I remember the Yamaha R15(V1) creating quite a flutter when it was launched in mid-2008. I rode one extensively during our pan-India ride in beginning-2009, accompanied by 2 examples of its biggest brethren – the YZF R1. The R15 then was a very different product from what the typical Indian motorcyclist had been used to. It not only looked like a serious sports bike but also handled and braked like one. Incidentally the ‘go’ was actually missing to a large extent, at least in accordance to what the rest of the bike promised and one rode it more on the inertia than power or torque. Riding it on the Golden Quadrilateral was fun as you could build up speed there and hold it. But hit a city and throttle wringing was the order of the day. We also experimented with wider tyres than stock with a different tread to give it better off-road capability but made an embarrassed reversion back to the original rubber. The bike was pretty well sorted out in all quarters of situational and directional control and meddling with the basics was not warranted. Of course the low ‘low end torque’ made riding in traffic quite a pain even though the 6-speed box was impeccable in up and down shifts. Subjectively, the anemic-looking rear end was sort of an eyesore and the thin-section rear tyre subtracted from the visual strength of the bike.