Plz. Note: The image provided here is not of Fazer 150, its the default fazer image on mouthshut server.
I recently bought this bike and completed 800 kms in 30 days. writing this review after my first service which happened at 700 Kms.
Firstly, I bought this bike just to keep the biker in me alive. I am 29 and was driving a Santro for quite sometime when suddenly one day I thought man I am feeling OLD.
After reading lot of reviews and all about the bikes on road like the pulsars and the heros and the tvses and the yamahas and the hondas. I came to one conclusion - that you cant get everything in one bike. mileage. big rear seats/tyres. power. cruisers. killing accelerations. build quality. size. after sales service. etc. etc.
Buy a bike that suits your needs to the max. I mean 80% at least, if your needs are realistic.
Before putting my bike’s review forward, I am suggesting some bikes after reviewing and personally driving a lot of bikes.
1) Students who are concerned about mileage as well as they want power and decent bike price - Honda unicorn or TVS apache(Unicorn is better in the long run for its build quality)
2) Family person who drives with a pillion lady - Honda Unicorn or CBZ extreme
3) A Recluse who drives fast and doesn’t care for his life at all and lives on the edge - Pulsar 150 to 220 as per his wish
4) The highway man and his pillion - Avenger 220
5) The highway man alone - Yamaha Fazer
6) Fast guy in the city - FZ16 or Fazer(FZ16 for narrow lanes)
7) Racer - R15 or Pulsar 220 or Karizma ZMR or Honda 250(coming soon on road)
8) Style/Safety/Decent Power - Fazer alone
Now coming to the review -
Fazer has got decent power and is very good for the city as all its power is concentrated from 0-85, which is the max you could go in the big cities.
The safety of this bike at high speeds is very impressive. you would love this feature. turning at high speeds, braking suddenly etc. etc.
You will need to carry a shoulder bag always if you want to carry something as any other accessory like side bags etc will spoil the whole look of the bike.
The Ride quality is smooth as my 1.5 year old son sleeps with his head on the tank whenever I take him out for a ride at night and he doesn’t wake up at all on my backward journey, which begins the moment he sleeps.
The rear views are well placed.
I saw people complaining about the rear discs being absent but I feel they are not at all required. The fat rear tyre has been tested well with the present braking system and the bike does not require a disc even at the maximum speed it can achieve.
People had been complaining about the mileage also. For them I would suggest to use a slim rear and front tyre and you would get better mileage than the pulsars for sure. But your safety gone as is the case with all pulsarites on road. I am getting 38-40 km/lt.
The ride quality is so good that I have taken 500 km out of 800 km journey totally unnecessarily, 200 km with my kid and 300 km alone just to present a decent mileage for 1st service. As usually happens, after first service the gear shifts have become softer but still some more softness is desired. The engine is quite hard and more smoothness is expected after second service.
The things I would like to change in the bike: Nothing(being realistic); I should be able to drive a bike of this sort at above 80 km/hr from day one, I mean no break in periods of 30 days should be there for these bikes(being unrealistic)
UPDATE: OK - No-one has marked the review as very useful hence I am trying to write whatever I know about the bike in the maximum space provided here. these things I knew b4 I bought it after reading user reviews from many websites. let this be the place where you will get all about fazer -
Midship muffler gives power in the low range ie till around 90 k/h after that its hard to accelerate. max speed is 120 k/h(+-7 reported)
Midship muffler gets scratches easily
Rear Tyre made by MRF, is soft, has good grip but lasts 25K odd kms. No other tyre with same dimensions available as it is exclusively made by MRF for this bike and is very well tested.
Fairing is wind tunnel tested and is great. no wind pushing at high speeds encountered. I have myself driven it past trucks at 85k/h and didnt feel any sideways push.
Suspensions are great - you will glide over bumpy roads
You can increase the mileage by 3-4 km/l if you fill air around 40 in the rear(will reduce the grip though)
As mentioned everywhere, the rear seat is a little small
Gear shifting is minimal. you can ride from 25k/hr to 120k/h in the 5th gear itself(will lose mileage in both the conditions)
Only one headlight will blow at a time(left one for dipper and right one for the main light), an attachment costing 100 bucks can be used to blow both together(will lose battery warranty if you do so, though no bad impact on battery actually happens as is reported by many users. Also, if you gently place the button in between dipper and main light, both the lights blow simultaneously(the setting which I use sometimes)
The handles are slightly placed towards racing bike position and ppl who are not used to riding such bikes for long journeys will get slight pain in the wrists(this condition is worse in R15 bike, thats why it is not used for long rides)
Fz16 and Fazer has the same engine only difference is the fairing and the better seating position in Fazer
The breaking assembly is just superb.
People who have been riding hero hondas like me will find the gear shifting problematic as the gear shifts are only done by the toe and no ankle lever is provided. the gear combination is 1 down and 4 up= total 5 gears.
No kick start is available in this bike(owners who have driven more than 20K say that auto start never failed)
There is no leg guard and if you install one looks are compromised(comes around 600 bucks)
The fuel indicator gives wrong readings sometimes. Some users claim they are always shown two step below the original content.
The sparkplug comes with YRCS(Yamaha ram air coolig system) that sends coolig air to the sparkplug area to maintain good performance at higher speeds also.
The tank which is visible to the world is actually a fiber dummy which is changeable the actual tank is below it and accommodates some 12 l of petrol.
Some guys find the side stand a little misplaced as it is between gears and main stand. I never got any problems.
The oil which should be used in Yamalube 20W40(preferred), but 20W50 can also be used as per company manual.(Continued in comments due to lack of space.)
