After gobbling up stories about the famed quarter-litre Yammie bike for years, there are finally some tell-tale signs that the R25 is definitely going to make its way to India.
In a report by Autocar Professional, it has been mentioned that Yamaha is working on plans to bring the quarter-litre R25 into the Indian market by 2015. This will give Yamaha a much-needed heft in the motorcycle segment, which seemed to have faded a bit after they started focusing more on scooters and re-paint jobs for its motorcycles offered in India.
R25 was unveiled for the first time at the Tokyo Motor Show in November 2013, and also made its presence felt at the recently concluded Delhi Auto Expo. In its concept for, R25 is powered by a liquid-cooled and fuel-injected quarter-litre parallel-twin engine mated to a 6-speed gearbox.
Though exact power specifications and any concrete details are unknown at the moment, we can assume that the bike from Yamaha will sport a very rev-happy engine. The source has also mentioned that a few tweaks will be carried out on the Concept Version of the Yamaha R25 to tailor-make it for India. As a first, we see the introduction of headlamps on the fairing 😛
*R25 Concept showcased at the Expo. Click pic for more images & all the details
The production R25 may also not get the Akrapovic exhaust along with the Michelins that the concept wears proudly.
The upcoming Yamaha R25 will be up against other quarter-litre opponents like the Honda CBR250R, Kawasaki Ninja 300, Hyosung GT250R and the yet-to-be-launched Hero HX250R. It will carry a burden of expectations on itself to live up to the technically-and-designwise-superior image that has been created for Yamaha by its smaller sibling, the YZF-R15.
Will it be able to live up to the challenge? Yamaha doesn’t really have the early-bird advantage in the quarter-litre segment.
But an even bigger question is: Are you ready to wait till 2015?
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