This Little Yamaha Sportsbike Is No More!

The Yamaha YZF-R3 has been temporarily taken off the shelves in India. The reason for the hiatus? You guessed it: BS6 emission norms. The current bike is just BS4-compliant and doesn’t meet the stricter standards kicking in on April 1 (or are they? Read here to find out about a possible delay in BS6 implementation).

The R3 received an international update last year that never made its way to India. The update consisted of cosmetic changes which bring it more in line with Yamaha’s current sportsbike design language, as well as minor mechanical tweaks; but no changes to the motor. That means that even the internationally updated version is only Euro4/BS4-compliant.

With Yamaha India not taking any initiative to update the bike independently, it seems the R3 will be off the shelves until it receives an international Euro5 update later this year. Could Yamaha give it a slightly bigger heart to help offset a drop in performance? Only time will tell.

If you’re still in the market for a sportsbike in this displacement range, the 2020 TVS Apache RR 310 and KTM RC 390 BS6 both meet the more stringent emission norms.