A Yamaha R15 owner buys the Aerox scooter: His unbiased opinion

What impressed me was the ability to cruise at 70-80 kmhr all day while returning around 35-40 km/L mileage.

BHPian monnish.k recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am very happy to introduce my latest acquisition a Yamaha Aerox 155. Since my trusty old Honda Dio gave up on me I started to look out for options as repairing it and refurbishing it would cost nearly 30k as per the Honda dealer’s quote. We immediately decided not to spend that much on it because the approximate street value was roughly 15-20k for it. We were stranded without a vehicle at home. As a Yamaha fanboy, my mind immediately went for the Aerox just for one reason - It has the R15-derived engine (I am an ex R15 owner, and had to sell it as I broke my left arm). But the on-road price was nearly close to 1.78 lakhs OTR Chennai, this made me think of an alternate which is the TVS Ntorq. The Ntorq was a serious contender and had good performance but the poor response from TVS dealers made me skip it. So the decision was the aerox it is. You may ask why I did not think of the Aprilia scooters, to be fair I don’t like them. While I was interning at an automotive magazine in Pune I got to ride the SXR 160 and boy I hated it. It had a huge amount of lag lower down and the engine felt rough compared to the Aerox.

Then came the problem, as the Aerox has a 60 - 90 days waiting period which made me reconsider getting the new Dio 125, but I did not give up. I rang up every Yamaha Blue Square dealer in Chennai and found one showroom that had a blue Aerox in stock as someone backed off. Immediately rushed to the showroom and booked the vehicle. The delivery was promised in 3 days. While booking the vehicle I made sure to my sales executive that I’ll get the vehicle from the showroom to the RTO with them as my RTO is in the outskirts and I don’t trust them. (I did the same for my R15 also).

I filled up the Aerox and headed home.

The next day I headed out for a breakfast ride cause why not? Packed my camera and cleaned all my riding gear a day before and I was ready to go. The Aerox surprised me with its highway capabilities. It was very stable on the highways. I could do 70 all day long on the Aerox while getting 40 kmpl which reminded me of my R15 v2. Did a round trip of 200 km that day and boy I fell in love with it. In 10 days, I completed the first 1000 km mark which included 3 trips to MDK (a popular biking destination approximately 100 km from my home) and some city rides. While at the service center, the service advisor was shocked to see me coming for the first service as the number plates hadn’t arrived yet and I’d done 1000kms. Left the Aerox for service and the bill came to around 900rs which is not bad for a 150cc scooter.

In the next 12 days with the Aerox, I put it through a lot of tests and made observations. The scooter ran on 95-octane fuel, tried different tyre pressures and some hard riding on corners, and here are my observations.

Ride, handling and braking

Everyone here knows about the ride of the Aerox it is stiff and feels uncomfortable on broken roads. I was fine at first but when going through a corner at higher speeds you feel the over-stiffness of the scooter. There was one incident where I was leaning into the corner and suddenly a small bump appeared before I could brake I hit the bump which made the rear unsettled. The next one was when I took my mom out for the first time she also complained about how she could feel every bump on the road (comparing it to our Dio). I am planning to change the suspension and I am currently researching the same. The scooter handles better than other scooters in the market and I guess it will improve once I change and dial in the rear suspension. The next disappointment is the brakes, the Aerox has a disk brake setup on the front with ABS and a drum setup on the rear. The rear brake is poor and locks up under heavy braking while the front is descent as it also lacks the initial bite.

The 2023 Aerox comes with traction control which helps by cutting off power when it detects loss of traction. This helps newer riders to stay safe when braking in the rain or while accelerating in the dirt. The TCS can be turned off which allows you to slide the scooter in parking lots when you are in the mood.

Engine

The only reason I have the Aerox today is because of the engine. The Yamaha gods haven’t disappointed me here. It has a detuned version of the 155cc engine from the R15 v3 with VVA in it. The CVT gearbox has a bit of lag in the low end which is not a big deal. The 155cc mill produces approx 14.9 ps of power and 13.8 nm of torque which is a huge number for a petrol scooter in India. The scooter accelerates hard and wants to be ridden hard. What impressed me was the ability to cruise at 70-80 all day while returning around 35-40 km to a liter.

Quality

This is where the scooter scores low for me, There are a lot of panel gaps and the paint looks a bit dull compared to my R15 which was the same racing blue color. The black plastics will fade pretty soon as in the case with other Yamaha vehicles.

Pillion comfort & other practical bits

The pillion seat is a bit high and my sister mentioned it feels like sitting in the back seat of the R15. Once you climb up the seat you’ll feel the seat being very small but the seating position compensates for it. The pillion sits upright and has a neatly merged grab handle to hold onto.

The scooter has an ample amount of underseat storage which can hold a full-sized helmet and also week’s vegetables (mom is happy). While there is no front footboard area which might be a deal breaker for some people.

Commutes

My commutes are mostly inside the city at peak hours. The traffic in Chennai has become worse it takes me nearly 1.5 hours to do 10 km. The start-stop system comes into play here. It turns off after idling for 10 seconds and turns on immediately with a twist of the throttle. I also use the Aerox as my weekend ride. It keeps up with other 150 cc motorcycles easily on the highways.

Features

While the Aerox doesn’t have any modern features like other scooters, it does have features that you require for everyday use. The instrument cluster has 2 trip meters, a real-time fuel efficiency meter, an average fuel efficiency meter, and meters to show how many kilometers the vehicle has gone since the last oil change and CVT belt change. This is more than enough, come on you don’t need lap timers to time your sprint to the nearest supermarket. Even in 2023 Yamaha still uses traditional bulb indicators which looked out of place on an expensive product, spoke with the sales guys and got a pair of LED indicators for free! Got it installed before taking delivery. It also has Yamaha motorcycle connect which is useless. My phone doesn’t connect automatically, there is no navigation and the data is not accurate. The 2023 model features hazard flashers in-built which is good. The scooter also has auto start-stop, making my life easier. I used to turn off my scooter in signals and start it again, which the aerox does automatically.

Verdict

In the end, I feel the Aerox is a perfect companion for me as it suits all my requirements well. It looks good, handles well, is fast (for scooter standards), and is also very fuel-efficient.

Would I recommend it to my friends and family? Not really. See the Aerox worked out for me as I can’t ride a motorcycle (for now) But if you are looking for a normal fun scooter the TVS Ntorq is still the best option as it is value for money, fun, and decently fast for its price. Don’t get me wrong the Aerox is good but if you think from your mind the Aerox has a lot of niggles and needs a lot of after-market parts to make it better.

These are my initial impressions I'll be posting more updates in the future. Here are some images will post more once I get time to shoot it properly.

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