Yamaha's Previous & Present Bike Analysis. Review on Yamaha FZ16

This is not a review about any of the Yamaha Products but an Analysis.

I have an RX 135 (4 Speed) which is almost in the 1oth yr of service. I had already written the review abt this product a couple of months back in the following link https://mouthshut.com/review/Escorts_Yamaha_RX135-151119-1.html

Now this is just an analysis with Yamaha's previous & Present products comparison from my point of view. The first product from Yamaha for India was RX100. A beautiful machine. You can call it a performer & a powerful commuter. Then there were few launches after that RxG, RX135, RXZ. All of them were really fantastic performers.

Closely looking at why they were performers because Yamaha's Power to weight Ratio of all these vehicles were more than 100 bhp/ton. Suzuki's shougun & Shaolin were the other product to breach the 100 Power to weight ratio.

Yamaha RX 100 - 11BHP/110Kgs - 100 BHp/ton

Yamaha RX 135/RXZ - 12BHP/110 Kgs - 109BHp/ton.

Cleary these products were way ahead with the competitors which made commuter class vehicles.

Coming to the present day offerings from Yamaha

Libero/Alba & G5 though 106CC fall under the 100CC Category.

100cc Libero/Alba & G5 - 7.5 Bhp/118 Kgs - 64BHP/ton.

125 CC Gladiator Type SS/RS - 11BHP/128Kgs - 86BHP/ton.

150 CC FZ 16 - 13.8 BHp/137 Kgs - 101BHP/ton

150cc R15 - 16.8BHp/130 Kgs - 129 BHP/ton.

Leave the R15 as it belongs to supersport category. Comparing these two era's of past & present it is very evident that the power to weight ratio has come down for 100cc - 125cc Category.I also agree that commuters have graduated from 100cc to more than 100cc bikes. But Yamaha has failed to entertain us with their present day products barring FZ16. This is where Bajaj & TVS have the upper hand in their 150cc market.

Yamaha's Gladiator has two products Type SS/RS. Though both of them have identical tech specs. There is no difference in power but just the colour. Yamaha could have kept the Type SS with 11 BHP & Type RS as 13 BHP so the power to weight ratio breaches the 100 mark and can be considered as alternative for 150cc category.

Hope someone realises this @ Yamaha's product development team and caters to the need of the biking enthusiast.

Your views & suggestions are welcome.

Happy & Safe riding to all.

Elango