Key Highlights Of The New Yamaha MT-15 V2

The Yamaha MT-15 has been a bit of a hit and a bit of a miss. While it did receive some significant updates, Yamaha’s streetfighter offering also missed out on some critical ones. Let’s check out its key highlights in this article.

New goodies
The Yamaha MT-15 has finally received some bling, courtesy the new USD fork. While it was a standard fitment on the international-spec bike, Yamaha India had opted for a telescopic fork in order to keep costs in check. The addition of the USD fork not only increases its visual quotient, but also improves the new Yamaha MT-15’s handling dynamics too. Further improving its handling is the inclusion of the premium cast aluminium swingarm that replaces the old box-section unit seen on its predecessor. It also sports a revised instrument console with Bluetooth connectivity for call and message alerts, but it misses out on navigation.

Engine
Powering the new MT-15 is the same 155cc, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine with VVA as seen on the older bike. It produces 18.4PS at 10,000rpm and 14.1Nm at 7,500rpm. Compared to the MT-15 BS6 model, the new bike develops 0.1PS less power, but 0.2Nm more torque. The drop in power is marginal and the gain in torque should improve its low-end performance and it’s a better barter according to us. However, we shall reserve our opinion till we get to test ride the bike.

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What it misses out on
The 2022 Yamaha MT-15 still continues to employ a single-channel ABS. Given its performance, sporty nature and cost, this according to us is unacceptable. Yamaha at least could have offered dual-channel ABS as an optional variant. And that’s the same story for quickshifter and traction control, which comes standard on the Yamaha R15M variant.

Styling
While Yamaha has introduced two new colour options (Cyan Storm and Racing Blue) that makes it stand apart from the previous model, we were expecting more. Yamaha designers should have updated the styling of the MT-15 Version 2.0 similar to the new R15 V4. Imagine how good the new MT-15 would have looked if the design was inspired from the Yamaha MT-03.

Price and rivals
Prices for the 2022 Yamaha MT-15 start at Rs 1.6 lakh (ex-showroom), which is a significant hike of around Rs 12,000 over the previous model. We would have liked Yamaha to launch the new MT-15 for an introductory price of around Rs 1.55 lakh, at least introductory, as it does miss out on some crucial features. Its direct rival is the KTM 125 Duke, and other bikes with similar performance are the TVS Apache RTR 200 4V, Bajaj Pulsar N250 and the Suzuki Gixxer 250.