The Aerox is still a very rare sight here, so it turned out to be quite an attention magnet – a lot more than when riding the Versys even!
BHPian CrAzY dRiVeR recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I made Neil pick me up from the railway station today, I made him take me to a nice breakfast place, then to Crossword to pick up a gift for the SA, and then to the Yamaha showroom. Yes, I am the culprit who picked up an Aerox 155 from Kochi today.
I will post my impressions of the scooter later, but for now, sharing some (ok, maybe not that less!) snaps from a nice little day.
Took the 5:55 AM Janashadabi to Kochi. Why did I have to take delivery from Kochi? Well, long story – will save it for the ownership report:
You can’t visit a showroom in Kochi without Neil. He has contacts everywhere. Poor guy was ready outside the railway station to pick me up – A/C running, seats pushed back and nicely reclined – Boy o boy – the moment I stepped into his car, it felt like a warm (or chilling, to be more temperature accurate) welcome to Kochi. Must be a hit with the ladies, this man:
And cold-blooded guy too! I don’t know how he could resist trying out this Strawberry French Toast! I could have had another! I could travel to Kochi again just to have another:
But Neil just sat with a smile, possibly wondering how I could eat 1000 calories in the morning itself:
At the Yamaha showroom, my first look at the Aerox. Had not even seen the bike, ever, till this point. (Statutory disclaimer: Please don’t try this at home. It is always advisable to do a proper PDI before registration. Why couldn’t I do that? Long story again – will save that for the ownership report too):
First glimpse of my scooter after it was brought in front of the showroom for delivery:
My experience with Yamaha has been of opposite extremes. Sree Vigneshwara Motors (Yamaha Blue Square), Kakkandad, Kochi (and especially Rejith – the SA) was absolutely brilliant, to say the least! Very highly recommended:
Thanks to Neil for these clicks. Loved them:
By 11:45 AM, I was able to start the ride back home. Although the distance was only 210 kms, this was going to take 5-6 hours due to the traffic, two-lane highways and much slower overall speeds. After a quick full tank at the nearest COCO bunk, I took the Seaport-airport link road out of Kochi. 1 hour later, clicked this when I had stopped to message family:
Another hour later, stopping for tender coconut water! One thing was getting obvious – the scooter could easily munch miles, I could do more on this scooter, but the heat and the humidity were the main reasons forcing me to take breaks:
Another hour later, stopped for a lunch break. It was 4 PM already, but then my 1000 calorie breakfast had kept me going. Stuffed some more! Clicked in front of Indian Coffee House, Kottarakkara:
Finally, home by 6:15 PM. 6 hours and 30 minutes including the breaks! Fresh and no body pains yet! Could take this for longer rides, if the wife permits. She will be the primary user of this scooter, after all:
Fuel efficiency at an incredible 51.4 km/l at the fuel-top up. The overall figure on the MID stands at 51.1 km/l now:
And that’s much lesser than the full tank calculation! An incredible 54.1 km/l. For today, I was just aiming to keep it within 50-70 km/h with the Kerala traffic ensuring that the motor keeps spinning within a good range. Effortless acceleration till that point though – the Aerox surely has an edge against rivals like the Aprilia SXR160 with this torque delivery.
That said, this is not a realistic figure and I guess probably be the first and last time it gets 50+ kmpl. The temptation to twist the throttle will be too much to resist beyond the run-in period:
The Aerox is still a very rare sight here, so it turned out to be quite an attention magnet – a lot more than when riding the Versys even! A lot of interesting questions and conversations happened on the way, at petrol bunks, at signals, even from random strangers who pull up parallelly and shout their questions when riding along in traffic.
All said and done, I hope Yamaha realize that they might probably be sitting on a goldmine here with the Aerox and take immediate action to cater to demand. This might just become the biggest Yamaha sub-brand to launch in India after the RX (RD too!) and the R15. As a young kid at a petrol station exclaimed –
“They have made an R15 V3 scooter!”
Keyword: Kawasaki Versys owner buys a Yamaha Aerox 155 scooter