India-spec Yamaha MT-15 misses out USD forks and aluminium swingarm to keep cost down and the engine will be the same unit from R15 V3
Yamaha is going to launch the much-awaited MT-15 in India on March 15 and the India-spec model has been spotted without any camouflage ahead of the launch. The MT-15 is finished in matte-blue colour and the India-spec model misses out on neon green colour finished alloy wheels. Instead, we get black finished alloy wheels.
To keep cost down, Yamaha India has removed upside down forks and given telescopic forks. Along with this, the cast aluminium swingarm from international model has been replaced by conventional box-type swingarm. Apart from this, the company hasn’t made any changes and the design is going to be one of the stand out features of MT-15.
The front gets twin projector headlamps with LED DRLs and the design theme is similar to the MT-09. The handlebar is a single piece unit and the instrument cluster is fully digital as it comes straight from the R15 Version 3.0 with features like digital speedometer, odometer, time, gear shift indicator, fuel gauge and more.
The fuel tank gets a muscular design theme and the seat is a single piece unit but the pillion seat is slightly raised. The company has given rear set foot pegs and the riding position is different from R15. The rear design is similar to the R15 Version 3.0 and the performance bike come with LED tail lights. The MT-15 also gets rear-tyre hugger also.
The MT-15 is powered by the same 155 cc single cylinder liquid cooled engine with fuel injection from new R15 and it produces 19.3 PS of max power and 14.7 Nm of torque. This engine is mated to 6-speed gearbox but the tuning will be different from R15. The company is likely to give slipper clutch as part of the standard feature.
The braking duties are handled by 282 mm disc at front and 220 mm disc at the rear. The MT-15 comes with dual-channel ABS braking system as standard. The wheels will be 17-inch as the front gets 100/80 section tyre and 140/70 section tyre at the rear. Yamaha is expected to price MT-15 aggressively in India and it will compete against KTM Duke 200, Bajaj Pulsar 200 NS and TVS Apache RTR 200 4V.