Motorcycle News Of The Week: Honda To Introduce NSF 250R In Indian Motorsports, New Yamaha YZF-R25 Spied And More!

Last weekend witnessed some high-octane action in Indian motorsports. On the news front, Yamaha’s upcoming quarter-litre motorcycle was spied, and the Japanese brand also hiked the price of its entry-level sporty motorcycle, the YZF-R15 V3.0, in the country. Then the Indian Government made a controversial announcement which left us enthusiasts in splits. Here’s all that transpired over the last week:

ARRC Round 4 & Honda’s motorsports announcement:

The fourth round of the Asian Road Racing Championship took place last weekend. Idemitsu Honda Racing India was the country’s sole team and two Indian riders, Rajiv Sethu and Anish Shetty, competed in the Asia Production 250cc class. They were riding race-spec Honda CBR 250RR while the SuperSport 600cc class was competed in by Taiga Hada from Japan, riding a Honda CBR 600RR. The SuperSport 600cc in particular witnessed intense action, with a dramatic ending on the last day! Here’s the detailed race report.

On the sidelines of the race event, Honda announced the introduction of the NSF 250R in the 2019 season. The top riders will get a chance to ride this epic Moto3 machine in an exclusive race series running parallel with the existing national championships. You can read about the announcement and the bike in detail here.

Non-ISI helmets to be banned in two months:

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The Ministry Of Road Transport and Highways announced that helmets that do not comply with ISI norms will be banned. This includes sale, manufacturing and the usage of non-ISI helmets. The Government has given a two month grace period for feedback from stakeholders and the general public. Oddly, this would include helmets that comply with international norms like DOT, ECE and the likes as well, thus rendering them illegal technically. Post the grace period, violators will attract a hefty amount as fine or serious jail time, the details of which can be found here.

Local and International news from Yamaha:

Yamaha hiked the price of its newly-launched faired motorcycle, the YZF-R15 V3.0, by Rs 2000. The motorcycle now costs Rs 1.27 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi. In Indonesia, the next-generation Yamaha YZF-R25 was spied testing. It features a design language akin to its litre-class brother, the R1. The spy shots gives us a good idea about how the 2019 Yamaha YZF-R3 will look like, as it shares the R25’s platform. You can read about it here.

Latest development from Ducati and Triumph:

Ducati’s CEO Claudio Domenicali confirment that its latest V4 engine that debuted in the Panigale V4 will trickle down to other products in the brand’s portfolio. The Italian bikemaker is in the process of honing this motor to suit other motorcycles. Imagine the likes of the Monster and the Diavel with this monster of an engine (pun unintended)! However, there is a catch. Here’s what it is.

Triumph shared a teaser video of its upcoming scrambler, the Scrambler 1200. It would be ideal for those who need something a lot brawnier and bigger than the Street Scrambler. The bike was spotted testing March this year, and the production model will be revealed on October 24, presumably at the Tokyo Motor Show. It wouldn’t be surprising if Triumph launched the bike at this year’s EICMA, that’s scheduled to take place from 6 to 11 November in Milan, Italy.