I say 9.5 ET....stock, with drag radial....

[RJ RJ RJ]

just thought i would ignite a discussion.

If a 600 pound 140hp Gen 1 can get in the 10s....

Than 680 pound 200hp Gen 2 can get in the 9s

present your arguments pro or con......

 

[QuarterHorse]

Sure it's in the 9's with a 150lb pro rider and a stiff tail wind.

 

[RJ RJ RJ]

that was a fast responce....you cut a .300 at the keyboard! ha



Ok...150 pound rider who knows what he is doing and a little luck (wind) get you in the nines....

drop the 100 pound exhaust and add a slick? then what 9.5? less?

No lets tune the engine.... new cams, bigger pipes, well sorted fuel injection getting us say 220 hp (10% increase).... 9.25?

Alright...back up the money truck....stroker kit, higher compression, race fuel, port the heads, maybe bigger valves, strip off all the road lights and crap ....plus all the above..... 8.99?

 

[QuarterHorse]

Once your going that quick in the quarter, dropping ET takes more and more HP, I don't think it'll be that easy to even get into the 9's in all honesty. We shall see though when they hit the streets.

 

[Hercules]

Good reading here from Cycle World Mag. 1987

After the extravagance of modifications that went into the turbo Eliminator, we resolve to make the next bike- a 1986 V-Max - simpler. Engineers at Yamaha have told us that the V-Max responds readily to exhaust- and intake - system changes , so we turn the bike over to Steve Johnson, head of R&D for Kerker, and tell him to find more power without touching the inside of the engine.
Johnson and his staff remove the V-max's airbox and V-boost system, rejet the carbs, and make a very special 4- into-2- into - 1 pipe, perhaps the most complicated exhaust system Kerker has ever built. The result is a substantial power increase and, with the competition baffle installed, exhaust music unlike that of any other motorcycle. At idle, the Max has the same lumpy, nasty sound of trapped power as a full-race american v-eight car engine. Accelerating , sometimes it sounds like a Chevy pro-stocker, sometimes like something else, but never like a motorcycle. Johnson is so enraptured with the V-max's song that, during the week that the completed V-Max is awaiting its return to CYCLE WORLD, he often wanders out of his office to the Kerker shop, starts the V-Max and plays the throttle. He always returns to his office smiling.
As important to making the V-Max quick is a new wheel and tire combination. Despite the bike having been on the market for two years, no truly sticky tires are available for its 15 inch rear wheel. So again we turn to those master fabricators of the drag racing world, Kosman specialties, for an 18-inch spoked wheel and wheelie bar. In his enthusiasm for our 9-second project, Sandy Kosman exceeds what is absolutely necessary and installs a spoked front wheel ,too, along with his lightweight brake discs and calipers. The end result , wearing pro-stock slick at both ends, is perhaps the ultimate fantasy stoplight-racer, the machine on which you could best imagine pulling alongside the nastiest , snarliest car on the streets, blipping the throttle once and asking, "wanna race?" - knowing full well, of course, there is no way you're going to lose.

December 1986:
First up is the V-max. Gleason runs down the track twice to familiarize himself with the bike and to warm it up, and then backs it into the shallow water trough at the beginning of the strip. A quick second gear burnout, with surprisingly little smoke or tire noise, brings the big Goodyear slick up to operating temperature. Then Gleason rolls the Max forward and stages for his first run.
He launches at only 5000 rpm, causing the bike to bog slightly off the line, but the time is still excellent: 10.03 seconds at 133.92 mph. For the first time we're sure that the V-Max will make it into the nines. For the next run, Jay holds the engine speed at 5800 rpm before dropping the clutch, and the bike fairly leaps away, back hard on the wheelie bar all the way through first gear. When the time pops up on the display board down the strip, everyone at the track is stunned: 9.74 seconds at 135.13 mph. Terry Vance can hardly believe it; he figured the V-Max might run 10 second-flat times at best. Don't forget, this is a heavy motorcycle that's never had it's valve covers off, and has it's tank full of pump gas, yet it's running fast enough to have whipped a Pro-Stock field 12 years ago.
Mark Dobeck of dynojet thinks the V-Max might run faster yet, so he and Wymer yank its carbs and drop the main jets two sizes. Dobeck feels this will help change the blackish buildup on the silencer's exit to a more pleasing gray, and boost top-end power. Gleason tries again, and on his second run with the new jetting, turns, 9.69 seconds at 135.74 mph. The V-max is retired, Having thoroughly and easily proven it's point: of the five runs it has made today, all except the first were well into the Nines." - CYCLE WORLD 1987

there are the most important parts pertaining to the V-Max. I left out some parts pertaining to Gleason but that is all. I am glad to know that my memory is not completly shot after all these years and all that beer. __________________
Dan

 

[fastmax1]

Nice articles Hercules!!

 

[RJ RJ RJ]

Good reading here from Cycle World Mag. 1987

After the extravagance of modifications that went into the turbo Eliminator, we resolve to make the next bike- a 1986 V-Max - simpler. Engineers at Yamaha have told us that the V-Max responds readily to exhaust- and intake - system changes , so we turn the bike over to Steve Johnson, head of R&D for Kerker, and tell him to find more power without touching the inside of the engine.
Johnson and his staff remove the V-max's airbox and V-boost system, rejet the carbs, and make a very special 4- into-2- into - 1 pipe, perhaps the most complicated exhaust system Kerker has ever built. The result is a substantial power increase and, with the competition baffle installed, exhaust music unlike that of any other motorcycle. At idle, the Max has the same lumpy, nasty sound of trapped power as a full-race american v-eight car engine. Accelerating , sometimes it sounds like a Chevy pro-stocker, sometimes like something else, but never like a motorcycle. Johnson is so enraptured with the V-max's song that, during the week that the completed V-Max is awaiting its return to CYCLE WORLD, he often wanders out of his office to the Kerker shop, starts the V-Max and plays the throttle. He always returns to his office smiling.
As important to making the V-Max quick is a new wheel and tire combination. Despite the bike having been on the market for two years, no truly sticky tires are available for its 15 inch rear wheel. So again we turn to those master fabricators of the drag racing world, Kosman specialties, for an 18-inch spoked wheel and wheelie bar. In his enthusiasm for our 9-second project, Sandy Kosman exceeds what is absolutely necessary and installs a spoked front wheel ,too, along with his lightweight brake discs and calipers. The end result , wearing pro-stock slick at both ends, is perhaps the ultimate fantasy stoplight-racer, the machine on which you could best imagine pulling alongside the nastiest , snarliest car on the streets, blipping the throttle once and asking, "wanna race?" - knowing full well, of course, there is no way you're going to lose.

December 1986:
First up is the V-max. Gleason runs down the track twice to familiarize himself with the bike and to warm it up, and then backs it into the shallow water trough at the beginning of the strip. A quick second gear burnout, with surprisingly little smoke or tire noise, brings the big Goodyear slick up to operating temperature. Then Gleason rolls the Max forward and stages for his first run.
He launches at only 5000 rpm, causing the bike to bog slightly off the line, but the time is still excellent: 10.03 seconds at 133.92 mph. For the first time we're sure that the V-Max will make it into the nines. For the next run, Jay holds the engine speed at 5800 rpm before dropping the clutch, and the bike fairly leaps away, back hard on the wheelie bar all the way through first gear. When the time pops up on the display board down the strip, everyone at the track is stunned: 9.74 seconds at 135.13 mph. Terry Vance can hardly believe it; he figured the V-Max might run 10 second-flat times at best. Don't forget, this is a heavy motorcycle that's never had it's valve covers off, and has it's tank full of pump gas, yet it's running fast enough to have whipped a Pro-Stock field 12 years ago.
Mark Dobeck of dynojet thinks the V-Max might run faster yet, so he and Wymer yank its carbs and drop the main jets two sizes. Dobeck feels this will help change the blackish buildup on the silencer's exit to a more pleasing gray, and boost top-end power. Gleason tries again, and on his second run with the new jetting, turns, 9.69 seconds at 135.74 mph. The V-max is retired, Having thoroughly and easily proven it's point: of the five runs it has made today, all except the first were well into the Nines." - CYCLE WORLD 1987

there are the most important parts pertaining to the V-Max. I left out some parts pertaining to Gleason but that is all. I am glad to know that my memory is not completly shot after all these years and all that beer. __________________
Dan

I love those pieces.... great stuff...

a lot of people choose not to believe them though which i cant understand...
Although i will say i dont know of anyone stepping up from the vmax owners world and duplicating the same times in the same way.... Gleason skill being worth say half a second lets say....who has had a clean 10 second run with carb work, exhaust work and a slick/wheely bars? if there is somoeone who has done that we could assume the bike will do better with an ace on board...
So that begs the question.....new vmax is much more tork and hp as well as longer weing arm for traction...... suggestion would be slicks and wheely bar gets you at least what the old max could do and with tuning a whole lot more.....no?

 

[4gasem]

I have this article in my archive somewhere... It's a great article and the wheels look fantastic on he Max...unk:

Of course having Gleason run it, doesn't hurt a bit...

 

[Hercules]

I have this article in my archive somewhere... It's a great article and the wheels look fantastic on he Max...unk:

Of course having Gleason run it, doesn't hurt a bit...

Chris, do you have a pic of this bike? I would love to see what the first Kerker and Kosmans looked like.

 

[4gasem]

Chris, do you have a pic of this bike? I would love to see what the first Kerker and Kosmans looked like.

Somewhere but your guess is as good as mine right now... I will have to search for it.

Chris

 

[2stangs69-91]

see if this link works
http://www.vmaxchat.co.uk/MaxInPrint/CycleWorldMarch87/2theNines_06.jpg

this is the page of articles it is on good reading
http://www.vmaxchat.co.uk/CycleWorld.htm

 

[texmax]

Chris, do you have a pic of this bike? I would love to see what the first Kerker and Kosmans looked like.

I have that article in front of me. It is a spoked 18" with 8.5" wide slick. Looks good IMO. The exhaust is pretty snakey to maintain equal length, 4-2-1 with comp baffle

 

[RJ RJ RJ]

Once your going that quick in the quarter, dropping ET takes more and more HP, I don't think it'll be that easy to even get into the 9's in all honesty. We shall see though when they hit the streets.

Now this is odd....Yamaha quotes a v-max at 640 and the new vmax at 680.

Cycle World weighs it and says its 599 without gas.
They get it down to 540 by apparently changing wheels and adding a wheely bar (??)
They get 115 RWHP stock and 124 RWHP by a pipe and carb fix.

Lets sum up here....Cycle world runs 9.74 and then 9.69 at sea level with Gleason riding.

The HP numbers seem realisitic to what most on this forum dyno their bikes at....being as good a rider as gleason is the only reason we dont all run 9s?
You people who run slicks....do you leave at 5 grand ?

If this is all true....then the new bike should be a low 9 bike after similar mods and have the capability for much more....

 

[QuarterHorse]

I don't know why there aren't more 9 second VMaxes then.......

 

[BLKMAX]

I think this is the same bike Leonard ended up with. He posted some pics after it got wrecked in 2002. You can find them here;

http://autos.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/vmaxtech/photos/browse/2c63



Joe

 

[RJ RJ RJ]

I don't know why there aren't more 9 second VMaxes then.......

you and me both

 

[RJ RJ RJ]

I think this is the same bike Leonard ended up with. He posted some pics after it got wrecked in 2002. You can find them here;

http://autos.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/vmaxtech/photos/browse/2c63



Joe

ypu mean this is the gleason cyclworld bike that did 9.69???

 

[RJ RJ RJ]

""fxstein

""I stopped the youtube video at 9s and the vmax is already past the 1/4 marker, Its missing a split second at the start though - so could be 9s after all.

Here is why I believe this could actually be possible:

Those of you that know about the 5 times world champion Patrick Racing that ran a modified Warrior down to flat nines multiple times:

The Hotrod cruiser class had a minimum weight limit for bike + rider of 800lbs. That would be a VMax 650 lbs + a 150lbs rider - possible - just not me.

The Hotrod Warrior made about 170 rwhps - in line with the expected 171+ of the VMax.

The PR's Warrior was setup with only 4 gears, hitting the rev limiter just after the 1/4 mile at approx 6800 rpm. The new VMax is expected to have a rather short gearing, matched for 1/4 mile runs.

Now, their Warrior was setup with an air shifter, that the VMax does not offer but some good power shifting will do pretty much the same.

The Warrior ran high 14Xmph as terminal speed. Interestingly the speed governor of the new VMax allows for 147mph.""

 

[BLKMAX]

ypu mean this is the gleason cyclworld bike that did 9.69???

I'd have to say yes. I heard Kosman only made one set of spoked rims and they're on this bike. I'll email Leonard and find out for sure.

 

[QuarterHorse]

Some of you guys sure like to speculate don't ya? Haha