New Yezdi Adventure: First Ride Review

The Visuals

So the folks at Yezdi have managed to design the Adventure in such a way that it looks rugged, a bit intimidating and also showcase good road presence. There are some design lines that look quite familiar to the Himalayan, but the Yezdi showcases it in a much softer way.

Like all the other adventure bikes, there’s a front beak on the Adventure. Then there’s also this large fuel tank that gets some sharp design lines. The presence of large windscreen, handguards and a mandatory optional metal frame at the front gives a lot of mass to the motorcycle. Now as you move closer to seats, you’ll notice it has thick cushioning and I believe this has been done to provide better comfort while riding long distance. Other aspects like the dual-purpose tyres, upswept exhaust and fork gaiters completes the adventure bike look.

At the back, there’s a tail rack that can hold some luggage. But in case there’s a need to put more luggage, there’s an option to install saddle stays. The other thing I liked about the bike is the kind of LED lights they have used – the turn indicators as well as the tail light are round – this setup may not look good in pictures, but as you see the bike in person, you’ll start liking it, just like I did.

The Package

The Yezdi Adventure gets its power from a 334cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. This motor makes 29.8bhp at 8,000rpm and 29.9Nm of peak torque at 6,500rpm.

This Yezdi is equipped with a fully-digital instrument cluster, full-LED lighting, USB port and integrated type-C port. The instrument cluster is smartly designed and comes with Bluetooth connectivity, turn-by-turn navigation, and tilt-adjustability. The tilt-adjustment feature aims at giving out a display experience when seated or stand-up riding. Apart from turn-by-turn navigation, the Bluetooth connectivity brings access to calls and messages while the smartphone app saves the vehicle and rider details. The bike is rides on telescopic forks at the front and a monoshock at the rear. Other cycle parts like disc brakes are standard in the segment. But interestingly, there's a three-level ABS on the Adventure - road, rain and off-road.

The Ride

With all these equipment, does it do any good off-road? Well, the answer is yes! Firstly, the motor has good amount of torque at the low-end and that is what is needed if you are going off-road. The off-road track we had, had a mix of slow, moderate and even high speed sections – the Yezdi managed to take most of these sections pretty well. In fact, the bike feels at home at low-speed sections and to be honest, I was quite surprised with the way the motorcycle performed. The motor offers good refinement, but as we were limited to just the off-road section, we won’t be able to tell how it performed on the road. But we’ll get to this soon.

The Yezdi Adventure comes with 220mm of ground clearance which is kinda segment standard. The travel on the front suspension too, isn't segment best. So let's jump it and find out if the bike can do this all day long.

The folks at Yezdi has given it an off road abs. That means this safety equipment stays on, on the front wheel but switches off at the rear. And that means you can do this. This and also this.

But honestly, the Yezdi feels comfortable and at home when it goes off road. The combination of good stand up ergos, 21 inch front wheel and decent low end torque makes the bike go over practically everything. The weight is nicely distributed. There’s no top heaviness – an aspect that comes with a few other ADVs. And while I did do a planned drop test, there was an instance where I went little overboard at the media ride and then this happened. Here, you would still need more than one person to get the bike up and running, but that’s the story for every adventure motorcycle.

The Verdict

The Yezdi Adventure checks a lot of boxes. It’s has a potent engine that churns out good performance in off-road conditions. The low-end torque especially is good enough to have lots of fun in the dirt. And then there is the overall standing-up ergonomics that cater to most of the Indians, including taller riders. The presence of 21-inch front wheel and good ground clearance allows you to go over some large obstacles confidently. And while we didn’t get to test the ride quality of the bike on the road, it worked decently well in off-road condition. The rear was set to 4th preload level to maximize the dirt experience. In short, the Yezdi Adventure is a great bike to ride off-road. It took a lot of thrashing and I think it can take more. But can this be a great bike on the road well where it will be ridden the most? We’ll find it soon!