Karizma XMR vs Yamaha R15 V4: designīoth bikes are handsome, eye-catching things with their full fairings and sporty stances. It’s a success story like no other and it’s why the new Karzima was reborn in this form. Now in its fourth generation, this is a tech-packed 150cc bike that pretty much costs Rs 2 lakh and still manages to sell about 10,000 units a month. In a market where sensible, cost-effective bikes reign supreme, Yamaha has managed to carve out a modern day icon with the R15. I’m sure it’s a similar story for so many hundreds of thousands others – the numbers tell the story.
It took a few years, but the power of dreams ensured that my very first motorcycle in 2011 was, in fact, a Yamaha R15. One was the mighty Yamaha R1, which symbolised the distant ‘someday’ dream, and right next to it was a magazine cut-out of the Yamaha R15, which had just gone on sale in India. Funny enough, I still have the very same motorcycle posters from my college days in my hometown bedroom cupboard and there were two that really captured my imagination.
Riding these two bikes transported me 15 years back to when I was an undergraduate college student supposedly studying business management but mostly just dreaming about motorcycles.
