Drag Race and Moto Gymkhana Challenge: KTM 390 vs. Race-Prepped Yamaha 150

What happens when a stunt rider and a racer do a set of skills and speed challenges on small-displacement KTM and Yamaha machines? Find out here.

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Sep 21, 2025 at 9:47am ET

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Whatever you do, don't call it a scooter. The Yamaha Y15ZR is what's known as a small-displacement underbone motorcycle. If you live in or have ridden in Southeast Asia, you'll probably be very familiar with this genre of bikes; but if not, you might mistake this for something that it isn't.

And, it isn't. It has gears. It is very much a motorcycle; just a small-displacement one. And there's been an Underbone racing category in the Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) ever since the series started back in 1996. The displacement categories have risen over time, as the displacements of the bikes available to purchase from OEMs has also risen.

The Yamaha Y15ZR is, as you may have guessed, a 150 from the factory. However, like many a race bike, this one has had the heck modded out of it to give it more power, better brakes, better suspension; you name it. So, running it against a KTM 390 Duke isn't as unfair and uphill a battle as your kneejerk reaction might, at first, lead you to believe.

KTM freestyle stunt rider Rok Bagoros shared this four-part challenge, which saw three separate gymkhana-style slow-speed skills challenges around cones prior to the finale, which was a standing-start best-of-three type drag race.

The first gymkhana challenge was a slalom; the second was slow-speed circles; and the third involved racing down to the end of the strip, chugging an energy drink and proving that it was empty, and then turning around and racing back to the start.

What do you think?

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How does it all end up? I won't spoil it for you, but I will tell you that it's all quite close. Two things we don't really find out are what the weight difference between the two competitors is, nor what the two bikes weigh in their present form. And one more thing I kind of wish was included is actual times for all these challenges; not all of them present an actual time onscreen.

Still, it's all in good fun, and it's probably a lot closer than you might expect going in. Do you think you could do better? Sound off in the comments.