Spec comparo: Dominar 250 vs Suzuki Gixxer 250 vs Yamaha FZ 25
Bajaj launched the new Dominar 250, a lightweight hyper tourer and this one will enter a bout with the Yamaha FZ-25 and the Suzuki Gixxer 250 among others. The bike gets its styling cues from its elder sibling and maintains the Dominar 400's silhouette. We match the specs of the new Dominar 250 with its rivals to see how the battle looks like on paper.
Styling
In terms of looks, the Suzuki Gixxer 250 looks sharpest in class. The bike looks much edgier than its matchup. The side look of the Gixxer 250 has a better street presence, but the Yamaha FZ-25 is not behind when it comes to making an impact. The FZ-25 has an attitude which makes it at par with the Suzuki Gixxer 250.
At the same time the Dominar 250 comes with the borrowed styling design of the Dominar 400, deal with the 250's styling is that it is subtle and simple. It doesn't have an aggressive character or as impactful a design if compared to the FZ-25 and the Gixxer 250. Dominar 250 and Gixxer 250 comes with two colour options whereas the FZ-25 comes with four colour options.
But the Dominar 250 comes with USD forks which adds to the beefy look of the bike while the other two bikes get conventional forks. The Dominar 250 and Suzuki Gixxer 250 comes with twin-barrel exhaust, the FZ 25 come with a muffler cover. In my opinion, the Suzuki Gixxer 250 makes for a better-looking bike.
Features
When it comes to features, all the bikes get LED headlamps and tail lamps, digital instrumentation, dual-channel ABS and disc brakes. The feature race is pretty tight and all the bikes fare equally. The tank of the FZ-25 has the highest capacity with 14 litres of space, the Dominar 250 can hold 13 litres and the Suzuki Gixxer 250 can hold 12 litres which is the least.
Engine
The Dominar 250 comes with a 248.77cc single-cylinder, four-stroke, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected engine which makes a power of 27PS of power and 23.5Nm of torque. The Suzuki Gixxer 250 houses a 249cc single-cylinder, oil-cooled-engine that pushes a power of 26.5PS and a torque of 22.6Nm of torque.
And the Yamaha FZ-25 comes with 249cc single-cylinder, air-cooled engine that churns a power of 20.9PS of power and 20Nm of torque. The new Dominar offers the most power in this class with 27PS and the least is offered by the Yamaha FZ-25 which is 20PS of power, but the heaviest among the batch is also Dominar 250 with 180kg and the lightest is the Yamaha weighing only 152 kg. The power to weight ratio plays a pivotal role in how the game changes.
But how these bikes will fare against each other on tarmac will be a whole lot different than how it looks on paper.
Price
The Dominar 250 is priced at 1.6 lakh, ex-showroom being the costliest in class. Second is the Suzuki Gixxer 250 at a price of 1.59 lakh, ex-showroom which is a minimal price difference as compared to the new Bajaj Dominar 250 and the cheapest of all is the Yamaha FZ-25 which comes at a price of 1.34 lakh, ex-showroom.
The FZ-25 is the cheapest and lightest in this bout, but only lightness won't go a long way. The other two bikes also fare very well in this class. The answer to this riddle will only be found by putting these against each other on a full-fledged road test, which for now has to wait.