Yamaha YZF R15 V3 vs KTM RC 200 [2020]

If you have read our launch ride and track-day stories, you must be aware of the Yamaha YZF-R15 V3.0’s superiority on the track. But what about the real world, where it will spend most of its life? How does the R15 perform as an everyday ride?

For the 2018 BikeWale Track Day, I wanted to get my elbow down on a Yamaha YZF-R1M at the Valencia track in Spain. But then I was reminded of our budgets and my capabilities by the wide chicken strips on my Apache. So we settled for the next best thing – a Yamaha YZF-R15 on the MMRT in Chennai. The YZF-R15 V3.0 shares its platform with the Yamaha M-Slaz, a streetfighter sold only in select global markets.

This is the YZF R15 V 3.0.

Should you be spending around Rs 1.83 lakh on the R15, or put in Rs 26,000 more and go for the bigger RC 200?

This is the new-for-2017 KTM RC200, which like an ignored child, gets very few upgrades compared to the new RC390. Sure, all the 200’s tantrums have forced KTM to give it a new set of clothes. But with that white hue, the paint job looks more like the older RC390’s hand-me-down clothes; only these are altered for the 200’s size. Now, haven’t all the second-born amongst us experienced that, especially when it came to school uniforms?

I was left awestruck the day the images of the KTM RC200 surfaced on the web. I saw the pictures of the RC 390 but they were not as bewitching and enchanting as the ones of the RC200. The high resolution images not only became the wallpaper on my laptop and cell phone, but they left a big imprint in my minda as well. The impatient soul within me felt tranquil while I marvelled at the beauty of the RC 200. I only came to my senses when I was told that I was going to review one of the RC motorcycles. All the drooling, dreaming and waiting for one of the most anticipated bikes of 2014 was going to get over for me. Lost in the gawking, I don't even remember how fast the day dawned and we were at Bajaj's private test track at Chakan to see what it's all about.