First bike

[bcavin]

Hey everyone, a close friend of mine has an '85 VMAX sitting in pieces in his garage and has offered to give it to me on the condition I fix it up and ride with him. I've been wanting to get a motorcycle for over a decade but could never really justify the cost as I have a big family but "free" (I have to build it and will still need to buy some parts) is pretty hard to pass up. Plus I've always loved a VMAX.

I'm not an inexperienced rider, I grew up riding dirt bikes from a little 80cc all the way up to 400's and I have driven friend's cruisers over the years in town and on the highway. I'm old enough to not want to do anything careless or stupid on it and he has a running VMAX (I think it's an '86) that he let me take for a spin around his neighborhood. I felt pretty comfortable driving it although it was noticeably more power than I'm used to.

The engine on the bike he's giving me has been completely rebuilt and is still sitting in the crate from the bike shop that did it. He said to get it running it needs around $1,000 in parts, to get it where he wanted it and repainted he said $2,500-$3,000. He's trying to find the full list of parts he was going to buy so I can have it. I know it needs a new differential cover (big ding on the edge where an o-ring goes), lights, a few other small parts, and he said the suspension was in rough shape so he was going to get a progressive suspension set for it.

For a long time I was basically the only one of my friends that didn't have a motorcycle and I'm not unfamiliar with them but I've never been a bike owner. Looking forward to learning on here and I welcome any and all advice on parts, maintenance, etc. It'll be a few months before I'll be able to get back to Houston to pick up the parts so I plan to use that time to do my research.

Edit to add a photo of my fat ass on his running VMAX

 

[Fire-medic]

Welcome, you can find much info here. Be aware a 'basket case' may result in spending considerable $$$ and still not having a bike which operates properly, or at all. If you're willing to spend money on something that in the end may end up being parted out, and never having been able to ride it, continue. If you cannot accept that possibility, politely decline the offer.

Here are some resources you will be using, if you proceed.

https://www.vmaxforum.net/threads/new-vmax-owner-faqs-new-members-please-read.21240/
https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/i...ice-manual/yamahavmaxvmx12-service-manual.pdf
No idea of your mechanical aptitude, but this is a bike which will go nearly 150 mph once built, and with a skilled rider a 10 second quarter-mile. It is not known for its handling, like say a Yamaha R1 is. It's akin to handing someone who's never handled a pistol, nor fired one, a .357 revolver and encouraging them to shoot it. To operate a VMax anywhere near its capabilities, you better be a skilled rider. Sure there are a few people who claim, "it was my first bike!" That is not a choice an unskilled rider should make.

Your history of riding suggests you know better than to grab a big handful of throttle on a VMax. That's good, because the bike would spit you off like a mean bull at the rodeo, and possibly about as quickly. You've been on one before, and that's good, because watching someone with skill demonstrate what it's capable of doing will make you careful during your ride. The bike can power-wheelie in multiple gears, and in the time it takes you to breathe two breaths, it can be at speeds approaching 100 mph. VBoost comes into effect between 5000-6000 rpm and if you're leaning back in the seat as you hit that range, the front wheel will keep coming up until you fall-off the back, or you manage to shut the throttle. As I said, not a good ride for a new rider, or for someone unused to powerful motorcycles, like someone whose entire biking experience peaked with a 450cc Honda Rebel.

Is the engine assembled? And ready to operate? In the frame? "sitting in pieces in his garage" can mean many different stages of 'basket case.' Get some pics up here, and inform us in more detail of how many pieces is it in? Also some background about your mechanical experience with motorcycles and in general, what tools do you have, where would you be working on it, and your level of financial investment you're able to make.

Sometimes the best choice is to understand you have neither the experience, the wallet, the tools, nor the place to undertake such a project. Let's say you are willing and able to forge ahead. You will receive support from us, but take the time to acquaint yourself with the search and the advanced search functions, for info you need. It's possible someone close to you in AR or if you're close to a border, an adjoining state, may volunteer to help you with things. It can be done, it just takes a commitment to reach a properly-completed bike project, and that may include an understanding spouse.

 

[MaxMidnight]

From personal experience how ever much you think it will cost it will be more; however long you think it will take it will be longer.

I would conduct a full inventory of everything it will need to get it roadworthy and in the condition you would like including the time you estimate it will take. Work out the cost and add 50%. (I would also put a nominal cost on your time as well.)

For that amount have a look and see what you could buy for similar money.

However, doing it yourself will allow you to spread costs and you will also have built something that has a lot of 'you' in it.

PS: It is a final drive NOT a differential (which has two wheels)

 

[Coastal Grey]

Take a trip down the rabbit hole!!!

 

[CaptainKyle]

Good luck with the project

 

[Jack Hammer]

A Vmax is a great beginners bike, it goes as fast or as slow as you command it to go with a twist of your wrist. It is a great thing to have the power in reserve and not be stupid with it. That's a great way to learn.

 

[MaxMidnight]

A Vmax is a great beginners bike, it goes as fast or as slow as you command it to go with a twist of your wrist. It is a great thing to have the power in reserve and not be stupid with it. That's a great way to learn.

'Fraid I have to disagree with Mr Hammer. As a first bike I definitely wouldn't recommend a Max or indeed any other powerful and/ or heavy bike.
When new to riding the first task is leaning survival and IMO that is better achieved with limited power and a lighter good handling machine.

The key comment was 'not to be stupid with it'. Some may be able to exercise such restraint but I doubt that many of us possess enough in sufficient quantity to resist giving the throttle a good turn?
With hindsight and when I think back to the times when I didn't intend to be stupid (but was) it was probably a good thing that most of my mistakes were made on my first bike (don't laugh, it was a BSA Bantam).
That gave me a degree of experience to put in to practice what I'd learned on the Bantam on my next bike (Bonneville T120R). I discovered new mistakes and (hopefully) learned from them.
Even with the Max I still had to learn how to ride it and discover its foibles (and yes, still making the occasional cock-up).

One of our failings is the over estimation of our ability, possessing the belief we are indestructible and that 'it won't happen to me'. There are times when we need to be protected from ourselves and NOT having a Max as a first bike would be an example of this.

 

[Giantkiller]

My first bike was a brand new 86 fj1200. Owned it for 12,000miles/2 1/2 months. Totaled it out. When a guy riding a cb1100f crashed in front of me somewhere around 135mph.
Moved on to an 87 fzr1000. Crashed it many times. Rebuilt it many times. Including having everything possible put into the motor. Somewhere around 200hp. Never dynoed. Crashed it at less than 35mph. When a guy pulled out in front of me. Had a helmet and full leather suit on. Paramedics checked my pulse and started directing traffic. Because the cops weren't there yet. I guess once they put me in the ambulance. I came back. Goes to show you. You can be as careful as possible. And still end up dead. Enjoy your life to the fullest. Because even if you live to a 100. IT'S STILL TOO SHORT.

 

[Fire-medic]

I am in agreement with MaxMidnight. Better to practice your skills on a tiddler (a 125 Bantam qualifies, and many a U.K. fellow growing up in the '60's probably did the same) and work your way up. Many countries have a graduated system of licensing, where younger riders cannot operate a barn-burner until they're older, and have some seat time in lesser machines, to hone their skills. Where graduated licensing doesn't come into play, then the biggest, baddest Excessive Asphalt Stomper Liter-Plus with a neophyte rider on it, may soon be sitting in a parts-breaker's yard after a too-soon shunt totals the bike, and hopefully, not the rider, a passenger, or some unfortunate third party.

I'm old-enough to recall the launch of exotic bikes like the first Norton Commandos (one of my nearby cousins had a P-11, the predecessor), the Honda CB450, a DOHC wonder with unusual springs in the valvetrain, the bike coming after the SOHC 305 Superhawk CB77, which was capable of embarrassing many much-larger bikes and was capable of running over 8000 rpm seemingly for as long as your nerve and license allowed. Then the SOHC Honda 750 w/front disc brake (!) and 5 speeds hit the market, and everything else seemed behind the times. Kawasaki stunned the motorcycling world with its $999 Blue Streak 500 two-stroke triple, a fearsome machine capable of spanking the Honda 750, and which schooled many a new owner in the abrupt throttle response of a two-stroke, and the value of a stout frame, designed properly to allow one to use the power of the engine without crashing before the odometer hit triple digits. Unfortunately for many 500 triple riders, Kawasaki was lacking in that last criterion.

I recall being a visitor at a local Honda dealer about 1967, and seeing a young rider riding around with no gas tank, on his Honda twin, with a container between his legs in-place of a gas tank, which was at the shop being banged-out and re-painted after he crashed. He was using the container as a makeshift gas tank, so he could ride around until it was fixed. Ah, ingenuity and the desire to be back on the road. Somehow, I suspect that had he been on something with a larger engine, his luck leading to his survival may have been opposite to his amount of motorcycling enthusiasm.

Anyone I've spoken with about 'getting into motorcycling,' I've suggested learning how to ride on something like a 125 cc bike, off-road. Learning about throttle response, balance, marginal traction, looking ahead at where you want to go, and not at a spot 5 feet in-front of your front tire, braking and how-quickly you can slow/stop using both brakes, how to undo gracefully, and with no serious damage to yourself, the need for motorcycle maintenance, and how changes in something as-simple as tire pressures can have a profound effect on the bike's handling. Countersteering, controlling a slide, feeling the front of the bike go light, or off the ground, and how different surfaces impart differing levels of traction, and how to 'read' those changes. Trying to learn about this paragraph's content on a 600 lb 110 RWHP muscle-bike, as a new to motorcycling individual, well, good luck.

Giantkiller I have an '87 FZR1000 I bought from the original owner, a friend of mine, and I still have it. I don't use it much these days, but I recall going from a KZ1000J to that, and what a leap in power and handling it was. This is 30 years on a VMax now, and I still make the red oil lamp flicker occasionally.

 

[MaxMidnight]

(a 125 Bantam qualifies, and many a U.K. fellow growing up in the '60's probably did the same) and work your way up. Many countries have a graduated system of licensing, where younger riders cannot operate a barn-burner until they're older, and have some seat time in lesser machines, to hone their skills.

Mine was one of the fire breathing 175's with tuned barrel and expansion pipe. It would probably have gone quite a bit better if I'd had the talent to set it up....
It also came with rubber frame, extra weights on the front and rear wheels which did brake impressions and a kick back that could take the skin off your shins.
Tell that to youth of today and they wouldn't believe you.

This it what you need to do currently to ride a bike in the UK.

 

[Jack Hammer]

My point on Vmax being a good beginners bike is that it indeed is heavy and it has power. If the person hopping on has self control then handling a bike like ours teaches a lot to the person who's butt is attached. I entirely understand where you guys are coming from but my approach is different. No disrespect to anybody.