The Hindu Business Line : Alba — Yamaha goes pricey on mass-market bike

Yamaha has taken pains to make the Alba look good, even as it meets the standard definition of the pricey variant of a mass-market bike. It has a few design sweet spots and Yamaha’s standard build quality.

— Bijoy Ghosh

More acceptable design for the entry-level biker.

Yamaha Motor India is hard-pressed to come up with new ideas to stem the slide in its market share. Sales volumes are not just picking up and it is not because the company’s bikes have been found wanting in anyway compared to the competition.

Yamaha Motor India has four different bikes in its portfolio and they are all in the commuter and executive segments. Despite its presence in these two growing categories, which are positioned close to the entry-level segment, the company has not been able to capture buyer attention, in a manner that Bajaj Auto has.

Further, it may seem ironic that for a company whose RX 100 had in the 1990s a huge fan following in the 100cc segment, Yamaha Motor India is wary of getting into the entry-level 100ccc bike segment now. With well-entrenched competitors such as Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Company carving out the entry bike segment among them, Yamaha’s strategy not to focus too much on this category is sensible given the current level of strength of its brand.

Yamaha wants to improve the appeal of the brand amongst young bike buyers. And it will be a good strategy to introduce a few ‘aspirational’, big, performance bikes from Yamaha’s international portfolio to try and build the brand among the buyers of tomorrow.

New Strategy

Yamaha Motor India is said to be working out a strategy to try and more than triple its market share in the next four-five years, by first introducing some performance bikes and then by shoring up its products in the executive and commuter segments. Meanwhile, the company has been trying to reposition and refresh its existing range of bikes.

Indian bike buyers’ staid, unadventurous taste, especially in the 100cc-plus segment has been the reason for the poor response for some of the Yamaha bikes. Having had a forgettable experience selling its bikes with radical, but global design cues and features, which were too offbeat for Indian buyers (as happened with original twin-eyed Fazer), Yamaha has reinvented almost all of its bikes, redesigning and in some cases coming up with a completely new versions on the same platform. So, the old Fazer was both, redesigned and later used to develop the Gladiator. Similarly, it is now the turn of the Libero G5 and its platform to get the redesign treatment. The result is a bike that looks almost all new in the Alba 106. The Alba is the most plain looking bike that Yamaha has made in India, but if that is what the buyer in the segment wants, why would they be complaining?.

Quality Build

Yamaha has taken pains to make the Alba look good (in the Indian buyer’s perspective), even as it meets the standard definition of the pricey variant of a mass-market bike. But there are a few design sweet spots and, of course, Yamaha’s, by now, is standard build quality. The bike gets a new headlamp and fairing combination, as also a chunkier fuel tank and body side panels. The dual-pod instrument cluster and the set of graphics and stickers on the panels are all new. Much of the electricals has been carried forward. The seat has been redesigned to make it a tad broader and more comfortable for the rider and the pillion.

New five-spoke alloy wheels and well-finished aluminium sub-frame and rear grab-rail add to the upmarket feel of the Alba.

The power-train

The bike sports the same 106cc engine offered with the G5. This engine generates a maximum power of 7.6bhp at 7,500 rpm and a peak torque of 7.85Nm at 6,000 rpm. On average the performance specifications of 100cc bikes fall within the same range in which the Alba too features.

The 106cc engine in the Alba has been teamed with a four-speed, constant mesh gearbox that the classic Yamaha sports — one down, three up shift pattern. The gear ratios in the Alba have been reset for improved low-speed performance. With considerable amounts of the engine’s torque available even at low rpm bands, there may be no need to shift down often to a lower gear in slow moving city traffic.

A multiple wet type clutch has been used and the clutch feel is progressive in the Alba. The stylish chrome silencer and heat shield have been carried forward from the G5. The Alba gets new-design turn indicators that remind one of the winkers in Yamaha’s bigger, muscled bikes.

The new Alba is priced at about Rs 38,500 for the steel, spoked wheels version and about Rs 40,500 for the alloy wheel version (both ex-showroom). Representing good value, the bike should also be able to get close to the entry segment leader, in terms of its fuel efficiency.

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