^^ yes very much!
even the tire hugger of the spy'ed R15 looks same till a point, after which it curves along the circumference of the tire!!




saj*

Yup,The rims,rear panel all resemble the R125 but the fairings are way off..

Enquired in the yamaha showroom here down south in mangalore. the lady said R125 will be out in March. its all very confusing

hope its not just a cosmetic upgrade..and hope its not the R125 either...

it will not be a R125 for sure!
it will be an upgrade to the existing R15 only and most likely to be only cosmetic upgrades!!




saj*

Can the old engine hold these heavy upgrades ? They have to do something about the engine too or else sure we can expect a performance drop ...

what heavy upgrades do you see??
it is just remoulded plastics fixed differently in its rear section!





saj*

The tire's definitely ... Wont that kill the performance ?

@bladeboy: not really!!
tires are a very complex thing to understand..

usual perception is wider tires = more friction = less performance (which is false)

in a slimmer tire, the contact patch is less, hence the pressure per square inch is more
in wide tires, the contact patch is more, hence the pressure per square inch is less, which in turn produces same friction as slim tires..

wide tires also have more contact area which means more traction resulting in better acceleration and better braking performance.

not only that, the compounds of wide tire can be altered to exactly match slim tires performance.

also the handling improves at high speed (but in low speed it may get tricky)

the thing is every part of a bike is engineered in such a way that it complements the tires fixed from the factory. so there is nothing to worry about the wider tires.

as far as other bikes are concerned, modifying with wider tires results in a drop in performance because the bike is not engineered for wide tires but consumers end up putting wide tires just for the cool factor!!





saj*

@Vaibhav that's one hell of a RISK you have taken, riding at 120kmph and taking the pics single handedly with a truck on the middle lane.
Anyway my congratulations and thanks
So from this pic its pretty clear about its a test mule . only thing need to know greedily is whether it has some engine tweaks as well. I am loving this, whenever this thing launches am gonna book it straightly.

@Vaibhav also buddy don't attempt it next time, we are happy with the pics and knew its a new bike. don't risk your life anymore...

!!!RIDE SAFE!!!

i know i had crossed the limit a bit n won't do it again........
BTW, i was DRIVING not RIDING

all mere xbhp bros from noida...

cover the whole area,chappa chappa chan maro ...and es naye yamaha bike ko dhund nekalo

hahaheh

Thanks Vaibhav for taking all the pics, & sharing with us.

After today's sighting, it is definitely clear than a fresh looking R15 is on the cards from Yamaha. The bike looks visually nice with the new tail panel, split seats, LED tail lamp, & upgraded rear fender

According to me, the bike will only be an upgraded R15, with the upgrades being in the looks department only (again)!
The drive chain looks the same as the current one, hence I don't see the possibility of a bigger engine. But with reduction in weight (courtesy newer rims), a wider tyre can't be ruled out.
Also, I don't think they will re-tune the 149.8cc engine, coz if they wanted to, they would have done so at the launch itself (which was after initially testing bikes dishing out figures of 23-24 bhp).

The R15's tail section had already faced enough criticism since the bike was showcased at the 2008 auto Expo, hence this change is a welcome step.

Regarding new pricing, I think the bike might retail for the same price as the current models, as with localised production of parts, Yamaha was already making better margins than when the bike was originally launched (one of the reasons for the high pricing was imported parts).


The FZ that we see in the pics might be the Fazer250! (Yamaha is launching the Fazer250 tentatively in May 2011).
But from what I had learnt, the Fazer250 would be the global model, which looks very different from the FZ series of bikes. So, I'm confused with the FZ sighting!

Anyways, keeping my fingers crossed.
Yamaha is definitely bracing itself to face the upcoming competition from other manufacturers.
Yes Yamaha!

@tibby: fazer 250?? may'11?? what is this now??





saj*

In some pics they are wearing different Jacket, so that means you encountered them twice, isn't it ?