The YZF-R3 was spotted testing in India a few months after Yamaha imported two units of the bike here. The bikes could have been brought in for homologation here. The spy images seen are from the Motoroids website in India.
When we approached Yamaha, they said that the bike will not be launched in India any time soon. But by the look of it, the two Yamaha YZF-R3’s came attached with a ‘saree guard’, which certainly does say a thing or two about the Yamaha’s intentions to launch the bike here.
The Yamaha YZF-R3 once here, will compete with other motorcycles in its class such as Kawasaki’s Ninja 300. On paper, the Yamaha YZF-R3 is equipped with a 321cc, parallel-twin, four-stroke, liquid-cooled and fuel-injected engine. It makes 41.4bhp at 10,750rpm and 3kgm of torque at 9,000rpm.
The Yamaha YZF-R3 sits lower than the current Yamaha YZF-R15 sold in India by 20mm. The bike is similar to the company's YZF-R6 S in terms of styling. In comparison, the Kawasaki Ninja 300 makes a lower 38.5bhp at 11,000rpm that the YZF-R3. Weighing 169kg, the model is just 4kg more than Bajaj’s RS 200. Expect the Yamaha YZF-R3 to be fun on twisties, but exactly how good it is when compared to class honchos like the Ninja 300, we will only find out once we get to test it.