2010 Yamaha Star VMAX Quick Ride [MotorcycleUSA.com]

[UFO]

So you want a new Vmax...or are even thinking about it?  Remember the FJR1300 PDP (priority delivery program)?  It's baaaaaack!  For 2010 you can only get a Star Vmax as a special order model, and you only have until the end of November (this month!) to order one.  Is this another case of the public clamoring for a manufacturer to build a bike then turning their backs on it?  Perhaps.  With an MSRP of $19,500 they better deliver it to your door, fully fueled with 3 rear tire replacements for good order.



Let’s get straight to the point. This bike is fast, brutally fast. The 1679cc V-Four mill pumps out a rear tire destroying 197 horsepower and 122 lb-ft of torque. Once the adrenaline high wears off from that first crack of the throttle, riding the VMAX becomes an exercise in responsibility and restraint. It’s like riding a loaded gun. Be careful where you point it, and when you pull the trigger, you had better mean it. The VMAX makes the longest straight on your favorite mountain roads ridiculously short, brings far way objects near in short order, and basically blurs space and time.

Read the entire quick ride writeup over at motorcycleusa.com.

[deagle10]

It would be fun....but "good golly" (cleaned up for family holiday time), that is a LOT of coin for any bike, let alone one that while probably brutally fun, isn't a great do it all type bike.  If funds were unlimited I'd have one for sure....but unfortunately they are.  

[Oilhed]

wasn't the 80's VMax faster?  thought I read that.  like the mill, just not the package.

[st ryder]

Check out the side cases. Beautifully styled integrated shape with materials that match the bike. A lot of effort was put into the bikes looks and function and it shows. The side scoops work this time.  It's expensive, yes, but not much more than some Harleys or other cruisers that won't hold a candle to this bike in perfromace terms, or even style terms in some cases.    

[st ryder]

wasn't the 80's VMax faster?  thought I read that.  like the mill, just not the package.

I haven't read the times for this version, but the fastest "old" style V-max was the 1985 model, ie first year, rumoured to have 5 more ponies than all the rest. It ran 10's in stock config with Jay Gleason on board.

[Schneegz]

It seems like a great bike - even more so in person - but it's too damned expensive and too damned heavy.  I'd love to see that V-4 in a more capable chassis.  

[ConPilot1]

Put that motor in a big f*cking ST chassis with a full fairing and bags the size of Rhode Island.
A new FJR-Max. Big goddamn road missile.

[Oilhed]

A new FJR-Max. Big goddamn road missile.

Sounds good!

[chornbe]

Have ya'll ever ridden the existing FJR?

[Andrew]

Here is how I see the new V max,

Over priced, ungodly over powered, ugly as sin, unusable except for slab

  Dang I want to take it for a ride  

[st ryder]

Have ya'll ever ridden the existing FJR?

Probably as fast or maybe even faster in the 440, and no doubt faster in top speed terms, maybe even with the side cases mounted   but,....... no V-boost.   Some hard core V-maxers actaully remove that feature as they feel it makes the bike faster, I don't know or care about that because for me, it wasn't about *actual* speed, it was about the feeling of acelleration when the v-boost kicks in. Tons of fun.   I'd rather have a bike that feels fast than one that actually is but it can't be felt. My '03 FJR was like that: really solid chassis, a torque monster, and wickedly fast but so "isolated" from the experience that I had to wick it up all the time to get a sense of fun out of it. Almost lost my license looking for the fun zone.   One knows where it is and when it'll kick in on a V-max. Use to be around 6K. Don't know where it is on the new one. Some days, I'd get to an isolated straight road, and just run up and down it a few times getting a thrill. I think the new one corners a lot better. What's that they use to say about the old one? "The engine writes cheques in the straightaways that the chassis can't cash in the corners." More fun.  

[BlueRidgeKat]

Remember the FJR1300 PDP (priority delivery program)?  It's baaaaaack!  For 2010 you can only get a Star Vmax as a special order model, and you only have until the end of November (this month!) to order one.  Is this another case of the public clamoring for a manufacturer to build a bike then turning their backs on it?

I would have been willing to put the money down and special order a Yamaha Tenere but no such PDP available for that model. So F___ you Yamaha.