode my friends Aviators a few times. Honda makes gem of engine and Yamaha also makes good engines. But Honda engine does not have this mid range punch. The mid range of Aviator i.e 30 to 70 comes in yawning 12 seconds. Aviators big butt and softer suspension make it less appealing for maneuverability. During cornering aviator was not confident inspiring and cutting through traffic was a pain. Telescopic front fork suspension in Yamaha is an added advantage for ride which was not present in aviator.

Conclusion

What I like

- Maneuverability
- Suspension (Floats over rough roads)
- Acceleration from 30 to 60kms/hr
- High quality finish
- Ride quality & its nimbleness
- Road grip and Braking
- Responsive throttle

What I hate

- Sticker Job could have been better.
- No essential utilities.
- Space at the front foot board.
- Low power Engine.
- Laughable Speedo.
- Plastics
- Under seat storage
- Lady like. Ray Z could not hid it.

If you need the best fun to ride scooter and money is not an issue, get the Vespa. Else get the next best thing Yamaha Ray Z.




Pics: Yamaha Ray Z detailed photographs (I do not own these)

re: Yamaha Ray Ownership Experiences

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