Max Muscle
MAX MUSCLE
CYCLE WORLD TEST
JAY GLEASON
IT ALL STARTED ONE DAY WHEN I RECEIVED A PHONE call from Yamaha requesting that I make an appearance at the 1985 dealer show in Las Vegas. I had no clue what they had in mind for me.
Why did I get the call? In the early 1980s, after I retired from a 20-year AMA dirt-track and roadracing career, there was a huge void in my life that desperately needed attention. American Turbo Pac, a company that built turbocharger kits for motorcycles, asked if I would like to do some quartermile testing. For some reason, I really clicked with the evilhandling, hard-to-launch turbos. And suddenly I was racing again at a national level and having great success. In fact, I was able to win #1 plates in Turbo and Pro Comp divisions over a three-year period in various sanctioned events across the country. Almost overnight, the four major manufacturers
But perhaps the coolest of all was that call from Yamaha. began calling me to pull the trigger on their flagship bikes to get the best possible numbers. I was getting tons of exposure and major ink for my efforts.
I arrived at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and received a memo informing me that I would be introducing the new 1985 Yamaha V-Max (yes, the name had a hyphen back then) by riding it onstage, then doing burnouts in the parking lot behind the MGM. Cool!
The next day at rehearsal I was told to ride Mr. Max up a ramp from a totally blacked-out backstage area straight into 20 green laser lights at eye level, ending up on an 8-foot circle of rotating wood. Even blinded by the lasers, I thought this could be a chance for the burnout of all time!
I tossed the idea to Yamaha and they said, “NO WAY!” If the bike slipped off the circle, it could launch off the stage and kill the best dealers in the United States.
MAX MUSCLE
Then the fire marshal chimed in and said that I would get in serious trouble if even an attempt were made to do the burnout.
So, of course, after five minutes of thinking it over and weighing the consequences, I made up my mind to let it burn!
Nervous but confident during the big show that night, I notched the Max into third gear, took it up to 7 grand and dumped the clutch, resulting in a perfectly timed turn and burn.
The dealers went wild!
Remember, this went down years before the whole stunt thing came into vogue.
When opportunity knocks, it’s best to answer. Sitting in my computer was an e-vite to the 2009 Star VMax (yes, I miss the hyphen, too) press introduction, several weeks hence. Then came a phone call, a familiar voice from the past: “Dave, it’s your old friend Jay Gleason... ”
Jay Gleason, the man who quite literally launched the V-Max! Twenty-some years ago, Jay was The Man if you wanted the quickest quarter-mile time your stock streetbike could post—and almost all the bike-makers did.
Cycle World came calling, too, putting Jay on a built Vance & Hines Suzuki GSX-R1100, a Mr. Turbo Kawasaki Eliminator and, of course, a Kosman/Kerker Yamaha V-Max for our epic “Takin ’it to the Nines ” cover story in March of 1987. For another story, I somehow cajoled him into quarter-miling an Amazonas (think Brazilian Gold Wing but with a water-pipe frame,
VW Beetle motor and all the production values of a bank holdup note) powered by a hopped-to-hell dune buggy motor.
Jay ’s magic was in his launch, head way forward, left hand working the clutch like a virtuoso, front wheel just skimming the asphalt.
Usually, it took no more than four or five runs to get the best out of a bike. “I’ll run it all day if you want best it ’ll do,” he’d say.
Still, Jay’s time in the spotlight was fairly short-lived. For that, thank the lower life-form known as liability lawyers. Here’s the scene: A courtroom, poor plantiff in a wheelchair, probably drooling, his counsel holding up a two-page magazine ad depicting Gleason in full-boogie with the words,
“Bad News Travels Fast.”
Jay ’s phone stopped ringing.
He moved to southwest Florida, happy to be in one place and close to his mom after years of banging about one race series or another. Today he works in relative obscurity as a mechanic at a Fort Myers bike and watercraft shop. How cool would it be to have Jay Gleason as CW's special guesttester at the new VMax press launch?
But was he still, how to put this delicately...
“current? ”
Turns out, yes. He ’s still 5-foot-6; more importantly, still 130 pounds. And he still rides. He ’s kept the ’85 V-Max that an appreciative Yamaha gave him as a 30th birthday present (you do the math), and also hustles a '97 FZR600. “For other entertainment, I boil water on my GP800R Wave Runner,” he says.
He also hits the local Vsth-mile dragstrip every couple of months to “keep my razor sharp”; his last outing was on a stretched 'Busa that did 5.96 seconds at 118 mph.
“Jay,” I say, “packyour bags.” -David Edwards
It wasn’t long after the big dealer show and that epic burnout (there were no consequences, by the way!) that me and a VMax were off to Baylands Raceway in Fremont, California, a near-sea-level strip that had incredible traction and nearperfect air. On this one particular day, man, I was on, making passes in the 10.40/10.50-second range. We took a break for lunch knowing that, for some strange reason, I am always quicker after eating (to this day I haven’t figured out why). Anyway, we returned to the racetrack, now with a strip-cooling cloud cover, and on the fifth pass I pounded out a 10.33second run, a time never to be equaled by me or anyone else on a stock original V-Max.
For me to get the chance after all this time and history with the original Max to ride the 2009 version on the mountain roads of the San Diego area, if only for just one day.. .who could pass that up?!
To start with, the totally new redesigned aluminum frame is super rigid, and it shows in the twisties.
The bike is able to devour asphalt at an impressive pace for such a big sit-up-style bike. The new Max tracks straight and true and actually likes to be pushed hard in the corners. It delivers excellent rider feedback and predictable handling, unlike the older Max that tended to be a little twitchy when pushed on a winding road. The suspension is widely adjustable, front and rear. The shock’s compression, rebound and preload are all easily tunable. A couple of clicks fore or aft provide a noticeable difference in handling. As far as the conventional fork goes, it is 52mm of pure beef and provides a confidence-inspiring, flex-free ride. The brakes are awesome, slowing down Mr. Max in a big hurry, despite the bike’s heft. Its 676-pound dry weight on the CWscales was impressive, but not necessarily in a good way!
One big surprise at the launch was that Yamaha, unbelievably, didn’t take us to a dragstrip. I was back in Florida by the time the testbike arrived at CWs Newport Beach offices, so Road Test Editor Don Canet got to be the first (lucky!) guy to drop the hammer on the new Max.
First things first: The VMax pounded out an amazing 174 rear-wheel horsepower and 113 foot-pounds of torque on our dyno, the highest numbers for a production motorcycle we have ever recorded. Talk about excess!
And I have to say it sure felt like too much when repeated passes through the quartermile resulted in unwanted rear wheelspin through the upper half of first gear time and again.
Try as 1 might, I had difficulty keeping the 200-series rear radial hooked up once Mr. Max caught his breath around 6000 rpm, then exhaled tire smoke all the way to the 9500-rpm redline! Even on an abrasive surface, standard tire pressures delivered all the grip of a cat on kitchen tile. Lowering hot pressure to 20 psi increased the contact-patch footprint but still didn't produce as much bite as this brute needs to fully flex its muscle off the line.
Need a visual? Launch the bike with a pop of the clutch at a ridiculously low 2000 rpm while holding the throttle steady and the tire spins up with ease. Focused and ready at the test site, 1generated a best result—a corrected-for-altitude 10.26-second run-on our usual untreated test surface by feathering the clutch out of the hole, taking particular care to not suddenly load the tire. Wheelies were of no concern, even when I sat well back to try to improve rear grip. It’s definitely quicker than the original V-Max and its 10.89-second pass at 128.75 mph recorded in our 1985 test.
But we still wanted to know, given every advantage, was the new VMax a 9-second bike? To answer that we loaded up just before deadline and headed to Sacramento Raceway (www.sacramentoraceway.com) to meet up with expert quarter-miler (and old rival to Gleason!) Dale Walker of Holeshot Performance, who ran our original V-Max testbike at the strip 23 years ago. Conditions were great, and there was enough traction-enhancing VEIT to peel your sneakers off
Grip was a big help, lowering the 0-30 and 0-60 times a couple of tenths.
“After a few launches experimenting with rpm, I found the sweet spot at 5500 revs,’’ said Walker. “My best runs came when the bike would just bog a tiny bit out of the hole. If I left any higher-6 or 7 grand-right after launch the motor would come alive electronically or come on the cam and the tire would light up or the bike would wheelie.”
Walker figured out the bike pretty quickly and nailed three passes within a few hundredths of each other, the best a 10.13 at 138 mph, and he felt it just didn’t have any more in it.
“My best 60-foot time was 1.72 seconds,’’ said Walker. “If I could have got a 1.68 it would have been knocking on 9s for sure, but the deal is that it is just a heavy bike and it’s got a lot of weight to get rolling. Plus, the clutch was a little soft in engaging. So with all that, and that power surge if I tried to leave too hard, it just didn 't have anything left in it.’’
It is interesting to note that Walker’s terminal speed was right at the electronic limiter and our separately measured 138 mph top speed, which backed up our observations that the governor in quarter-mile action lets power run all the way to redline in the first four gears. In roll-ons, though, a 9000rpm soft limiter steps in at the top of fourth. Fifth gear is always limited to 8000 rpm, and measured top speed was lower in top gear than in fourth as a result.
So, out of the box, tested both under the same conditions in which the rest of our bikes meet the radar gun and at a fully prepped and grippy quarter-mile, the new Max isn’t quite a 9-second bike. What it is is one of the most excessive and fun motorcycles ever. Mind that throttle! -Don Canet
Heck, yeah, it’s an amazing motor. The engine is 1680cc of smile-producing fun. This thing is a Torque Monster.
Even better is that the middle-to-top V-Boost rush is still there, much to my delight. Now it’s computer-generated, not mechanical as on the old bike.
Keeping in mind the new Max is bigger and heavier, it is deceivingly faster due to the increased torque. The power is delivered in a slightly different way, with a much broader spread across the rpm range.
I find it amazing that the new Max has the same great sound as my ’85 (that doesn’t have EPA’d-to-death mufflers). Even at speed, the sound remains the same, which is pretty wonderful work on Yamaha’s part considering how much tighter the noise and emissions regulations are today.
But the biggest impression about the new VMax comes when sitting upright at speed: It still feels like it’s going to dislocate your shoulders and rip your head off when you snap open the throttle! Awesome.
By now, it’s pretty clear that the new VMax is one mind-fogging, eyeballflattening, adrenaline-stirring performer. Especially in a straight line.
Up through the gears. At full throttle. Wonderful.
But let us not forget: This isn’t just a drag bike in, urn, drag; it’s also expected to be a “real ” motorcycle.
So, after the excitement of the smoky burnouts, the fearsomely quick launches and the power-shifted runs to redline starts to become old hat, what ’s the VMax like as an everyday rider or weekend tripper?
Prettv doggone good, I’d say, except for a couple of annoying traits: The thing eats fuel like the stuff was free (31 mpg high, 23 low), and the low-rpm fuel mapping is as soft as a warm marshmallow. When pulling away from a stop at a normal, casual pace, the engine feels lazy and unresponsive until around 3500 rpm, at which point it wakes up and punts the bike forward more in proportion to the throttle opening. Admittedly, our testbike is a pre-production unit, meaning there were still things left to fine-tune for actual production, so the jury is out on the EFI issue.
Otherwise, the Max is a very pleasant ride. It has a decent (though not exactly plush) seat, excellent standard-bike ergonomics, powerful, progressive brakes (with ABS) and a rousing, soulful, throbbing exhaust note that never lets you forget, not even for a second, that you re piloting a bike powered by a beast of a Vee-motor.
Like Jay, I was most surprised and pleased with the new Max’s handling. The previous bike often felt as though its frame was made of bungees, but not this one. It remains steady and controllable at all times, even when hustled through a bumpy corner at considerable speed. Initiating a corner takes more of a yank on the grips than it does on a sportbike, obviously, thanks to the VMax s considerable weight, length and slightly rakish front end. But on the open road, that same wheelbase and steering geometry provide the kind of unerring stability that allows the rider to relax and enjoy the experience.
As a result, a couple of long days in this saddle would be no problem whatsoever.
The biggest hurdle for me would be restraining myself from constantly sampling the engine ’s astonishing power.
It’s tough to make good time when you have to spoon on a new rear tire at every; gas stop. -Paul Dean
The burning question, of course, was whether or not the ’09 VMax is a 9-second bike. Well, now we know it isn’t. How important is that (and when do I get my turn?!)? For VMax fans, boasting about the numbers has been a national pastime since day one, so in that sense it is a bit of a letdown. Plus, because motorcycle performance has come so far, the new VMax doesn’t seem like it is as much of a trend-setter as the ’85 was. Still, the new Max is a very bold statement and an excellent motorcycle with mind-numbing acceleration, and is an adrenaline-filled mind rush in everyday riding. One thing is for sure: There is still nothing quite like a VMax. Oh, yeah, and fellas, ready when you are for another crack at Takin’ it to the Nines! □
STAR VMAX
$17,990
Yamaha Motor Corp.,
EDITORS' NOTES
“GEEZ, WHAT WAS THATT MY INNER EARS scream.
“Damned if I know,” my brain replies, “but it made me kinda dizzy. I hope he doesn’t do that again.”
But he does.
Actually, I’m talking about myself here, so that should be I do it again.
And again. And again.
The first time I launched the VMax at full throttle from a dead stop and slammed it up through the gears, shifting just as the big, bright shift light flashed, I felt a tiny bit disoriented. I’d never before experienced such a thing on a motorcycle, even a couple of twin-turboed, 200mph modified brutes. But the VMax launches like it’s been rear-ended by a speeding bus, and it keeps accelerating at that pace well up into fourth gear, where it still pulls at your arms like it wants to leave you behind.
I only felt dizzy on that first launch. After that, the dizziness was replaced by something else. An ear-to-ear grin, as I recall. -Paul Dean, Senior Editor
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN ALL I WANTED from a motorcycle was absolute performance, the quickest, best-handling lightest machine out. I still enjoy that almost as much as anything on two wheels, but I must say after 23 years of riding on the road (legally, anyway!), I have developed a deeper appreciation for how the motorcycle makes you feel. Which gives me a very deep appreciation for the VMax. While it’s true the performance-especially in light (ahem) of its 701-pound fully fueled weight-is impressive, the evocative sound of its V-Four engine and the creamy smooth effortlessness of its actions on the road are the real payoff here.
Well, that, and, yes, how it makes you feel. It may not be the quickest thing we’ve ever run in the quarter-mile, but there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that looks, sounds and feels like this bike when you roll on the throttle. In any gear. At any rpm. In my book, Max is still king of the hot-rods.
-Mark Hover, Executive Editor
HOW’S THIS FOR AN IMPROMPTU COMPAR-
ison test? I rode into work one morning on our Suzuki B-King, then took the long way home that night on the new VMax.
Thumbnail impressions? Well. Mr. Max is one heavy booger, like 120 pounds up on the King B. That explains how the Suzuki-packing 10 fewer ponies-gets into the 9s at the strip while the Max won’t, even with VHT sprayed down and a specialist in the saddle. And the B-King isn’t electronically hampered on the top end...well, at least not until it sees 158 mph, 20 up on the VMax’s top whack.
Both are kinda cartoony-looking-not in the Roger Rabbit sense; rather, neither one would look out of place on the next Batman film set. Entertainment value has to go to the VMax, though, with its power surge and V-Four rumble. Somebody call Kerker, please!
Oh, how much fun was my ride home? When I pulled into the driveway, Max’s nifty pie-chart gas gauge indicated a half-tank remaining. I’d gone all of 33.2 miles.
-David Edwards, Editor-in-Chief
