Street Brawler

This is what you get when you strip down an R15 to its bare bones. But will this recipe of turning a full faired bike into a naked street brawler work? We ride the new MT-15 at the BIC to find out.

- Shivank Bhatt

Full-faired sports bikes are easy to fall in love with. This is a universal truth. You simply can’t argue against it. You see, whether you’re a pimply-faced teenager or a fully-grown man, the fact is that all of us have, at least once, fantasised about owning a full-faired speed machine. And, most of us actually do end up buying buy one. And that’s when we realise that, like every love story, it ends in a bit of a heartache.

Allow me to explain. You see, like everyone else, I wanted my first bike to be a fancy faired motorcycle – in simple words, the Yamaha R15. However, after riding a friend’s R15 for months on end for my college commute, I realised that there weren’t many corners or straights where I could exploit the potential of this mini sports bike. On the contrary, it was agonising to ride in traffic because of its racy and aggressive ergonomics.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the R15. But I just wouldn’t want one for my daily commute. And while Yamaha has refined it consistently over the years, the new R15 V3 – although phenomenal by all measures – is still a bit too track-focussed to be used on the road, which renders it pretty useless for folks like me.

Now, imagine the R15, with all the fun and without the imperfections – would be nice, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s exactly what the MT- 15 aims to be – a naked street brawler that shares virtually everything with the R15, but promises to be more comfortable for everyday use.

Evil eye