Ending all speculations, the Yamaha FZ25 street-fighter has been launched in India, priced at a  fantastic ₹ 1,19,500 (ex-showroom, Delhi). The new FZ25 marks the Japanese manufacturer’s foray into the highly competitive 250 cc performance motorcycle segment, while the naked motorcycle India’s most affordable 250 cc offering.

The Yamaha  FZ25 takes the FZ brand forward in the bike maker’s line-up and is said to be an ideal upgrade towards existing FZ users, apart from bringing all new customers to brand Yamaha. With deliveries scheduled to commence from 1st February 2017, here’s everything that the Yamaha FZ25 has to offer.

Yamaha first officially announced about its new motorcycle last month and was touted to be called the ‘Yamaha FZ 250’ upon launch. However, the company has done away with the ‘0’, keeping up with its two numeric strategy and calls the street-fighter FZ 25 instead.

Power on the Yamaha FZ25 comes from the new BSIV compliant oil-cooled 249 cc single-cylinder fuel-injected engine that pumps out 20.6 bhp of power at 8000 rpm and 20 Nm at 6000 rpm. The motor comes mated to a 5-speed gearbox sadly, but the company says has been tuned to provide optimum low-end acceleration along with nimbleness to ride in the city.

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The mechanicals comprise telescopic front forks and a monoshock suspension setup at the rear. Braking performance comes from 282 mm front and 257 mm rear disc brakes, while you get full LED headlamps, a first for any 250 cc offering in India, along and tail lights along and AHO (Automatic headlamp on). Disappointing as it gets, Anti-Locks Brakes (ABS) have been given a miss completely. The kerb weight stands at a decent 148 kg while the bike is underpinned by a diamond type frame. Yamaha returns a claimed fuel efficiency of 43 kmpl on the bike that comes courtesy of the BlueCore technology.

The Yamaha FZ 25 is being offered in three colours – Ballistic Blue, Warrior White and Knight Black. The street-fighter comes equipped with an LCD instrument cluster, while the design looks like that of a beefed up FZ, albeit with much more character and charm. You also see bits from bigger Yammie bikes being incorporated in the styling of the FZ25. The naked sport gets split seats, while the wheels are inspired by the bigger MT series of bikes and rides on 100/80 section front as well as 140/70 section rear 17-inch tyres. The ground clearance stands at 160 mm while the fuel tank capacity is a decent 14 litres.

The FZ series of motorcycles was a huge hit with its beefy looks when it was launched way back in 2008. The FZ V2.0 arrived with fuel injection a couple of years ago and managed to retain the same popularity to quite an extent. However, with customers looking to upgrade to bigger and better products quickly, the Yamaha R3 was kind of stretch in terms of budget and also the reason why the MT-03 (naked R3) was dropped from launch plans.

The 200cc-250cc motorcycle segment in India is one of the fastest growing and sees a lot of demand from a younger user base. Bike ranging from the price bracket of ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 2.5 lakh have seen a growth of 20 per cent in volumes over the last four years.

SIAM data also shows that the period for April-October 2016 saw 1,12,150 units of motorcycles sold which belonged to the 200cc-250cc segment. In comparison, the period for April-October 2015 saw 77,555 units sold in the same segment. This is an increase of 44.61 per cent. So Yamaha can finally tap into this segment with the FZ25 and probably enjoy the same success as it saw with the FZ-16.

Almost all major two-wheeler manufacturers in India have a presence in this segment. Some of the motorcycles in this segment are the Bajaj Pulsar NS200, Honda CBR250R, KTM 200 Duke, TVS Apache RTR 200 4V and so on. The competition is surely tough but Yamaha believes that it has a quality product in the FZ25, one that can take the fight to all these worthy competitors. The FZ25 will be available from 1st February across Yamaha dealerships in the country.