Onlin [e] Guid [e]

I am pretty much unsure what is in the minds of Yamaha motor India. I felt happy when they started looking the Indian two wheeler market seriously. I mean long gone were the days of the old Fazer-which actually was sure to phase out the day it was launched. I mean who would like the head of their beloved motorbike like a head of a Buzzing bee ? I had a great laugh then.

Cut to last year, they came out with R15. I'm like 'Wow', can Indian roads handle that ? and will that handle the Indian Roads ? but soon all the speculations and guesses rested in peace. The 1+ Lakh fuel sucker proved to be worthy. It overpowered the Pulsars dominance till that day. Still it was only possible for a serious bike fanatic and for the people who weigh the money rather than counting it, to buy this customised supermodel. Then came FZ. That went on to become the Bike of the year. and soon landed in my garage. Till that time it was okay.
The success of FZ was a reliving and reviving experince for Yamaha. It reminded them of the days of the RX series. Everything was going great -and just as all good things in life -they tripped over. I agree that you have to hit the hammer when the metal is hot, but repeated hitting spoils the shape guys. Thats what I fear is in the near future. No modificaitons done, unexpectedly they launched FZ-S, just to throw the original FZ which brought them back their status in the shadows. All that was changed were colours. and added a great viser. big deal. should I pay 2k extra for a carbon viser ? Naaaah...

Anyway, now they have gone even further. Launched a brand new Yamaha Fazer. The new model IS FZ with new collors. It appears to be a hybrid model of R15 and FZ. Just as people wear different hats on same costume, this has the same body except the half fairing they provided. Even the console backlight is as same as FZ.
If i am not wrong, HH and Honda have already driven this path. The same passion coming again and again, with new body art, and the same unicorn without any upgrades; revisiting. I dont think Indian markets will buy that anymore. In fact there was a talk in forums and communities when Honda and HH played this dirty paint job games. I seriously was not hoping this from Yamaha.

On the other side, a respectable and enviable TVS, launched a varient of their sole sellable Apache. The apache in a way has a better graph, The first one failed, had lots of issues. TVS done a remarkable job, introduced what style and power is to the markets by RTR. Then they too played a dirty game I believe just to keep the ball rolling for a while with RTR refresh(just the front half fairing additions), then came RTR FI, and now RTR 180. I have heard the talks about RTR 180 FI as wel. lets see they turn to news or rumours. Way to go TVS.