Yamaha MT-15

We Say: The R15’S Naked Sibling Is Here. But It Does Seem Super Pricey!

- Ashok George

We all knew this was coming and with the lack of adrenaline in the rest of Yamaha’s nakeds, we’ve been eagerly waiting for it too. The recipe, by itself, promises to be great – take an R15, strip it of its fairing, et voila! Of course, there are more subtle changes that have been made to this platform to make it the MT-15. But at the heart of matters, both motorcycles remain the same.

So what exactly is different from its faired sibling? Of course, the first difference is the styling. The MT loses the fairing and gets a flat handlebar. It also gets a single piece seat and a fantastic looking front end. The instrumentation, switchgear, wheels and other bits remain the same. And instead of dual-channel ABS, the bike gets single-channel ABS.

Underneath though, there are several changes that have been made to make the drivetrain and chassis more suitable to the kind of use that this bike is meant for. For starters, the ECU is running a different map than the R15 and the rear sprocket is larger by four teeth. The engine output stays more or less at the same levels at 19bhp and 14.7Nm. It still uses the same VVA engine as the R15 and also gets the same 6-speed gearbox.