Thursday, April 30, 2009

Yamaha RX-135


Yamaha had made its foray into our country more than twenty five years ago.their first bike to come here was the mammoth RD-350. It lifespan very short but its legend will be in our minds forever. Their other ïmports" were the the RX-100 and little later on the the RX-135. the whole concept of a two stroke engine is brilliant but if i explain it to you in my own words it would not make sense just visit http://www.animatedengines.com/twostroke.shtml . From this you will realize that it performs just half the work but giving us almost double the output of a four stroke engine.

The conception of such a technology is revolutionary but not without its consequences,as we can see its inefficent and pollutes in a really large manner that realistically speaking has no place in our world today.Nonetheless given where i have tested this bike the rules are a little more lax so its existence is pretty safe and coupled with the fact that the owner has kept it really well.

Im not going to post technical details here simpy for the fact that they are readly avaliable http://autos.maxabout.com/twid0000062/yamaha_rx_135.aspx.

I knew this was a going to be a brilliant ride the instant the owner gave me his keys,well more likey it was a single key. I walked into the parking lot and found it almost instantly.all its 10 years of age had not done a thing to it. it followed a conventional gear shift apttern that i have seen on most Yamaha's of one gear one down(or foreward) and four up(or back).

Given its age it started on a single kick.the very first thing  noticedd was the phenomenal accelartion that this bike posssed. my last fleeting glimpse was the sight of my friend Norten saying "dude you got the...."i would assume that he said bike but i was a little too far away to hear him.

My chosen route was for the test was an area about 5.5 kms from my college it was a stretch of high way that was narrow but brilliant to ride on. the bike displayed high levels of stability even at fifty km plus i could only go about sixty five kmph because some truck had dumped huge lumps of soil in a rather strategic manner.

For a ten year old bike his speedometer was still in intact  and in working condition. In a vague attempt to be a little scientific i tried to do a zero to sixty test the timing that  got was somewhere between fifteen to twenty seconds but I'm sure given the way i did it (analogue wrist watch) I'm must be pretty far away the actual timing .

Power to weight ratio
It's power weight to ratio is pretty brilliant it has a 14 HP engine and weighs around a hundred kilos which makes its very light and zippy and stable at high speeds.

Seating stance
In all fairness its a commuter motorcycle with conventional foot pegs and upright seating position.

Acceleration
Known to everyone as pocket rockets , just one wring of the accelerator gave me a glimpse of why it has this name, one website that i visited said it goes from 0-60 in just four seconds i don't know how true this actually is.

Engine
Large amounts of torque and mainly in the higher RPM range you have to whip the accelerator to get a rocketing start and get real feel of how powerful this engine actually is.

Mileage
its two stroke nature limits it to around 30-35 km pl on a good bike,riding like your in a moto gp race would push you down to around 27-30 km pl.

Braking
Drums on the front and back push you to have a brake in advance style which means that the faster you go,the earlier you have to brake.

Instrumentation
single speedo gauge with with kmps output.

Ride quality
its a nippy ride with its RPM in a higher range this means you have to go faster to see its real potential and levels of handling.

My Ride
I covered a total distance of around 10 kms both ways. Smooth roads, warm April air and a fast motorcycle is a mind blowing combination. I even tried some professional move by sticking my arms and knees in a specific manner the results were quite good.

This bike embodies the spirit what passion motorcycling was at one point of time. the total harmony of the man and his machine,responding to every sound and moving in perfect timing as well as adjusting himself to every situation

In the end i would like to say this is a brilliant motorcycle for its time it was a god and a demon it will always be one of the bikes that defined our bike heritage. 

  

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