Yamaha FZ-X Spied Ahead Of Launch

Will get some classic off-road styling cues

[UPDATE: Yamaha has launched the FZ-X in India. Check out our launch story for the price, specs and other details.]

India is slowly warming up to small-displacement adventure bikes, and Yamaha wants to get in on the action. Its tool for the job is the upcoming FZ-X, which was recently revealed in RTO certification documents. Now, the new model has been spied for the first time, revealing some interesting details.

Starting from the front, the fender is a pretty long unit and features a rough-and-tough design. In keeping with the go-anywhere theme, the FZ-X also gets fork gaiters, but the most interesting thing about the picture is the quirky round headlight. There seems to be a projector element in the centre, surrounded by a DRL ring, but the unit seems almost half-finished in this picture, with no real headlight lens. It will be interesting to see what the final production version looks like.

The sculpted fuel tank appears rather large and swoops down steeply to the seat section, and Yamaha has thrown in a sump guard too. There are also mock "radiator shrouds'' (the bike does not have a radiator; it will be powered by an air-cooled engine). The air-cooled engine in question is the same 149cc single-cylinder, fuel-injected motor from the FZ-S Fi. Documentation reveals that output figures will also remain the same, at 12.4PS at 7,250rpm and 13.3Nm at 5500rpm.

Despite the ADV-like styling cues, the FZ-X will likely be more of a soft-roader than a hardcore off-roader. This picture shows alloy wheels rather than wire-spoke units, and we expect these to measure 17-inches at both ends. The fork doesn't seem to be a long-travel unit, and at the rear is a box-section swingarm.

Having observed the differences to the standard FZ-S, we expect the FZ-X to carry a premium of around Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 once it's launched sometime in the next few months. 

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