Yamaha FZ25 - Knight Black


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**Disclaimer : Comparison is based on my opinion only. I used to own a Apache rtr 160, most of the things I mention is by comparing 6yrs of riding with that rtr.**
Hello everyone,

Background :
During July-2017 I felt the urge to have something out of life rather than my boring job. I read a quote "If you hate your job, then take a loan. You will love it from then onwards". This hit me hard and got me thinking what vent wrong when I compared with my college days few years ago. I really missed the days of just going out with friends, sudden unplanned road trips, night-outs, bunking college etc,. So I decided to make a change with my life and hence I decided to buy a new bike.

The Hunt :
My main preference were Comfort, Design, Maintenance, Ease of spare availability and Rear passenger comfort in that order and my budget was around 6L INR. The bikes initially finalised were Ninja Z650, KTM390, Benelli TNT600i.

Went to Bangalore and drove a z650, the bike is fast as hell and I felt like I could never use this as a daily driver and dropped the idea of getting an 600cc bike for now.

Next went to KTM showroom, during TD just a small throttle twist and the bike went wheeling. This bike also requires complete attention always and one small error in judgement may end up costing a life. So I decided I'm not even capable of riding a 43bhp bike and started to look for a lower bhp motorcycles.

Then I shortlisted FZ25 and Benelli TNT25. Benelli was great but I felt engine vibrations from it at very low rpm (may be an issue with TD bike). After enquiring the sales advisor, I came to know that benelli had a service intervals of 4K kms @ each costing around 2.5K+extra and I will have to change tires every 10-12K kms. Both tires would have costed around 16K. After calculating cost to own, it was as much as owning a superbike and hence I dropped that too.

So finally I was stuck with FZ25 and just went to showroom half hearted. Took the TD, IC of that bike was not even working. After few KMs I observed that the bike was torquey and still was in my control and suddenly realised this was much better for me to be use as a daily driver. After few days, I booked the Knight Black variant after an inspection. Final OTR was 1.47L INR including all accessories and extended warranty.


After Delivery till now :
Took the delivery of bike on 21/07/2017 and PDI went all smooth, got all documents and proof of extended warranty. Sales Advisor told me that they only have 2 accessories for FZ25 as of now and will install the remaining after stock is available and gave me a signed paper stating the same.

Initial Impressions :
1- Exhaust note of the bike was awesome (at least for me). Stock one's from Yamaha sounded like an after market one.
2- I felt that gear, clutch and throttle were hard and gave me a slight wrist pain. Later was adjusted according to my style.
3- Bike was always ready to be unleaded with slight throttle. The torques you get is awesome, especially for city rides.
4-The oil inter cooler really works effectively. There wasn't much heat radiating from engine even after a very rough ride.
5-Brakes are good. Never felt the requirement of ABS, not even once. (I normally use both front and back brakes simultaneously as mentioned in manual)
6- MRF zappers are doing their job pretty well.

Engine Break-in process :
As per manual, we have to ride the bike with <4000rpm till 500kms and <6000rpm till 1000kms.

FE and other details :
Initially i was getting an FE of 36.1kmpl in city which later increased to 39.9kmpl as ODO reading increased. Bike gives more FE than what is shown in IC panel. And FE in highway is around 43kmpl. FE was calculated via tank full to tank full method only.

First service is at 60 days or 1000kms and next consecutive services are at 6months or 5000kms. Only 3 free services can be availed.

Pros :
- Peak torque is at 6000rpm. Even in 5th gear bike can easily pull from 60-110kmph.
-Very good and well thought ergonomics.
-14 liters tank, some say we can easily get a range of 470kms.
-Even riding with Pillion you don’t feel any lag in power output.
-Response of dual throttle set-up is accurate and predictable. You can feel the minute level of twist and the output of power.
-A constant Mileage between 37-40kmpl. (Great for a 250cc!)
-No heating issue, Air cooled engine with Oil cooler performs well.
-Good seating comfort for both pillion and rider is good.
-Bike feels smooth even at 60kmph.
-Superb exhaust note.
-Since it's an Yamaha, Fit and finish is great.

Cons :
-Sadly headlight is a major con for this bike. Not only it not that good but there is a slight headlight vibration in all fz25's.
-High beam throw is pathetic. Have to adjust manually.
-Slight vibration can be felt at 4000-6000rpm and afterwards it magically becomes smooth.
-IC panel is small in comparison. It should have been slightly bigger.
-O2 sensor and horn's wiring is exposed.
-Rear and front mud guards are useless.

Bike has a dimension of 2015x770x1075mm (LxWxH). Seat height is 795mm, wheel base is 1360mm and minimum ground clearance is 160mm. Turning radis of the bike is 2.5m
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Engine is an air-cooled, 4S, SOHC, 2 Valves FI model. It can deliver peak power of 20.9ps at 8000rpm and peak torque of 20Nm at 6000rpm. Please do not let these numbers undervalue the bike, just take a TD and you'll understand what I mean.
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Fuel tank has a capacity of 14L and can provide a range of 430kms easily. I really like how the tank is neatly sculpted. It gives the big bike feel. The scoops are aerodynamic is design and doesn't let water lodge in them
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Front tyre is 100/80-17M/C 52P Tubeless and rear tyre is 140/70-17M/C 66S Tubeless. Front disk brake is a 282mm hydraulic one manufactured by Bybre (Brembo) and rear disk is 220mm hydraulic manufacture by Nissin. Wider tyres help in maintaining the stance. Most of the times you don't have to turn handle bar, just bend it at appropriate speed and it'll start to turn.
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Rider seat is wide and comfortable, especially suitable for long rides. Pillion seat is higher than most of the bike in that segment. Only one friend of mine reported that pillion seat was hard.
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I like the look of head light, it has some inspiration drawn from MT03. It has 2 led for low beam and 1 led for high beam. There is an halogen parking lamp which cam be switched to an LED one. Frankly I would prefer halogen parking lamp only since it helps in fog conditions. Turn signals are doing their job pretty good but I felt like LED ones could have made this better.
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Front view of Head light at night, low beam and high beam respectively
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Rider point of view -
Low beam :
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High beam :
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Low beam comparison with halogen lights of i20 with hb.
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Please don't let the pictures of headlight fool you. I felt like headlight is okay for city use but for those who ride on highways at night you will have to get an auxiliary setup as high beam is less than useless.

The bike has split led tail lights, good but it's same as that on rtr 160. There is nothing great about this especially in this segment.
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Instrument Cluster :
Even though it's small, it is very informative. The bike has a tacho, fuel indicator, check engine light, HB indicator, Turn signal indicator.
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The normal order of Select function is ODO > Trip 1 > Trip 2 > Instantaneous FE > Avg.FE > Clock.

When your bike reaches reserve level, the fuel indicator starts to flash and you get a trip function called "Trip F" which shows how many distance it's been travelled after reserve is reached. Typically you can travel upto 50-70kms on reserve only, but it is recommended to make sure that you fuel doesn't come below reserve level since it's an FI engine.
The new order of Select function is ODO > Trip F > Trip 1 > Trip 2 > Instantaneous FE > Avg.FE > Clock.
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The bike has a self diagnostic mode. If any errors is found it'll indicate in trip section. There is also auto self diagnostics of FI pump when kill switch is off. If kill switch is on, it’ll disable diagnostics on pump.

Bike has good mirrors but it also suffers from issue which haunts the segment. It has a huge blind spot at rear and sometimes i have to straighten my arm to see at back. I honestly felt like TVS apaches's mirror were pretty good.
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Basically bike is an great example of modularity and cost reduction, very similar to KTM's way of thinking. FZ25 has parts borrowed from FZ16, hence spare availability is easy and lower in cost.

Who should consider this bike ?
-If you are a person who is new to 250cc segment and want to take time to built your skill to go to higher cc segment.
-If you are a person who has budget restriction of 1.6L.
-If you are a person who hate waiting for spares and service.
-If you are a person who drives a lot in city and needs torque and good FE.

FIRST SERVICE

SECOND SERVICE

THIRD SERVICE

FOURTH SERVICE

FIFTH SERVICE
 
Last edited:
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Good review! I had this bike with me for 1 whole week and I have the same views as you. Headlight was poor plus engine vibes went up at higher rpms and I felt this engine did not want to revved which is very unlike a Japanese bike.
 
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Had first service done at 946kms. Total charge was 1035INR including tax. I was charged for 4 things,
-Oil Filter
-Engine Oil
-Chain Lube
-Chain cleaning

Issues I had before service :
-Disk padding/dragging.
-Headlight vibration/shaking.
-Vibrations could be felt from plastics placed next to tank.
-Slight Tappet noise.
-Gears feeling hard to shift.

After service :
-tappet noise gone.
-No more disk padding
-Gears are butter smooth to shift.
-Headlight shaking still persist.

Good review! I had this bike with me for 1 whole week and I have the same views as you. Headlight was poor plus engine vibes went up at higher rpms and I felt this engine did not want to revved which is very unlike a Japanese bike.
I only feel vibration when I am in 4000rpm to 6000rpm range, afterwards it suddenly disappears. My bike has a tendency to jump and pass traffic swiftly till 7K rpm, after that it slightly struggles.
 
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Hey Krishna,

Congrats on your new Black Knight[clap]

I've been hearing excellent reviews about this bike and the only negative review I came across was about the headlights. Is it that bad ? I've heard that the high beam isn't effective at all and gives a small bump of extra light over the low beam.
 
Thread Starter #7
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Congrats on your new Black Knight[clap]
Thanks

I've been hearing excellent reviews about this bike and the only negative review I came across was about the headlights. Is it that bad ? I've heard that the high beam isn't effective at all and gives a small bump of extra light over the low beam.
We can align headlight as per our requirement using a phillips screwdriver. Even after alignment it's hard to see pot holes due to increased scattering of light. I think if we switch to 55W led then it'll become more effective.

I would say that headlight highbeam is pretty useless to drive on highways at night as of now.
 
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Hi, congratulations for your new bike.. Looks mean and equally awesome. Just one question, does it come with ABS as an option? One of my nephews is hunting for his first bike and he doesn't want to go for anything more than 250 cc engine (which makes sense too for his first bike). We would definitely like his bike to have maximum safety features, ABS particularly and this bike sure seems to be a decent package.

Thanks and enjoy your new prized possession.
Nitin
 
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Hi, congratulations for your new bike.. Looks mean and equally awesome. Just one question, does it come with ABS as an option? One of my nephews is hunting for his first bike and he doesn't want to go for anything more than 250 cc engine (which makes sense too for his first bike). We would definitely like his bike to have maximum safety features, ABS particularly and this bike sure seems to be a decent package.

Thanks and enjoy your new prized possession.
Nitin
ABS is not offered as an option also. If you are seeking for a bike with ABS, check out the newly launched Gixxer SF with ABS. Also Apache 200 is with ABS as per their website but not sure if its available.
 
Thread Starter #11
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Hi, congratulations for your new bike.. Looks mean and equally awesome.
Thanks

Just one question, does it come with ABS as an option?
No ABS variant for India as of now. The bike has place for ABS sensor, I think yamaha didn't install it just to maintain the cost as low as possible. If I'm right Yamaha must be launching an ABS version for Brazil, may be then I hope they'll look into India to launch it.

One of my nephews is hunting for his first bike and he doesn't want to go for anything more than 250 cc engine (which makes sense too for his first bike).
Since he is new to biking, I would not recommend him this bike. Normally I would suggest beginners to start with 150cc and then slowly move to a higher cc with time.

We would definitely like his bike to have maximum safety features, ABS particularly and this bike sure seems to be a decent package.
Frankly speaking, I never ever had an ABS bike nor I ever rode fast with any of mine or my friends vehicles, so non-abs is not a huge deal dropper for me.

PS: Wheels of FZ25 never locked up on me even under hard braking during heavy rains.
 
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Yeah, he shouldn't really start with anything more than 150cc :-) but he has been riding 200/250cc bikes for quite some time now and is reasonably confident/ready for his own 250cc machine.

Honestly, I haven't experienced riding any bike with ABS either (coming from old school bikes with no safety features) but in these crazy traffic conditions we feel it's good to have as much safety as he could. Plus whatever reviews I see and read, people actually do recommend ABS as one of the most important safety features in a bike.

Regards
 
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Thread Starter #13
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Yeah, he shouldn't really start with anything more than 150cc :-) but he has been riding 200/250cc bikes for quite some time now and is reasonably confident/ready for his own 250cc machine.
Just make sure that he doesn't over estimate his driving skills just because bike has safety features like abs and traction control. I have seen many people riding fast and absurd believing that ABS will save them.

If he is a touring type of guy invest in a jacket, a good helmet and gloves too.
 
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ABS is not offered as an option also. If you are seeking for a bike with ABS, check out the newly launched Gixxer SF with ABS. Also Apache 200 is with ABS as per their website but not sure if its available.
ABS seems more important on bike than car to me since front tyre locks very badly and on wet, sandy surfaces the bike would skid easily. Gixxer SF is good but not in the league of FZ250 as its just 150cc segment bike and much lower in torque and power. CBR250 ABS is good but now overpriced, RS200 ABS is also another option.
 
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Hi Krishna,

Congratulations for your black knight. Wish you many more happy and trouble free miles with your steed. BTW can you please tell why dint you consider dominar 400?

Actually i am planning to get a bike and i am confused between dominar and FZ25. For your reference my earlier bike was R15 V1.

thanks in advance [:)]
 

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