Rented Yezdi Scrambler for the weekend: Pros & cons by Meteor 350 owner

Was initially hoping to rent out the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650, but it wasn't available.

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Had a Rs 1000 Royal Brothers voucher which was expiring soon, so decided to rent out a bike for this weekend. It was a pretty last-minute decision, so not many bikes were available for the weekend. Was hoping to get hold of an Interceptor 650 but it wasn’t available, so, my options were:

1. Classic 350
2. Duke 200
3. Yezdi Scrambler
4. V-Strom 250

Decided to try out the Yezdi Scrambler as I have never ridden a scrambler before, nor have I ridden any of the Yezdis. Thought it would be a good change from my Meteor 350, so went ahead and booked it from the Royal Brothers Marathalli branch and did 257 kms on it over the weekend.

Here are my thoughts on the bike after a weekend’s usage in both city and highway conditions:

Pros of Yezdi Scrambler

• Looks: The biggest strength of the bike is its looks. It is a gorgeous-looking machine and grabs eyeballs on the road. It is perfectly proportioned and looks beautiful just standing still. Much better than its direct competitor the Scram 411.
• Gearbox: The 6-speed gearbox of the Scrambler was a pleasant surprise. The shifts felt crisp and there were no false neutrals. The downshifts especially felt really sharp and I thoroughly enjoyed going through the gears.
• Brakes: My opinion on this might be skewed because I am used to the brakes on the Meteor, which are bang average. But the brakes on the Yezdi were very confidence inspiring and had a great initial bite. They were predictable and even the ABS calibration was executed well.
• Performance: The 334cc engine is a strong performer and can quite easily reach triple-digit speeds. The low-end grunt is a bit lacking but the mid-range and top-end are strong and make for a lot of fun while making quick sprints.

So-So of Yezdi Scrambler

• Ride Quality: The Scrambler is set up stiff. It is not intolerably stiff but you will feel the road surface through your bottom. The suspension does improve as the speeds rise but somehow, it never feels fully settled. Unless the road is absolutely flat, you do bounce around a fair bit irrespective of the speed.
• Fit & Finish: Classic Legends still have a long way to go in the quality and finesse departments. There were several ugly welds and oddly enough, the tail rack didn’t seem to be aligned with the centre of the bike. There were spots of rust starting to appear in places too. The fuel filler cap wasn’t locking in place correctly. The switchgear was showing signs of wear with the symbols fading on a bike with just 8k kms on the odo.

Cons of Yezdi Scrambler

• Refinement: This engine is honestly a mess when it comes to NVH levels. It sounds trashy even at idle and there is a very narrow band where it feels smooth. There are vibrations on the bars, pegs, seat and tank. 6th gear at 95-100 is about as fast you can go before it becomes too buzzy. This is a shame given the amount of performance it still has in reserve but just cannot be used sustainably.
• Heat: The engine gets really hot, really soon. After just 5 minutes in slow-moving traffic, the fan kicked in and I could feel the heat on my legs despite wearing riding boots and jeans. Even cruising at 90 on the highway, the engine gets hotter than it should.
• Clutch: I always thought the clutch on my Meteor was already heavy, but boy does the Scramblers clutch make the one on my RE almost feel like a slip & assist clutch. My hands were in so much pain after 15 minutes of stop-go traffic that I just decided to park up at a coffee shop to take a break and let the traffic subside.
• Fuelling: I don’t know if this was an issue with this particular bike or if it is a general one, but there is something seriously wrong with the fuelling of the bike. The rpms just keep fluctuating. Even at idle, the engine was sputtering. This becomes even worse when you try to maintain a constant speed because the engine never feels settled and the rpm keeps jumping up and down causing a weird sputtering effect while trying to cruise.
• Seat: The seat is way too soft and you kind of sink into it and are sitting on the rails after like 30-45 minutes of riding. Also, the seat severely rakes up and this angle isn’t comfortable for pillions.

Conclusion

The Scrambler is a very fun bike when you wring it out. But in most other scenarios, it is a compromised and unfinished motorcycle. Classic Legends as a brand have a lot to improve on and that is the case with all their products currently too. They make machines that are great to look at but difficult to live with.

PS: These are just my opinions and are not meant to offend owners of Yezdi bikes. My observations might also be skewed because it is a rental bike.

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