A couple of months back, Yamaha created quite a stir when they launched the YZF-R25 sportsbike in the Indonesian market. Although a bit too late for the party, loyalists all around the world appreciated the fact that Yamaha finally have a quarter-litre sportsbike in the market. Now, Yamaha has officially revealed the YZF-R3 for the European markets. The R3 is basically a bored out version of the R25 and gets a slightly bigger engine.
The R3 is powered by a 321cc, liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, DOHC, in-line twin cylinder petrol motor producing 42 PS of power @ 10,750 RPM and 29.6 Nm torque @ 9,000 RPM. Engine is mated to a 6-speed gearbox. Suspension duties are still performed by a telescopic front fork and a rear monoshock. The bike gets a 2 into 1 exhaust system and the weight has gone up to 169 kg. The bike rides on a tubular diamond type chassis with 50:50 weight distribution but enthusiasts will miss the handling characteristics of the deltabox frame. The bike has a fuel tank capacity of 14 litres. Considering the European markets preference for safety, Yamaha offers ABS as standard.
Sometime back, a Yamaha R25 had already made it to the Indian soil, probably for R&D purpose. Chances of Yamaha choosing to launch the R3 in India instead of the R25 look a little low, since pricing would move much higher and also, the bike is meant for more developed markets.
But we think that the Indian biking enthusiast would surely love to pay a bit extra to get the reliability from the Japanese giant. Also, a little more engine capacity, a little more power and more tech in the form of ABS would surely be welcomed.
So will it be the R25 or R3 in India? We should have an answer to this by mid-2015.
