No words to describe her....

Finally I got to ride the R15 where I actually wanted to ride her. Yamaha launched the bike on a race-track and made the image of the bike very clear. The bike was made for the race track. And has been promoted as track tool itself. Yes, track tool! I wont really call it a track bike. Cause its more than a bike. Its a tool, a weapon. A weapon with which you are assured to win on the track. And here I am considering all the present Indian bikes.
I stay in Pune and there is not a single track around here. Well, there are only two tracks in the complete nation and both of them are quite far away from here. So practically it wasnt possible for me to ride down to the actual race-tracks. On the outskirts of Pune, there is a ghat section (a tarmac road which goes up and down a mountain with twists throughout the road). It is called the Mutha Ghat and that is our "illegal" track. Its a section of 6 km. The road is quite wide and the surface is fantastic. Apart from a couple of bumps, the road is just wonderful. A bike's handling capabilities can be easily judged here.
The other day my friend called me up and told me that his R15 had done its initial 500 km and he was ready to rip his bike. But well, as a matter of fact, he is quite new to biking or rather sportbiking. So he wanted me to come along with him to the muthas. I was more than happy to help him out. We went there and he started off with the laps on the track. After a couple of laps, he was overwhelmed with the handling and asked me to check out the bike and handed over the keys to me. The time had come when I was about to ride my dream on my dream track.
We have our start lines and finish lines marked here. As i took off from the start line, I had some markers in my mind. I have done over 150 laps there. My lines are set. My corner speeds are set. Infact, my timings for the laps are also on my mind. I have done about a 4:09 min on Unicorn on this track and about 4:02 min on a Pulsar 200. Iwas keen on breaking this 4 min barrier with the R15. And I knew that the bike had the soul for this. As i started taking the corners, it immediately became evident what everyone had always been talking about; the handling of the bike! It was sharp. The bike just went where the rider wanted it to. It was leaning just about how much the rider wanted it to! The bike never wanted to leave her line. The bike never was nervous in the corners. The bike was just fantabulous!
The first lap was a warm-up lap for me. And believe me, I managed 3:58 in my warm up lap!!! The bike was bang on target in any corner. The riding posture of the bike is so sporty and so much for the track, that I could feel that I was riding something that had a standard, a racing pedegree. The foot-pegs of the bike are quite high. This gives you more room for leaning. Also, they help in getting the rider's butt out, knee down posture. I was totally impressed. I have ridden many Indian bikes and some international sportsbikes here as well. The R15's handling and behaviour can be compared to those international bikes. It was way ahead of the Indian bikes.
I went for couple more laps and my fastest timing came down to 3:50 min. This was it. It was unbelievable. I had been struggling for months at stretch to get my timing below 4 min and with just couple of laps here and there with the R15, I was like 10 seconds faster than my goal! While taking the corners, I could feel that I was going too near to the tarmac. I was hanging off the bike a lot. While riding the P200, I have always scrapped my toes in the corners, but that was not the case with the R15. I never scrapped my toes but I could still feel that I was much closer to the road than any other bike in those corners. So why was this happening? Why wasnt I scrapping my toes? I asked my friend to take some pictures of mine. We stopped at one of my favourite corners. Its a fast corner if you can hang off the bike. And this exactly is what I wanted. A couple of more rounds around the corner and I became quite fast. The third time I went through that corner, I felt something.... something scrapped!!! No, it wasnt my toe slidder! No, it wasnt the foot peg slider as well! Guys, it was my knee slider!!! I had scrapped my knee. All through the corner I could feel my knee going scrapping on the tarmac. I was delighted. I went straight to my friend and asked him to show me the pictures he had taken. It was evident. The bike was made for the track. My posture was just perfect. My knee was slidding on the road. The foot pegs are high up giving me more lean angle.
Sighhhh.... Enough said. I guess, you people must be now more excited to see my pictures than reading anything. My pictures will follow... probably in the next post!