You’re One Step Closer To Bringing Your R3 Or MT-03 Home!

Yamaha’s duo of twin-cylinder bikes can now be pre-booked from some dealerships

Yamaha recently gave us all a big surprise by showcasing the R3 and MT-03 (along with a host of other Yamaha big bikes) at a dealer meet. And now it seems the bikemaker will bring the bikes in soon, with select dealerships unofficially opening bookings for both the R3 as well as MT-03.

As is evident from their names, while the R3 is a fully faired sport bike (like its smaller sibling, the R15V4), the MT-03 is a naked streetfighter like the MT-15 V2. Both sport the same 321cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin engine making an identical 42PS; the MT-03, though, makes 29.6Nm, 0.1Nm more than the R3. 

Back to the matter at hand, and from what we have learnt, both bikes can be booked at token amounts ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000. Yes, we realise that’s quite a broad estimate, but mostly because these bookings will be done at the behest of the dealer (and not Yamaha itself). Besides, none of the pan-india dealers we spoke to could give us an exact estimate of when the bike will be available at their showrooms, with the given time frame varying from one to three months. This ties in with our original estimate of the launch, which we had predicted would happen earliest in June or July 2023.

And finally coming to the expected price tags of both bikes. We believe the R3 will retail for around Rs 4 lakh, while the MT-03 will retail for Rs 3.8 lakh (both prices ex-showroom). We have spoken at length about our views on this pricing strategy earlier. And finally, while the R3 gets tough competition from the KTM RC 390, the MT-03 goes up against the KTM 390 Duke, a comparison we have laid out in detail as well.