Perhaps Yamaha's reduced enthusiasm for the V-Max is related to their new MT-01? Not the same bike, but maybe they're trying to avoid splitting the same target market?
Please don't tell me mother that I work in the oilpatch...she still thinks that I'm the piano player at a whorehouse!
The V Max is a great looking bike, its expensive too, the mistake I always make is I buy a bike cause it looks good. Firgure out and find out what kind of riding you are going to do, what type of bikes ur friends have, you will end up riding with them and you need the bike that handles their riding style. Look at the resale value of the bike, look and see how good that bike is selling, its easy to tell what bike nobody wants when the dealer has 20 of them in his showroom late in the summer. If I was you I would look at a Honda 919 or the VTX1800, or the Yamaha Road Star for around the same price as the V Max, thats just my personal opinion, ur riding style may be different.
2011 Toyota Tacoma 4x4, 09 Yamaha Tmax, 08 Suzuki King Quad 750
Thanks all for the feedback. I got to sit on a 01 Vmax yesterday and it fit great. Dont know how long it'll be before i can ride it as i havent known the owner more than a few days, but hopefully soon. I swear the only thing I can see stopping me from getting this bike is the range/gas mileage.
If I cant find a vmax in my price range i think i'll be going SV650.
Thanks again.
Before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes. Then, when you do judge them you are a mile away, and you have their shoes.
The Yamaha V-max was my dream bike from the age of 12, to the age of 23 when i finally got my hands on one. I loved it. I am still gutted about having to sell it, simply due to the petrol costs.
It's worth pointing out that i'm no small guy (6'2" and almost the same around the waist!), and I also have a passenger on 90% of the time. So, I'm gonna get less mileage anyway. However, I was only getting around 70-80 miles per TANK of fuel!
However, that was the only dowside. I had none of the handling issues (managed to scrape pipes on both sides!) The power was great, through all the gears - everything about it was fantastic!
You will find in towns that your left foot becomes rather unnecessary, as you can stick it in 2nd gear, and forget about it! (it will happily pull off in 2nd, with a pillion on!)
In short, great bike, lots of fun, look awesome - they just drink like a fish!
Don't give up.
Not now, not soon, not after being continually knocked down.
Dale Walker makes a V-Boost switch. It has three posisitions.
1 - OFF
2 - Normal...V-Boost comes on at 6K RPM's.
3 - ON... V-BOOST on all the time which makes for a hellashish sounding idle. It is fun to flip the switch around 3K RPM's.
Turning off the V-Boost should help out the MPG's dramatically. I would get 40MPG normal riding and 25MPG WFO. I would look for a gas station around 80 - 90 miles to be safe.
What do you expect your MPG's to do when you have 2 carbs feeding one cylinder! Volumetric efficiency from 75% to 114% with an opening of a valve! How cool is that. I never understood why they didn't incorporate the V-Boost on any other models.
