Has been over a week since I got back from the Dragon and the best time I ever had at the Dragon. Tuskeegee hotel was an awesome place to stay, the total lack of cell phone coverage and internet a blessing. 

By far the best thing that could have happened to this years Dragon VMax Warrior Fest was the Deals Gap Rock Slide earlier this year. Sounds weird but the fact that the road was closed for a couple weeks, reopened just a week before we go there - but only partial (the rock slide in Tennessee is still there), made for an awesome experience. During the week the Dragon was open from 8am - 8pm with 2 troopers present at most times. No less and no more.

Bikes and cars were super rare, no traffic and once you knew about the location of the smokey bears, it was great fun - always keeping it safe of course!

Today I finally got a chance to hit the dyno room again. On the stand a 2010 VMax that just finished it's initial break-in. Safe to hit it hard on the dyno.

We brought several K&N filters to the test to see if there are any gains to be made just from swapping filters. In our recent filter writeup we discussed several options from K&N that fit the new VMax more or less perfect. 

Several hours later and an entire tank and then some used for testing we gathered well over 100 runs with tons of data about the filters and various airbox modifications. With and without restrictor, with and without rear top cover, stock filter, three different K&N filter - all on an otherwise stock 2010 VMax.

Finally found some time to compile the article about K&N filter options for the 2010/2009 VMax. The choices are great, the CM-9908 is my absolute favorite. True K&N - not a blue Made-In-China knockoff. 

If you have to keep the stock airbox (mainly for noise reasons) this filter should be for you. You can find them all over eBay and the Internet.

Power gains with all drop in filter options are limited, but in return you keep the stock airbox.

Having a new bike on the way to join the stable, I need to make room. My loss is your chance!

Grab this unique Custom Star Stratoliner at a fraction of the build cost.

This is the bike that defined the new line of Liners from Yamaha/Star. Winning various awards including the 2007 Star Motorcycles Bike of the Year Calendar - that crowns the top custom builds in the country. This unique, 2000cc big-bore, custom painted, 240, NOS injected cruiser monster will surely turn heads for you just like it does for me.

I have received a lot of questions about how to mount the all new GoPro Hero HD camera on the new VMax. 

One of the nice things about the Hero HD - when you get the motorsports package - is that it comes with a ton of mounting options. Stick on mounts for straight and curved surfaces, a major suction cup, that holds on thigh to anything smooth and flat and various extensions to get any angle you like.

In addition you can get rather cheap options for handle bard clamps and roll cage clamps (used for the massive front forks).

Gotta have some fun. A short break between two storm fronts hitting NorCal. 

Recipe: 1 VMax, decent leathers, 1 GoPro Hero HD

2h of riding, 4h of editing

Santa was kind enough to drop of a brand new GoPro Hero HD mini camcorder including the full vehicle mounting kit. 

The new model now support full HD up to 1080p and 30fps or 720p at 60 fps - amonts other various resolutions. When running with a 32GB HDSC card that's good for at least 4h of video footage, 8h and more at 720p @ 30 fps. 

Given the need for the occasional slow motion clips, I opted to run the 720p@60fps for the first trial runs. 

This morning was just too good to pass it on. Had to roll out the Vmax - even though a couple parts are missing and others need to come off for powder coating.

Took the SLR with me and shot some 450 pics in just about 1h. Fresh air, the day after a little rain, just perfect.

I hope I was able to capture the moment. Here are a few shots of the VMax. Once I am done here I need to take her for a spin. ;-) {nomultithumb}

Time to look under the cover of tuning a Big Air system. Beginning of the year 2009, shortely after the 2009 VMax had arrived we tested various kinds of Big Air configurations to find the one worthy for the VMax. 

Now that we have access to the new leader in exhausts: Akrapovic - we re-ran a handful of tests - some 150 runs - to re-validate if the exhaust would have a significant impact on the Big Air Design. Long story short - The Monster Big Air still trumps all other designs we did by a significant margin. 

I am getting a lot of questions about which exhaust is the 'BEST' for the new VMax (2009++).

While in general it can get tricky to say which one is THE BEST, for the 2009/2010 VMax it seems to be pretty clear at this moment. Of the available contenders we had the chance to test the Stock System, our own member's (blueta71) designed X-Type Cat Eliminator which uses stock mufflers, the Akrapovic midpipe+mufflers and a 4-1 full system.

Naturally one would expect the best numbers coming from the full system.