Yamaha Aerox 155 Review - Likes And Dislikes

Is the sporty Yamaha scooter the best fit for India?

It was pretty bold of Yamaha to overlook the more obvious NMax 155 and instead bring in the sporty, unabashed, Aerox 155 to India. It is built for hooning and shouts speed. As popular as it is in SouthEast Asia, can Indian buyers look past the obvious shortcomings of the Aerox 155 as a “scooter” and embrace it for all the performance it offers?

Likes

Incredible Performance

Wow! The way the Aerox 155 shoots off the line is just unbelievable. Its 0-80kmph VBox-tested acceleration time of 10.91 seconds is over three seconds quicker than the Aprilia SXR 160, making it the quickest scooter that we have tested. It builds speed pretty rapidly, overtakes are done in a jiffy, and it never seems to run out of breath in the city. Show it some open roads, and the Aerox will easily do 95-100kmph, maxing out at a speedometer-indicated 116kmph . And despite its performance, it did return pretty decent fuel efficiency numbers of 47kmpl and 46.21kmpl in our city and highway fuel runs, respectively.

Almost Motorcycle-like Handling

We weren’t surprised by just how easy the Aerox feels around bends. The combination of 14-inch wheels, grippy tyres and a short wheelbase gives way to some incredible lean angles. And there are no finicky moments either. The front end grips the tarmac like a leech, and we never experienced any of the front-end jitteriness you normally experience on scooters. Direction changes require little effort, which allows you to scythe through slow-moving obstacles on the road.

Sporty Looker

We are big fans of the way the Aerox looks. It is one of the most distinctive-looking scooters in the Indian market, and no other scooter comes even remotely close to looking this sporty. It turned heads everywhere we took it. The amount of attention it got, even in this rather not-so-flashy grey and red shade, is incredible. I am a big fan of red wheels and the Y-shape three-spoke alloys look smashing.

Can Swallow Up A Full Face Helmet

The Aerox is the only scooter that we have come across that is able to store a proper helmet. While the storage space of 24 litres is impressive, there are other scooters in the market that offer similarly large boots. It is the slight dip and the depth of the boot that helps in accommodating the helmet.

Dislikes

Jarring Ride

As heart-racing as its performance is, the ride quality of the Aerox 155 leaves your heart aching. And back aching. And bottom aching. Seriously, the ride quality is shocking, as even the smallest of rumble strips can leave your teeth chattering. Small bumps unsettle the Aerox pretty easily and we wished Yamaha had offered a softer suspension tune. There is one way to make the ride a bit bearable, but it involves putting down another Rs 17,000 for the adjustable twin rear shocks. And even then, there’s nothing to cure the front end’s harshness.

Disheartening Braking Performance

Even the stopping performance of the Aerox feels inadequate. There’s simply not enough bite from the single-piston front caliper, and a rear drum brake for such a machine is just disheartening. It took 20.32m to come to a dead stop from 60kmph, which is almost the same distance as its smaller 125cc sibling, the RayZR 125 Hybrid. The brakes feel a bit spongy and you have to yank the levers quite a bit to slow the scooter down rapidly.

No floorspace

Thanks to the presence of the central spine, you do not have a traditional flat floorboard. Hence, hanging groceries and stuff will not be possible. Also, you cannot just slide into the scooter but will rather need to swing your leg over the saddle, like on a motorcycle.

Verdict

We must commend Yamaha India for being brave and bringing the brash Aerox 155 to our shores. It does command a substantial asking price of Rs 1.29 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), which is not just a few thousand rupees more than the Aprilia SXR160, but almost Rs 12,000 more than the recently launched, updated Aprilia SR160. Yes, it is the quickest and the most un-scooter-like scooter that we have ridden. And if you absolutely want a sporty 150cc scooter, then there’s nothing better. However, if you want a sporty scooter that has all the practicality of a, well, scooter, then the TVS NTorq 125 Race XP comes very close to the Aerox in every single department, is a bit more fuel efficient, and costs way less than the Yammie.

Will it do the trick for Yamaha India? Not quite. It will not be a raging hit and even Yamaha India knows that. Is it suitable for anything India throws at it? Not quite. Then, who is the Aerox for? It is for those newly minted18-year-olds whose parents hesitate to buy them an R15 V4 or any motorcycle, for that matter. Or for those big-bike owners who want the convenience of a scooter to run down to the corner store without compromising on the fun, and flash quotient.