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After this weeks announcement from Yamaha about not to release the VMax this fall, I got to speak to a Yamaha insider earlier today about the bike and its progress. The person asked to stay anonymous so I can't share his identity. Take this as an unofficial rumor. If you don't like rumors stop here. If you enjoy the possibilities this might be for you. Asked about the progress of the Vmax I got a pretty interesting story. The Otodama engine - the 1800cc monster turns out to be just that: a monster. An early version of the engine made 295bhp (!) at the crank. After some troubles with the internal dynos and test setups the bike was tested with that engine configuration. Turns out there is pretty much no rear tire that can hold up against this much power. The engine shredded tires in piece, breaking loose at pretty much any point in time. The whole setup was described to be pretty much uncontrollable by the average bike rider. Way too much power to keep the bike under control.
5 detunes later(!) the engine got restricted to 'only' 210 bhp. Seems to be as much as Yamaha is willing to give you and me as riders. The good news is that there seems to be plenty of potential in that engine for later upgrades.The bike is almost ready but just not far enough to be announced in two weeks at the Yamaha dealer show in Florida. There is a minor chance the bike will get introduced later this year or early next year. Yamaha engineers are tying up loose ends and are getting the bike ready for the US market. As I said earlier take this as a rumor. I truly enjoyed the conversation. The bike is coming - no doubt. We all have to hang in just a little bit longer. Based on the insider view I would hope to see the new Vmax no later than mid of next year. Ride safe! Come and sign up at starVmax.com and join the online community to stay in touch about the latest VMax developments:
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