Back in 2008 during my college days, I was looking for a motorcycle among myriad of options like tvs flame, honda shine, discover 125/135 and few others. My mind told me to go for "humara bajaj" as it was considered to be a safe bet. But when it was launched, it got stuck in my heart in the first glance itself, it was a dominant, shining and mean-looking Yamaha gladiator ss parked in the parking lot of my college.
I know this section is about SS125 but it’s merely a cosmetic upgrade and what lies inside is a gladiator ss/rs and in my view, the name "gladiator" carries an appeal of its own. Back then, yamaha was a forgotten name among enthusiasts since the discontinuation of it’s two stroke legends until it’s fortunes changed with the introduction of yamaha r15. So, it’s obvious that I was a bit skeptical about going for gladiator and the biggest concern was reliability as per my friends and family. But somewhere inside, I had already made up my mind to go for this beauty inspite of advises from everyone. They say "Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t". In the end I just followed my heart and went for it.
Fast forward to 2014 and this beauty is still in my parking lot, though not as shiny as 6.5 years back, but still maintains it’s charm. It has clocked around 40, 000 kms on odo and it still works like anything. Apart from regular service and maintenance, there is nothing big that I had to replace in this bike. The engine still runs like a horse and the bike can reach a top speed of 100+ kmph with some patience. Though I have never been much concerned about it’s fuel economy but I can safely say it’s around 50 kmpl in normal commuter style riding which I rarely follow. What I truly love about this bike is the free revving engine and handling. Though you won’t get much by revving in first two gears but shift into the third, rev it to 6-7k rpm, shift to 4th, rev it to 7-8k rpm and then shift to fifth and rev it till the traffic allows, this thing just flies like anything in a spirited manner. And the best part is, the bike behaves like a well mannered kid and knows where to stop when I brake hard. Going for short stints of 90-100 kmph is not a problem but when I cruise on freeways, I maintain a speed of not more than 80 kmph as it’s an air cooled motor at the end of the day and I don’t want it to heat up like crazy.
All in all, the bike has taken many abuses but has lived up to the amount of reliability I wanted from my first bike. In these years, though I have bought a car for regular commutes in hot and rainy days, and want a bigger 200+ cc bike, but I have an emotional connection and in-numerous memories attached with this bike which make it difficult for me to ditch her for a bigger capacity bike. So if you are thinking about going for this bike, go for it with eyes closed. Though yamaha bikes come at a premium in every segment, they have got quality in products that Indian manufacturers haven’t been able to match till now in my experience. Please don’t forget to put your questions/comments in the comments section.