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Zig Wheels (Supplement of The Economic Times)

Yamaha is giving the mass market commuter segment another shot with the new YBR Abhishek Nigam checks it out

The 100cc commuter segment is still the busiest among all. While perfomance bike trickle out, most of the manufactures still depend on the 100cc bikes for their bread and butter, Honda recently launched the CB twister which totally changed the name of the game. Yamaha in a bid to capture its share of the commuter pie has just come out with its mass market offering. christened the YBR 110.
Look beneath the snazzy sticker work and there is not much to differentiate it from its lesser endowed sibling the alba. The design is pretty conventional, and Yamaha has tried to jazz it up with a host of cosmetic upgrades. The new graphics do look smart though and our test bike in black-red combolooked pleaseing to say the least. Getting to the switch gear, everything again is pretty run of the mill. The speedo console is flanked by a clear, easy to read speedometer on the left and a fuel gauge accompained with the regular tell-tale indicators on the right.

Powering the YBR is the same 2-value, SOHC, 4-stroke engine which powers the G5 and the Alba. The engine puts out a pretty par for the course 7.5 PS @7500 rpm and a maximum torque of 7.8 Nm @ 6000 rpm. First thing to notice when you thumb the starter button is how smooth the engine is. The shirt action on the 4-speed gear box is also good with no false neutrals and a pretty good feel.

The riding position is nice and upright like most other bikes in the segment. The ergonomics are pretty much on the money making long commuters an easy affair. Ride quality is extremely pliant and handled with aplomb.

However the gearing mars progress considerably.Going up a mild gradient, third gear struggles to get up to any speed and shifting to second makes the bike groan out of breath. The sprint to 60 km/h however takes a decent 8.14 seconds whichis pretty quick amongst its counterparts. Keeping the throttie twisted to the stop saw the YBR hit a top speed of 88 km/h. Braking too is woefully inadequate with the 130 mm drums all round providing very little resistance.

On the important mileage front, the YBR returned 65.2 kmpl and on the highway and managed 76.4 kmpl giving it an overall figure of 68 kmpl. with a 13 litre fuel tank, the YBR is good for all of 884 km before you have to visit the petrol station again.

At Rs. 41000 ex-showroom Delhi, it's just marginally cheaper than a similarly specced Honda CB Twister and a grand more than the Discover 100, both of them which offer better performance, style and efficiency. Contrary to what we say for other manufactures, Yamaha have definitely arrived as far as perforamnce bike go, but their mass movers still have a long way to go.