The world leader in litre class was not giving any competition to the Hondas, Kwackers and the likes in the mass-market segment- the Quarter litre bikes a.k.a.the 250 cc segment. Honda brought in the Honda CBR 250R to take on the Kawasaki Ninja 250/300 R and even though it was a cylinder and 8 horses less than the Kwacker, it still became a great success, especially in the Asian markets like India and Thailand.
Now we have a word right from the horse’s mouth that Yamaha is soon going to bring in a quarter litre bike to lock horns with CBR and the Ninja. “In 2014 we will launch a powerful sporty 250 bike in the Indian market,” said Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO & MD of Yamaha Motors India to leading media publication.
The Indian market is known to the bike manufacturing world as a market where you can produce bikes keeping in control the costs and other factors. And this is precisely as to why Yamaha is going to launch the bike their first with a high level of localization. We had all suspected Yamaha was up to something and it could not get better than this,after all , this is the volume segment.
The bike will be pitted against the CBR 250 R and Ninja 300 R and it may go either way with being single cylinder or multiple cylinder. Since it’s going to enter a price sensitive segment , we don’t really expect those high specced suspensions , your high level of frames and the likes. What we know is you can expect crowd puller stuff such as the LEDs , digital meters , full fairings and a racing seating arrangement. India will be the first market to get the bike and the remainder part of the world will have to wait a bit to get it.
In Asia, there is a huge fan following of the popular Yamaha R15 motorcycle which besides being on the premium side in these markets, is very popular for its sharp handling and refined performance. Yamaha fans and bikers are eagerly looking forward to a more powerful version which takes this legacy forward with an even better performance. For now, it’s a wait game as its now official that the Yamaha R250 (speculated name) will launch in 2014. We will keep you posted, do sign up for our free email newsletter for updates by email.
via – FC