Be sure to go to the technical sections and spend countless hours reading up on motors, suspension, brakes, electrical, etc... plenty of what those who don't own a VMax would consider 'time wasters.' To us, it's valuable info on our favorite two-wheel transportation. There are faster bikes, quicker bikes, better-handling bikes, but probably no-other 26+yr. old design evokes so-many comments when-&-wherever you ride it. Just be sure and inform everyone that 1) you were required to take out life-insurance when you bought it, because less than half the original buyers are above-ground today, 2) periodically Yamaha stopped making them because of various government bodies who tried to pass legislation outlawing them because of the performance, 3) Harley-Davidson was prepared to release their Porsche-designed similar style bike at about the same time, and cancelled their plans when they tested the first VMax in the USA, 4) Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Honda all tried to sell bikes like the VMax and they all were withdrawn from the market, 5) they had to change the seat design to a 4" step type, because a Japanese test rider was blown clear-off the prototype when he couldn't hold-on while making a top-speed run, 6) since the USA was the VMax target market, the Japanese car manufacturers insisted on Yamaha limiting its top speed to 149 mph so the bike would not be the fastest Japanese product on the roads, 7) the angled downwards radiator reflects police radar beams away from the police-handheld radar gun, making them virtually impossible to accurately 'clock' your speed, 8) nobody ever got more than 5,000 miles out of a VMax rear tire because the motor's torque output rips the tire plies apart usually
before that mileage, 9) the first year of production, all VMaxes were going to be painted a maroon color, but the National Chiefs of Police required that they begin to paint them all a lighter blue color so they would be more-visible to law enforcement. They were unable to visually track the maroon ones. And 10) two outlaw Harley-Davidson riders were severely injured in 1984 riding the notorious "Grapevine" highway on I-5, south of Bakersfield, CA. A test rider for Yamaha, riding one of the prototype VMaxes, passed them so-fast on the interstate, going uphill, that the two tried to get-off their bikes to see what was the matter, not realizing they actually were still moving.
You'll hear others, and they are all true, sort-of...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yevrwr83wkM
Yamaha on The Grapevine, similar camera control to the
Blair Witch Project, except more-scary. Watch out about 2:35!
unk:
