With scooters, the market has evolved from favouring smaller 100cc and 110cc scooters to acceptive and embracing larger 125cc scooters.

The Aerox is breaking new ground within the scooter section, not simply with a liquid-cooled engine, but additionally with its style. Its step-through format means it straightaway stands out from the ocean of flat floorboards in Bharat, and whereas it’s a novel form-factor, it’s additionally absolute to prove preventative for several consumers trying to find a lot of sensible machines. however, even those not within the marketplace for it’ll notice it exhausting to deny that the Aerox could be a super cool trying issue.

With nicely sculptured bodywork and mean-looking LED headlights, the Aerox features an appropriately wicked facia to travel with its colourful intent. 14-inch wheels at each end wrapped in terribly chunky tyres, a meaty system and twin shock absorbers at the rear all boost the substance, and therefore the Aerox has quite a ton of presence on our roads, that belies its slender 126kg curbing weight.

With nicely sculpted like the switchgear and therefore the bodywork look and feel quite nice, particularly the double-layered bodywork on either facet of the lower apron. however alternative areas, just like the flimsy fuel filler flap, the seat footpegs that don’t sit flush against the bodywork, and therefore the uneven floor mats, don’t quite feel upto the mark. There also are some inconsistent panel gaps and shut lines across the scooter, and Yamaha would move to square away these blemishes, considering Aerox’s position within the market.

Despite all its bulk, though, it’s not the foremost spacious scooter around. Of course, there’s no area for bags on the floorboard, however, even the area for your feet is short provide. the planning of the front apron means it’ll perpetually foul the knees of taller riders, and you can’t slide back too so much on the seat attributable to the outstanding step it. during this scenario, you’ll even injure your knees if you hit a bump exhausting.

One space wherever there’s an abundance of area, though, is underneath the seat. With the fuel tank settled thereto outstanding spine section, you get a generous twenty-four. 5 litres of the area underneath the saddle. however at simply five.5 litres, the fuel tank is definitely on the smaller facet for a scooter with this variety of credentials.

FEATURES

The Aerox sits in a quite premium market position, and whereas it isn’t as loaded to the gills as one thing sort of a premium electrical scooter, it still packs in its justifiable share of options. The tail lamp joins the headlights in being an LED unit, and you furthermore may get fully-digital instrumentation. We’re glad to report that LED headlights on mass-market two-wheelers have gotten higher and higher, therefore Aerox’s unit also performs quite well, with sensible brightness and unfold. The digital cluster additionally shows a decent deal of data, with the same old trip and fuel consumption connected knowledge yet as a VVA indicator and a measuring device.

Bluetooth property is a component of the kit, however, like most alternative Yamaha systems in Bharat, practicality is sort of restricted. You don’t get on-screen navigation directions or controls for music playback, however, you are doing get the decision and SMS alerts, and might additionally check your last lay location yet as using your portable as an auxiliary dashboard for the scooter, among alternative things.

Thanks to the situation of the fuel tank, the filler is, of course, external, and you needn’t get off the vehicle throughout fuel stops. gap the flap is additionally quite seamless, because of a slick multi-function key slot. to assist scale back the frequency between those openings, Yamaha has additionally thrown in a wonderful stop-start system. misreckoning out the package could be a little cubbyhole on the rear of the apron that options a DC charging port, mono ABS and a side-stand cut-off feature.

It’s value noting that the India-spec Aerox misses out on keyless operation, that the international version gets. several international markets additionally receive preload-adjustable gas-charged shock absorbers as customary furniture, whereas the Indian Aerox needs to deal with non-adjustable shocks, with the gas-charged units offered as an ex gratia additional

PERFORMANCE

Right, the guts of the matter. A heart that’s been transplanted, as a result of the liquid-cooled, 4-valve 155cc motor within the Aerox is sort of heavily derived from the R15’s engine, and even gets VVA technology rather like its sports bike relative. it should have lost a couple of ponies compared to the R15, however, this can be still one of the fastest fast scooters in the country. The Aerox doesn’t quite have that instant kick within the backside that you simply get from an electron volt, however, once it gets going, it’s properly speedy and extremely linear, and doesn’t lose momentum till the speedo is showing triple digits. There’s very little else within the scooter section which will carry on.

But the performance and refinement square measure each thing that you simply expect from this motor. What you would possibly not expect, is the wonderful fuel potency that it can give once you’re careful. Sure, once you’re riding exhausting, the potency drops well below the 40kpl mark. however once you dial it down a notch, things improve significantly. The sheer grunt of it means you don’t ought to use terribly massive throttle openings to induce around, and once ridden with a careful manus, the Aerox will even deliver as high as 50kpl within the town. Out on the main road, at a gentle sixty-five to 70kph cruise, you must get even more!

Part of the Aerox’s stellar fuel potency within the town is right down to its wonderful stop-start system. Barely has the front fork finished rebounding from coming back to a stop, and therefore the engine has already been killed. And even once you’re caught unready once the signal turns inexperienced, the Aerox has your back, delivering the motor to life in a rapid once you twist the throttle, because of an integrated starter generator unit..

If there’s one disadvantage with this engine, it’s the sound. The exhaust note is sort of standard, and a sportier sound recording to travel with the remainder of its colourful nature would’ve gone a protracted manner in elevating the expertise.

RIDE & HANDLING

Handling is yet one more space wherever the Aerox could be a huge departure from most of the scooters we have a tendency to get in Bharat. as compared to the featherlight, quick-turning scooters that we’re wont to riding, the Aerox feels clearly a lot of heavy-steering, and needs some effort to tip into bends. The side of this, though, is imperturbable stability and calm. no matter speed or lean angle you’re at, this scooter feels sure-footed and unshakable, feeding your confidence munificently. It holds a line excellently, and therefore the stability and heavy-steering square measure each function of the big 14-inch wheels and wide tyres. In fact, the Aerox feels nearly motorcycle-like through the corners.

All this handling performance comes at the price of ride quality, though. in contrast to most gas scooters in Bharat that use a monoshock, the Aerox gets twin shock absorbers at the rear, and they are established on the firmer facet. The front fork feels nice enough, however, the shocks have a precise firm edge to them, that the ride is unquestionably not what you’d decide plush or snug. however, at constant times, it’s not harsh or jarring either. At high speeds or on sleek pavement, there’s very little to complain regarding, however, going over bumps at town speeds isn’t the foremost pleasant affair. If you are doing need very little a lot of comforts, Yamaha will supply accent gas-charged shock absorbers from KYB with preload adjustability.

But one space wherever there are not any accessories to mend the shortcomings is braking. The 230mm front hydraulic brakes offer near adequate stopping performance, however, may do with a lot of feel and modulation at the lever. the important drawback, though, is at the rear, wherever the 130mm drum brakes feel absolutely feeble. Rear hydraulic brakes would go a protracted manner on this scooter, and are some things that we have a tendency to feel ought to be offered, a minimum of as a possibility.

owners review:

Am I the first post this year here on this scooter? Surprising, given the capability of this new profile of two wheeler to give memorable experiences when taken to streets. This then is a brief summary of a recent touring experience I undertook on my Aerox.

I just finished an impulsive 1800km round trip on the Aerox over 3 days, from Jan 5th to 7th, from Bangalore to Pune and back with errand pit stops en route in Belgaum and Kohlapur. I didn’t have this bike until a month ago. Here’s how it all unfolded.

Reason to buy? – purely just GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

Reason to ride? – A lack of any actual long distance riding experiences on Youtube, Google or here, with a few 100km stretches being called long ride reviews made me reach for these keys amidst my more capable motorcycles. I’d heard and read quite a bit of criticism towards its touring capability. The scooter’s cubic capacity being dismissed as boring for highways, fuel economy as a hindrance, ride quality as harsh, ground clearance as risky, wind buffeting as intrusive…and so on. When work presented an opportunity to head far, on a road I knew, I thought I’d learn about the Aerox’s proper long distance ability first hand.

Here is a quick summary of my experience with points made about each aspect of the scooter, as my measurable experience post this ride. I hope it’s useful for those who own this machine or are considering it for being purposeful for highways.

Distance covered – about 1800 kms
Dates, Destinations and timing –
5th Jan
Bangalore to Belgaum. Left at 2 pm reached at 10.40pm with 2 tea breaks and 4 fuel refill stops.
6th Jan
Belgaum to Pune. Left at 8am reached at 1pm with only 1 tea break and 4 fuel stops.
Same day Left Pune at 4 pm and rode back to Hubli, reached by 12pm with 3 tea breaks and 4 fuel stops.
7th Jan
Hubli to Bangalore. Left at 12, reached by 630. 2 tea breaks, 4 fuel stops.

Average speeds – 85 to 95kmph. When road allows it, for brief stretches 100kmph can be easily breached and sustained. What’s fun is one is always 10kms faster than what is expected by turn of throttle or time from when last glanced at speedo. This is a quick scooter for sure!

My dimensions – 46 years in age. 5’10” in height. 84 kilos in weight.

Luggage carried – as I was only going for 2 nights/3 days, I had all my luggage in a Givi top box mounted on a Givi rear rack. About 10 kilos of luggage in all, given some emergency provisions and a DSLR.

Riding style – i don’t stop to eat when riding, dry fruits in the pocket to pop thru helmet and water in a hydra backpack via pipe keep me going refreshed. I try to combine loo break, coffee/tea with refuelling, and look for pumps clustered to offer this combined facility.

Motorcycles of the past 3 years I ride on – To make you understand the spectrum of my experience and point of perspective, here is what iv ridden on this same route even, the past 3 years – Mojo, GS310, Highness, Intruder, Svartpilen, SF250.

Now to offer my assessment of the scooter across it’s capabilities-

Ride quality – the so-called Achilles heel. Yes, it’s stiff, but I ride a drop handlebar road cycle with a zero flex seat stem and no suspension in the city so for me, this seat is cushy and the ride, while firm enough for great feedback, doesn’t become uncomfortable. I can understand for those with ortho chair jobs or long hours seated careers or conditioned to commuting car-rears, ride complaints would be butt obvious, pun intended. During my ride I discovered that going fast over road patches and undulations actually reduced the impact to the rear and the stiff suspension was a boon as there was no flex, bounce or wallowing that transferred to the spine/lower back on undulating, wavy patches.

Handling – Top points here, and I think opinion on this would be undivided across anyone who rides this. Ghat bends or long sweepers on the highway, this goes where you point it, no deviation from holding it’s line.

Stability – my biggest worry prior to the ride was this. Would the bulgy fibre body make it flap around at high speeds. Would it’s light weight cause it to waver and shift lane? Will the low overall silhouette of vehicle be disbalanced by my upper body weight and loaded top box?
I’m happy to report, that this bike was as stable as the best of my earlier rides on this highway. There was zero turbulence from heavy vehicles rushing past or the famed crosswinds that operate the Chitradurga windmills. I didn’t have a moment of concern even during quick lane changes over 100.

Windblast – surprisingly next to nil. January sun on this highway can be surprisingly harsh, and I enjoyed the wind keeping me cool through my mesh jacket, not once being buffeted into discomfort by the wind. Its also to be noted that this scooter keeps the wind completely away from feet, legs and lower body thanks to it’s faired construction.

Ride feel/Performance – it’s tough to be objective about this one when all that springs to mind in recall feels effusive. I’ve been riding 25 years on highways across India on assorted cc and styles of motorcycles bur even if I take just the current motorcycles I’ve owned across the past 3 years, this comes out tops in ride feel. Instantly responsive to a twist of the hand, with just nothing else to do but enjoy the ride, is a level of convenience that shaves off valuable seconds of activity from the ‘process of riding’ and shifts it to the ‘pleasure of riding’. The way I was able to find gaps, overtake, deaccelerate and accelerate, were all such fun, that it truly felt thrilling to do so little and yet get so much out of it. To repeat, I was always surprised at the speed I was at each time I glanced at the speedo, the stability and ease to get there belying the speed I was at. As a parting point to this category I’d like to mention a thought that kept reoccurring – I never seemed to reach the limit of this scooter, where it gasped for performance. Each time I pulled back or stayed at a speed, it was for either road condition, speed limit or varying concentration. Kudos to VVA for delivering such an eager performance and feel.

Uphill performance – Agreed no himalayas, but over the mild western ghats I crossed en route, there was no change to performance described above.

Fuel economy – Thank god this scooter has fairly accurate display metrics for this one! There were several heart in mouth moments where I would pass a pump for being inconveniently off the road, only to encounter tens of kilometers without a next one and my guage indicator asking me why the hell wasn’t I refueling. My best mileage was 40 kmpl, my worst was 31 kmpl. I was consistently between 85 to 110, almost all the time when unfettered. Slowing down was for obvious purposes, so this is the mileage from the above pattern of riding. No complaints on the figures but surely the tank could have been bigger. However, it took away less than 5 minutes each time to identify a pump without any queue and swing into it, flip that conveniently located flap and ask for 500 ka fuel, a note I kept ready to quickly hand over in my upper jacket pocket. I actually found the coincidence of ATMs dispensing 500 notes, the price of fuel in India today and the 4 5 – 5 litre refueling I did, to be a happy, convenient reason I could speed in and out of pumps in minimal time.

Ergonomics – The two most relaxed parts of me were my hands and legs, enhanced by having nothing much to do with the controls and being in positions that offered leeway for change and little to no stress. I could not see how the central spine of the Aerox was any different in feel for feet compared to a scooter with no floorboard, as my knee position kept me from gripping the spine in any way or measure. I could vary my feet position forward or rear by about 6 inches, enough to keep me comfortable the entire way. The seat however, angled me such that I could not move much front or back on it, which over a long duration caused ample pinprick sensation to the rear. However, a fuel stop would arise and I would only need to stand up once to be comfortable again. No lower back or spine effects from this ride whatsoever. I did not find my knees fouling with the front apron even while braking hard, something that most reviews I’d seen, keep harping on.

Rough road abilities– The stiff ride of the Aerox actually helped iron out mild rumble strips, cracks and blemishes on the Aerox especially when going faster, by skipping over them instead of wallowing in and out. Your mileage may vary based on your weight and riding style. However I found the Aerox very unsettled on a jungle track of 4 kms I needed to run an errand on, with the effect of pebbles and stones below the wheel making the ride nervous and unsettled. What was really worrisome was when coming downhill, at an angle of above 20 degrees descent, the rough track took the scooter out of it’s line very rapidly and the gearless nature meant it picked up speed on it’s own while doing so. Applying the brake to restrain it, only means the front ABS kicks back by releasing the brake when the wheel skids, so it ends up feeling like you have no comfort or control in mind or hand. In all, NOT a scooter for off roading. However, the way I got past this was by saddling, a picture of which I’ll include below. One can saddle, atleast at my height, and I didn’t find it challenging me unduly. Another positive of the Aerox’s suspension emerged here – with just 145mm of ground clearance I was sure this would touch many obstacles such a ride would have, but amazingly not ONCE did it touch anywhere. Any speedbreaker, at unseen speeds, and all rough roads, were crossed without even a hint of a touch. After a point I even stopped thinking of the underbody when encountering road disturbances.

Controls and Electronics – My main gripe with this scooter emerges here, thanks to much of my riding being at night. Who the hell does away with the high beam flasher? Instead, there is a stupid infometric menu switch in that place! Really Yamaha? I want to signal an opposite truck in the wrong lane to get back to his and end up seeing my real-time mileage instead. My only back up in such emergencies. An equally ineffective horn!! Apart from these two bah’s all else was par for the course. The headlight too was not as insufficient as made out to be, and maybe if one is spoilt by aux lights then there’s no going back. However, I found it as good or bad as my motorcycles and my riding style is used to a way of staying safe on night rides, so the Aerox headlight did enough to aid that.

Luggage ability – 10/10. I have never had a two wheeler that could pack away so much within and around it. Extra spacious underseat, that fantastic Givi top box and a natural body to hold saddle bags means the Aerox is really practical to packing in a lot. Apart from all that, one can keep a bag of substantial space between the feet, as the floor it rests is raised up by that spine, thus balancing that bag between the knees.

Desirability – By this I mean two things. How desirable is this scooter to me, measured by whether I turn back to look at it after parking each time, and how long I would keep it, given I rotate my vehicles each year. The first one I can answer immediately to myself – I didn’t look at it too much anywhere I parked, nor was I inclined to taking pictures of it in assorted dramatic highway landscapes. Even though my scooter is in arguably it’s loudest colours, orange wheels etc, I still found it’s modern silhouette aka Dio styled looks, to be not as endearing to my retro favouring sensibilities. There was good curiosity out there though about the scooter, but my guage is that this is a fairly under the radar looker which doesn’t turn heads for style. Since that has no implication on reasons I keep or sell my bikes, the second aspect, of how long this will stay with me, is still open to experiences ahead.

With that I come to the last aspect I can recall to narrate from my ride.

What is this scooter good for?
This is purely a personal opinion and your mileage will vary from the sum of your lifestyle. For me, post this comprehensive ride experience, the Aerox appears to be great for – Solo airport runs where I park there for fly out n back day work trips. Solo short rides within 300 to 400 kilometers. Solo trips for errands that require me to bring back or ferry goods, thanks to that cavernous luggage capability.

The Aerox will not be used for pillion duties. No one who has sat behind has expressed comfort both getting on or during the ride. It will definitely be a highway scooter but I will have to ensure the road condition involves no mud/gravel and has enough fuel pumps. For all these pros and cons i see the Aerox being a great intercity ride for within states or even inter state. For the hot summers, when every effort can drain a rider, the value of not having to focus on clutch, gears, foot controls etc of motorbikes, will be immensely useful in relaxing the rider. For the monsoons, the Aerox will be ever prepared with all the raingear in it’s under seat storage, and keeping some splashes away with it’s body style and fairing. So hey, the Aerox is turning out to have a few aces for every reason and season. If this post is useful in helping you explore the scooter you have or convert thought to purchase, then do know that the purpose of writing it is to help with how it fares when outside it’s obvious scope of usage. Obviously, as a city commuter it’s a point and scoot tool like no other!