Initially launched in 1985, the Yamaha V-Max has since been on the market with only minor modifications over the years. Sold both in Japan and abroad, the V-Max is one of the best-selling Japanese motorcycles of all time. The bike got designed, about 20 years back, by John Reed, an English designer who lived in California. Packed with oodles of power, the Yamaha V-Max became the world’s first ‘power cruiser’, even before the word was coined. While it’s power has never been questioned, the bike is often criticised for it’s poor cornering ability and soft suspension, which lead to high-speed wobbling and drift. But, the V-Max of the 80′s was the very epitome of a drag bike – a simple chassis, lots of horsepower, fast in a straight line but not really designed to corner. Come 2009, and Yamaha decided to do away with the old and bring in the new. The new V-Max is about more cubic capacity, more horsepower, more torque, more speed, more stopping and vitally lots of cutting edge technology to make all this possible.

At the heart of the 2009 VMAX is an all-new 1,679cc liquid cooled 4-stroke DOHC V4 engine which runs the same 66.0mm stroke as its predecessor, but now runs a bigger 90.0mm bore on each of the four cylinders. The biggest change is the shift to fuel-injection technology, as against the carburetted engine of the old V-Max. Weight reduction and mass centralization has been given good consideration, and Yamaha brings in the YCC-I (Yamaha Chip Controlled Intake) and YCC-T (Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle) which have been successfully implemented on the Yamaha R1 over the last few years. Of course, a bike that has so much power as this new VMAX needs brakes to match. And for exactly that reason, the new braking system on this bike is one of the most sophisticated and powerful designs ever seen on a Yamaha motorcycle. Dual 320mm diameter wave-type discs at the front, and a massive single 298mm wave-type disc at the rear gives great stopping power.

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The V-Max has enjoyed cult status in the Americas, where it captured the imagination of muscle-car drag racing enthusiasts. It’s launch in India at this point of time must be seen as an attempt to extend the brand’s performance-oriented image in the country. Like it’s other two big bikes, the VMAX will also be a CBU import. The 2009 VMAX has gathered accolades across the globe for its thrilling power delivery and its extremely scary straight-line acceleration, and is expected to do the same in the country. Even though it is a CBU import, the pricing of the VMAX has been kept quite competitive in comparison to other imports available in the country. The 2009 VMAX will make your wallet lighter by Rs. 20 lakhs (Ex-showroom, New Delhi). Its mad acceleration and crisp power delivery has scared even the most daring riders but at the same time, there is nothing else on the road that can turn heads so instantaneously, like the new VMAX. Quite honestly, the big daddy of motorbikes is here!

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