The Hindu Business Line : Yamaha Gladiator: Into the Colosseum for the 125cc fight

Investment World - Two/Three Wheelers
Marketing - New Products & Services
Columns - Auto Focus

Yamaha Gladiator: Into the Colosseum for the 125cc fight

S. Muralidhar

Unfazed by the Fazer's poor sales in the high volumes executive bike segment, Yamaha has now launched the Gladiator and reworked its marketing strategy. Will it be able to take on the Bajaj Discover?

The sometimes absurdly unique trends in the Indian automobile industry turn out a great leveller for companies that might otherwise tend to get carried away and assume that their products will replicate successes in other markets.

Every so often the most well-informed and market-savvy company comes up with what may seem to be an obviously flawed product strategies and then pay for it with lower-than-expected sales.

Yamaha Motor's Fazer is a case in point. So, what was the truth that Yamaha had to learn the hard way — that the Indian commuter/executive bike buyer is blindly in favour of conventional styling and predictable design and that a bland, conformist front side for the bike is a must for achieving any degree of success.

Yamaha had opted to make bold moves with an out-of-the-ordinary design and styling for the Fazer, a trend that it had started with the slightly quaint looking Libero. After the staid, uninspiring design of the previous bikes such as the YBX, the Cruz, and the Libero, the Fazer almost seemed to ooze shock value.

The old and the new

The twin headlamp and the stubby, deeply-angled fairing dominated the Frazer's front. The `Martian-eye' twin headlamp, with clear-lens type glass featuring a peeled-back teardrop look gave the bike a somewhat difficult to like and yet strangely beautiful, new age countenance. We liked it, but the biking public did not. And, so despite the bike being so good, demand largely remained subdued.

A minor facelift was given to the Fazer last year, which converted the headlamp into a single unit by simply removing the dividing portion between the twin-lamp units. Other minor variations to the stickering and finish quality, and the addition of a fuel gauge later, the new version of the Fazer was still slow to move out of the showrooms.

Consumer preferences can be perplexing in the bike market. There was nothing wrong with the Fazer. So, what does one do if the buyer in this segment is so unadventurous? Give them what they want.

Which is what Yamaha has done now. It has taken the basic body and trim of the Fazer, reworked its face and given it a fifth cog to finally land up with a much more conventional looking bike that is sure to find willing acceptance among commuter/executive bike buyers.

To remove any connect with the radical looking elder sibling, the Fazer brand name has been replaced with the more aggressive Gladiator badge. Together with its hunk brand ambassador, John Abraham, and the Life Rocks ad campaign, Yamaha is now clearly showing signs of a better understanding of the young Indian biker, who now constitutes a chunk of the bike buying population.

Fazer Plus

The Gladiator was showcased at this year's Auto Expo held in January. The bike has been tested extensively and has the Yamaha signature all over. At the front, the new bikini fairing and visor are conventional in overall form, but has a very sporty and chunky design. With the visor positioned closer to the vertical, the Gladiator looks more aerodynamic.

The die-cast triple clamp, the large fuel tank with its shapely dummy air scoops on either side, and the sinuous, stepped up design of the seat are carry-forwards from the Fazer and give the Gladiator masculine looks. Positioned neatly within the visor in the headlamp unit is a new twin-pod instrument cluster featuring separate speedo and fuel-gauge clocks that also display turn indicators and a neutral indicator lamp.

At the rear, the integrated tail lamp — a Fazer feature — has been retained, as also the die-cast rear grab-rail with minor modifications. Some of the nice touches to the Gladiator include the gold-plated finish for the nuts, bolts and disc brake caliper, the signature six-holed looks for the chrome-finished silencer, the strobe patterned decals running across the dummy scoops and fuel tank, the classy, international-looking front turn indicators, and in the middle of the twin-pod instrument cluster the Yamaha tuning fork symbol that glows at night.

Step onto the fifth

The Gladiator's engine is the same 123.7cc, four-stroke mill that powered the Fazer. Only, in the Gladiator the engine has been mated to a five-speed gearbox with comfortably spaced out ratios. The engine puts out a peak power of 11PS at 7,500 rpm and the peak torque of 10.4Nm sets in at 6,500 rpm.

The engine is extremely refined and the slick-shifting gearbox, with Yamaha's trademark one-down, four-up shift-pattern, features carefully spaced ratios to ensure that the Gladiator's mill does not feel stressed out under most riding conditions. One feature that we felt could have been improved is the gearbox's heel shifter that is too small and tends to slip during quick acceleration moves.

Aiding the performance and the refinement of the Gladiator's engine are two other features that were already Fazer favourites — the counter balancer for the crankshaft and the YTPS. The counter balancer for the crankshaft enables the Gladiator to even out a lot of the vibrations that might otherwise get passed on; this improves the overall refinement and ride comfort. YTPS or the Yamaha Throttle Position Sensor is a fuel-saving feature that the company has carried forward from the Fazer.

The Fazer's engine came with a BS carburettor and that has also been retained for the Gladiator. Through 3-D digital mapping, the carburettor works in tandem with the YTPS to provide precise adjustment of the ignition advance based on the degree of throttle opened. This ensures optimised fuel supply to the engine and avoids wastage.

While in the Fazer, despite this feature, fuel efficiency was not its forte, the mileage in the long run in city conditions for the Gladiator will be slightly better at 48-52 kmpl, thanks to the high ratio for the fifth gear that gives the bike better cruising ability. The new bike is being made available in two variants, with the standard being priced at Rs 42,000 (ex-showroom) and the DX variant carries a price tag of Rs 45,000.

The Gladiator is an extremely well built, practical and attractive looking option for the bike buyer in the 125cc segment. It is welcome competition for the Bajaj Discover, which had a late start, but has had a dream run for about a year now.

More Stories on : Two/Three Wheelers | New Products & Services | Auto Focus

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page