The new Vmax

[motoracer8]

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I can talk about it. Early this summer I was invited to Sacramento Raceway to watch Dale Walker make some passes on the new Vmax, Sacramento raceway is about 30 minutes from my house. The agreement was, no pictures, you can't ride it, and you can't talk about it untill the mag artical was out, if I violated the agreement they would send the hit squad after me. I did get a picture with Don Canet, Dale Walker, and the new max. If you are interested in Yamahas newest tire destroyer, check out the Cycle World December issue.

  Ken G.

[Night Vision]

I read the "test" in MotorCyclist rag... they seemed to like it...

they liked the HD XR1200 also... except you have too remove the exhaust to adjust the preload on the right shock..

oops  :-[

[Kenny]

  ;)O.K.  Let's zip the engine in half & we have the new Vision Engine!! ;D ;D
                    JUst think if it...
                                            Cheers Kenny

[kwells]

yeah except it packs the horsepower of 4 V motors

[don_vanecek]

I still have to wonder IF the Vision had sold better would Yamaha have done a 600-700 cc version and what would that have been like????

[Rick G]

I'm not sure if it was on this version of the ROV forum or an earlier version, but someone  posted that Yamaha bought  the engine design from Cosworth at a manufacturers  show . It was a, if I remember correctly , around 780cc. Yamaha , of coarse , decided to build it as a550. If they had built it as a 750 , it would no doubt , still be sold (like a Vmax)  .

I rode Lisa Custer (wife to big mike)  GS 500 Suzuki and while 50 cc'c smaller , it feels like a 250 in size , The Vision is a pretty big 550   by comparison

[motoracer8]

I suppose it could be a Cosworth design, the head is very compact but the sharp turn in the intake port dose'nt look like something Cosworth would do. I do know they (Cosworth) played around with 5 valve heads before Yamaha did. They thought that the small increase in valve area was not worth the added complexity. The idea was to open the center intake valve slighty ahead of the other two, to get the air moving before the other valves opened. Most performance engines of the recent past use 4 valve heads. Vision heads are not bad, the ones I worked on for the flat track project spent some time on the flow bench, I increased the size of the intake valves alittle, worked over the intake port to straighten it, and cleaned up the exhaust. They flowed very well with 40mm carbs.

  Ken G.

[treedragon]

Years ago my mechanic friend (the XZ nutter  ;D) worked for Yamaha in Australia and spoke in depth with the Yamaha engineers that designed the XZ and they said the head was designed by Cosworth.

[jasonm.]

The new Vmax is nice except, such a gas hog should have al arger fuel tank. I am sorry , 4 gallons ain't enough. I like to ride...not get coffee and pose. And H-D XR1200 now in europe, same issue. But most H-D riders I know, are not a logical bunch. Otherwise they would not own one. 90% H-Ders around me are posers. They should have tatoos on their foreheads saying "look at me".