Hello and welcome to PowerDrift. Finally today we have the Yezdi Scrambler with us,
now this is a brand that's chosen the tagline, Yezdi forever, for themselves,
but the company shut down in 1997 and restarted right? Well, that's not important. What is
important is what that bike feels like to ride on the road and that's what we've got in this video.
If you haven't, do hit the subscribe button and the bell notification icon
and as soon as you've done that,
let's get riding.
Given the model specification,
clearly, this is more a cosmetic Scrambler than a true off-road tool and that's fine,
right? That sounds like how you'll use it to me as well, so let's start with the design.
Okay, no more forever jokes I promise. Now let's talk about the design of the motorcycle because
honestly that is a good looking, eye catching motorcycle, the colour choices, everything
works really well, including the rectangular engine cases. But, I do think that the finish
and build quality of this motorcycle can stand to improve quite a bit and as you can see, the
motorcycle you've seen up to now in brochures, in ad campaigns, on social media and on PowerDrift,
that Scrambler looks very different from this one because when they showed these motorcycles
for the first time, Yezdi absolutely crammed them full of accessories and this motorcycle has
absolutely none. You know, I think that that's a mistake and Yezdi shouldn't have done that,
they should have shown this motorcycle from the start, because first impressions are forever.
The engine of course is based on the Perak and it's been tuned says Yezdi to suit the
Scrambler's role. The 334cc single uses that and a new single exhaust design,
yes with two end-cans to make 29.1PS and 28.2Nm.
Unlike you'd expect for a Scrambler, the redline isn't sky high,
and you don't rev this one out forever between gear changes.
So when you start up the Scrambler's engine, the first thing you're going to notice
is the fact that it seems to make more noise than it actually moves forward and to me that's
a little bit of a disconnect that will make the motorcycle feel slower than it actually is.
The other thing you'll notice is the refinement level is adequate, it's acceptable, but it's far
from what the industry is best at doing and in fact, this engine is based on the Perak's
engine but it's less refined than the Perak's engine which is a bit of a surprise for me.
But, the gearbox is actually nice, gear shifts are very slick and they're very short throws which
makes the motorcycle feel sportier than it is. In that sense, it's a strange mix, but the question
you really want to know is, will the Yezdi engine last forever? Nothing lasts forever my friend.
That engine now goes into a double cradle frame with a swing arm unique
to the Scrambler because of its twin rear shocks. I would love to tell you
the steering geometry figures too, but Yezdi is taking forever to share those.
Okay, I promise no more forever jokes and if you think I've already done too much, just leave me
a comment and say this was too much. But let's talk about the riding dynamics of the Scrambler.
The first question you're going to ask obviously is it comfortable and it should be right it's got
long travel suspension, 19-inch front wheel, this should be a nice, plush, comfortable motorcycle,
it's not.
The suspension setup I think is too stiff to the point where I rechecked that the preload was not
set to max, that the tyre pressures were okay and it's still riding extremely stiffly to the
point where when two persons roughly my size sat on the motorcycle the suspension barely reacted,
to me that's a suspension setup that is just way too stiff.
If you have a suspension setup that stiff and you hit a big rock or land a big jump off-road,
there might be some advantage to it, but for 99.9% of the time, this is just going to cause
discomfort and it also causes problems with the handling because if the road has over banding
the motorcycle wants to take the path of least resistance it doesn't really settle.
Handling itself is quite clean, but again on this particular test unit
the handlebar on the right side gets stuck with something I think there's a wire whose length
is miscalculated or something like that, it starts to get stuck, so right U turns are
extremely awkward but left U turns out okay, so overall, I'm going to say potentially in here
is a motorcycle with decent dynamics at least, but this motorcycle is not able to show them.
Now the question is, would you be able to go scrambling with this motorcycle
and would it scramble forever? And honestly, I'm thinking you are going to have to make changes,
the suspension setup is too stiff for most of what scrambling represents and you're definitely going
to have to change the tyres because these MRF Kurves with a K are pretty decent on the road,
but they're not off-road tyres, they're a road tyre with an off-road pattern,
which means if you're going to get serious about it, you're going to have to change the tyres too.
Let's not take forever to draw some conclusions right, as it is you've been asking us to
do this story forever and Yezdi is taking forever to get the media test units ready.
Now the potential for a 350cc Scrambler if you think about it is huge because that is the only
scrambler of that size that money can buy in the market today. What money are we talking
about? Rs. 2.05 approximately is where the prices start ex-showroom Delhi and they go up to about
to Rs. 2.11 lakh in all and remember, the motorcycle you saw earlier had a lot of accessories on it,
that's what the Scrambler actually looks like, but should you buy one? Now the problem with
that proposition is that, that motorcycle needs a lot of work because the Scrambler's build and
finish quality can improve, the ride quality most certainly should improve, the engine's refinement
can be tuned further. Now how it makes power and how that makes you feel can be tuned further as well
and obviously this doesn't have the GPS or the navigation or any of those features,
which you'll have to pay extra for, so should you buy a Scrambler or not?
There's a great quote I think that fits, forever
has no meaning for those of us who live in the moment. Thank you so much for watching.