Gladiator RS- an excellent commuter bike. Review on Yamaha Gladiator

Got a blue RS a couple of months back. Here is my take on the bike....

1. Looks: When I first saw the RS and SS bikes in the showroom, frankly, I could not take my eyes off them. Simple, elegant, sporty and quality fit and finish.  Red-black(SS)  and blue(RS) seemed to stand out though all gladi's are good looking bikes.

   
   




2. Sales experience: Hassle free in Orion motors, Bangalore. Delivered on the same day evening. The RC book and insurance took lot of time (read several weeks) to arrive.

   
   

3.Ride & Handling: Now let me take the worm out of the can !! Before I took the gladi out of the showroom, the only thing I ever rode on 2 wheels were my bi-cycles and LML scooter (What  the heck I am 34 and getting old  ?? :) The moment I started the bike from the showroom, it gave me immense confidence. I rode it back home and trust me it was not a small feat in my standards 2 months back. Kudos to the Gladi, it is so simple, smooth and easy to ride.

After using it for sometime now, I find this bike has perfect balance, smooth clutching and gear shifting, okay acceleration, decent  suspension. The braking is precise ( front disk needs somegetting used to). Tried riding it on 90 kmph and behaved very well. The little yammi was rock solid.

The fantastic ergonomics it offers is noteworthy. I have pretty sensitive back and shoulder muscles which start aching at drop of the hat. This bike keeps anything of that sort far and away !! Thank you Yamaha.

You feel you are in perfect harmony with this machine when you ride it. That I guess is something true to Yamaha genes.

1. Fuel efficiency: Never checked, I believe it gives 50+ in b'lore city condition with stop-n-go

traffic.

1. Power: First gear runs out of power very soon as you rev it beyond 4k+. rpm (one of

the things I dislike about this bike). Move it to second and third, you will get a decent share to take this bike to 6k revs with ease.

All said and done by Yamaha ( sports biking blah, blah...), this is a commuter bike. No offence meant to any gladi owner ( pal, I own one too), with 11 bhp coming at 6k rpm, this is meant for regular commute. This is a bike with moderate torque and power which "looks" more sporty

than it's performance.

1. Daily usage experience: No surprises. It starts and  works in the most predictable manner without hassles. (Now that I also got a RE Thunderbird which needs continuous attention), the preditable behaviour of gladi, the lackluster performance.... sometimes I find the gladi tad boring ( for good though :) .

BTW, when you pick stocks in share market, you pick the most boring ones which give you predictable earning every quarter :)

1. Service: This appears to be the bane. However, these service folks have too many bikes to handle and they care a hoot for your or my bike.  When I picked the bike after first service, self start was not working. The workshop mechanics had no clue about what could be wrong and

they wanted me to come back later. Decided to pick the bike and ride with the hope that the battery will re-charge. In essence, I gave them a working bike and they returned it with a problem. After riding the bike for 30-40 kms, the self started to work again and to my luck, I did not have to visit the workshop again.

They could not show me the job card and did not provide receipts for service ( "Computer is down Sir ").  That reminds me to check whether they changed the engine oil, will do ..... For some reason, I have a feeling that they did not do aything other than washing the bike ( and draining the battery).

I chose not to go for the extended third year warranty as I did not want to deal with these service station folks for one more year.

Wake up Yamaha, your service folks seem to have a serious attitude problem and they need to learn to listen and speak to customers. They dont value  time and money as long as it is from the customer's kitty. Back your good products with quality service. I guess you have HEARD it long enough, but never bothered LISTEN AND ACT.

8.Pricing : At 53k onroad, you get a nice looking little Yamaha with alloys, engine fairing, disk, decent performance and mileage. This seems to be a well (dare say the best )rounded package available for this segment.

1. Build quality: The little yamaha seems to be built-to-last. Ride it hard and shows no signs of wear-n-tear, not even a squeak !! Trust me I have tested it on stretches which are anything but roads and in B'lore you get them apelenty. The bike never lost it's composure.

Let me end on a tangential note, I have not written too many reviews myself. But I have certainly benefitted immensely from mouthshut for most of my purchasing decissions (expecially

the vehicles). Hats off to this community ...