Just a little History: I've been riding/racing motorcycles since I was 10 years old, (I'm 47 now so you can do the math). My first bike was a Harley-Davidson 65cc mini and my current and hopefully not my last is my '85 VMax.

At 11 my dad bought me a old H-D 125 Rapido (Harley made some neat trail bikes back then), and I stripped it down and started racing Moto-X. I did so well, that for 2 years dealers and clubs were giving me bikes to race for promotions (no 200cc MX bikes back then so they were converting Honda XL 175...Suzuki 185....and H-D 175 into MX bikes) by age 14 (ranked top 5 in the country)I had a full ride and was racing a brand new tricked out '75 Suzuki RM 125. Racing on the South American circuit was tough (traveling) and made it to Florida a couple times before making it my home.
Tried the road racing route for a season also (Suzuki GS 185 and H-D RR 250)wasn't my cup 'o tea.....too boring at the time I guess...remember I was only 14.
My sponser was a Suzuki/H-D/Can-Am dealer, so I've probably ridden every bike they manufactured up to 1977(well not every, but quite a few).....Oh Yea...I rode illegally on the road for about 3 years.

Moved to Toronto, Canada (my parents made me) and raced up there for a couple of years then decided I had to grow up.
Never touched a bike for 5 plus years.
Came down to Florida for Spring Break in '81, moved here in '82...first thing I did was hook up with an old sponser I had in Miami, and I got me a hardly used '79 Suzuki GS 1000 with a ATP Turbo Kit (talk about FAST) the same one Jay Gleason rode into the 9's for Cycle World in '79.
4 months later turbo kicked in at an inoportune time, tire broke loose and I lost it...sold it to some guy who turned it into a race bike.
Bought a Honda CB 750F...4 months later 'ol lady ran into me and wrote the bike off.
Bought another CB750F....5 months later got hit by someone running a red light....out of commision for about a year and quit riding.
Everything they say about Florida drivers is TRUE

20 years later got married, had a kid, got a bike...makes sense doesn't it.

Over the following weeks I'll add my reasons and pictures of:
WHY I GOT MY VMAX!

So Check back often, tell me what you think, and I want you to add a small blurb on Why You Got Your Max, or any old war stories also......on this Thread........

Chris

Bitterness smeared with awe.. That's why i got my Vmax.. I also have been riding since the age of 12 more than 40 yrs ago. Back in 1991, I had a 1984 Kawasaki 900 Eliminator. A bike I cherished and revered. On one of those "frisky" days was on I-75 doing an extended top speed run. I had tucked myself in as tightly as possible and was sqeezing her for all she had. Minutes went by and I squeezed harder, watching agonizingly as the speedo barely climbed to 146, now 147, come on.... come on... and WOOSH! A black bike went by me like I was on the kickstand!. I rememebr those ram air horns vividly. You've just been sucked up by a VMAX! I was pissed, bitter, resentful, yet in total awe.. it would be more than a 1/4 of a century before I would seek out that bike to have for my very own.. Once you've felt the "pull" and heard the stacato bursts that ONLY a V-4 can make, the sensation of awe overwhelms any left over bitterness, or resentment, and you kick yourself in the a$$ for waiting sooooooo long..

I have never owned a new vehicle of any kind, but when i saw the prototype on display in Japan, I knew I had to have it. The R-1/Fz-1 may be a ton of fun, but in no way, shape or form, comes close to the total Vmax experience.. To coin a phrase from Highlander..

"There can be only one"

Yes Bad Max...there can only be one...I did not experience the bitersweet part, but the continuous AWE effect, and Legendary Status is what got me hooked.

Here's one reason for the Max:

I just could'nt keep up with the big boys...

My Wife gave me the go ahead to get something

Bigger...Faster...and....Stronger

I first sat on a new '85 V Max at a dealership off Ft. Riley. I would of had it but they wouldn't give me what I wanted out of my '80 1100 Midnight Special. Sort of glad I didn't get it. I used to drink beer almost all the time when I wasn't working. Probably would of wrapped it around a tree. Years later, after a few different bikes, I picked up a XJ700 Maxim X back in '98. I hadn't had a decent bike since '89 before that. I ended up riding with a few guys who ran V Maxes. The XJ was quick but couldn't quite keep up. I could squeak past a Fazer that another guy had, who rode with us. On the open road, the front end of my XJ would start to float at 135. I ended up moving from Ks to Mo in '99 and sold the XJ in 2001. I found parts were getting hard to find and seen the writing on the wall. In the spring of '02, I got the itch to ride again and started praying for a good V Max. After close to buying a couple different, newer models, where the deals fell through, I spotted an '89 on the net, in Cleveland. It had 6200 miles on it. I bought it from a guy who had two other Maxes. The one I bought was his ugly one. This guy, along with two others, had rented a large cold storage unit together. They had electricity and heat put in. (I suppose that made it a warm storage unit.) They had 19 bikes in the place. I had to take Polaroids of some. All were something you'd see in a show. They showed me a Valkrye that was getting a blower. I towed back my '89 and now have 29k on it now. It's been a very 'loyal' bike, little problems and lots of fun. Now I can keep up with the crowd. I can't get enough of the distinctive sound flying down the highway.

Cruzin wrote:
Bad Ass video! Can you do one with a burnout and a slide?

inogivearats wrote:
Thanks for the story, and nice pics of the car show.......
sometimes I wish I could change the exhaust on the Max depending on the mood I'm in. There's nothing like the sound of the V4. This is the 3rd set of pipes I've gone through to get that perfect sound.
Stock..................nahhh
Supertrapps slip-ons............great wide open, a little megaphony down low.
Jardine slip-ons..............sounded too much like a crotch rocket
Cobras (current)..........nice tone down low and wide open, a little quiet and restrictive (I think) but there still on.

Chris

IMO, You can't beat the 4 into 1 sound. THEE most intimidating V-8 sound I've ever heard!

My first experience with the Max was on the showroom floor. It was an 85 with a Kerker 4-1. I had some pretty sweet bikes up till then (it was 1988)and I simply didn't know what to make of this large beast before me. I sat on it and it felt great, and the view down onto the "tank" and scoops was, well perfect. You all know what I mean.

Then someone walks up behind me and says "Do you mind getting off, I have to go home." It was the owner of the shop and it was his bike. He was very polite about it and just hadn't separated his from the other bikes on the floor.

He then proceeds to fire it up, and the whole place just stopped what they were doing and watched it sitting there rumbling. When he drove out the door and down the street I knew right then and there-as we took cover from the shattering windows and followed his progress by the car alarms going off along his route-that the Max had to be mine.

3 Maxes later (my first, an '86, my second a '99 and my last a modded '93, all with various iterations of Kerker 4-2s) I'm in line for my fourth. And this one is no doubt the bike I have been waiting for since I first felt the old Max was getting a bit long in the tooth.

Allow me to just dab this bit of drool away...

Everyone has very noteworthy goals for the V-Max. Mine are a little more modest and less politically correct, but I will share with you (I am a good sport).

I want to start the engine at 5:00 a.m. and roll through the neighborhood like a tornado causing my neighbors to jump out of bed at attention while their car alarms are triggered in their own garages, up and down the street people close their windows and doors shut tight to keep the rumbling sound out.

I want my neighbors to wake up every day with nightmares of me riding by at 5:00 a.m. and then jump out of bed when I pass by.
I want every fire hydrant on the road to burst when I pass by as a reminder of the tidal wave to come daily.

Like a rolling earthquake rapidly approaching from behind you, I will pass by. All you will hear is the sound of the Beast like that of thunder striking pure fear and paralysis dwarfing the sound around you.

The smell, the smell of burned rubber all around you is a reminder of what you just missed moments ago on this road. You will see but a shadow of the Beast on the horizon.

I have more…