PH2 ridden: Yamaha TMAX
Big scooters ... not cool but surprisingly fun, especially with a dose of R1 attitude
Essentially it's a culture thing. In Italy scooters aren't looked down on by bikers. Most Italian kids grow up riding scooters and it's seen as a sensible way to beat the traffic. But the TMAX offers more.
Thanks to a 500cc parallel twin engine the Yamaha can cover distances that simply aren't possible on small capacity bikes. With top speed and acceleration that more than matches cars, the TMAX offers two-wheeled, hassle-free commuting.
So why are we so snobbish about big scooters in the UK? Last year the number of TMAXs sold on our shores numbered a few hundred. Is it time for bikers to accept the big scooter?
Scooting about LA
The TMAX is designed to deal with traffic chaos so Yamaha chose to launch it in Los Angeles, a city with 1.8 cars (more if you're Jay Leno) per resident. Which equates to just shy of 8m cars!
So what's the deal with the new TMAX? According to Yamaha the TMAX is a fusion between a motorcycle and a scooter. It emphasises the handling and while its parallel twin is 'only' 530cc (up 30cc and 3hp for a total of 46.5hp for 2012) Yamaha has worked hard to trim weight in pursuit of improved agility.
As well as a new belt drive system the TMAX has shed a few kilograms and had its geometry altered so that more weight is on the front wheel. Add to this an R1 inspired restyle (it uses the same rear light!) and you have quite a cool looking machine.
Riding the TMAX through LA was certainly considerably less stressful than cutting through traffic on a normal bike. With no clutch the 'twist and go' motor proved pretty sprightly, leading the charge away from traffic lights while the chassis was surprisingly agile when filtering. Initially I was concerned the Yamaha may be a unwieldy to zip into gaps, but I never found myself thinking I could have got through that gap on a normal bike.
Easy rider
I was also impressed by the bike's stability - approaching traffic lights the TMAX was easy to balance at low speed, meaning you could roll up to the lights at walking pace without putting your feet down.
But the biggest surprise was when we left the congestion of LA and headed out into the surrounding hills.
Yamaha has always concentrated on giving the TMAX sporty handling and, although it doesn't look it, the big scooter is actually very competent through the bends. Once you get over the weird sensation of charging into corners with your feet forward the TMAX responds well and can certainly be ridden at quite a pace.
Getting into scrapes
Get a little too enthusiastic and the centre stand can scrape a bit, but on some superb twisty roads the TMAX was balanced in the corners and actually really good fun. And it didn't feel that underpowered either.
With just 530cc I thought I'd continually find myself wishing for more power but despite treating the Yamaha's throttle like an on/off switch the TMAX never felt lacking. So, after a day on the TMAX am I now rushing out to buy a big scooter?
Despite proving quite a charming bike to ride I have a few issues. Its underseat storage is pretty poor and is only big enough for one full face helmet. Any additional helmets for pillions are exposed to the elements at best, filled with tramp wee at the worst. BMW's equivalent has solved this problem with a neat flap that expands the storage and Yamaha must be gutted not to have come up with an equivalent solution.
The TMAX's extra compartments feel horribly cheap and plasticky to use, which lets down the high quality nature of the rest of the bike and I found the screen a little too low, even on its highest setting.
Skids are for kids
I wasn't overly keen on the TMAX's brakes either. There is nothing wrong with their power, but the rear had a harsh action and was easy to accidentally lock up. On a bike designed for urban riding I would like to have seen ABS as standard, however according to Yamaha UK TMAX owners seem to prefer bikes without ABS and it won't be an option, so what do I know...
So are the UK's bikers missing out on something by ignoring big scooters? The convenience of being able to stick your riding kit under the seat is wonderful and a scooter is far less demanding to use in town than a conventional motor with a clutch. But you'd want a proper bike as well.
At around £8,500 the TMAX is quite a pricey commuter but against ever more expensive train fares and the like it is thrifty and will do 50mpg. Having ruled the roost for the last decade the biggest storm on the TMAX's horizon in 2012 could, ironically, also be the great opportunity. BMW's C650 models could open the class up to a new breed of motorcyclist thanks to the strength of the German brand. Will this see big scooters in the UK reach Italian levels of popularity? Unlikely but I certainly see them playing an increasingly important role when it comes to commuting in the UK.
I suppose a bigger problem is that in the UK we see 2 wheels as a toy rather than a way to get around anyway.
On the tmax, she dose like the looks, and quality, but my wife is waiting to see the BMW before looking at a new bike, and I fear allot of others will. Lets just hope that it dose not go the same way as the Scarver and the C1, badly advertised and missunderstood at the time.
I was once passing Nice on the A8 in a 996 and wasn`t exactly dawdling and in my mirror was a bloke on a T Max wearing an open face helmet and a T shirt that was wildly flapping around in the wind, I ended up moving over for him, made me laugh!
Have you heard one with a "sports" exhaust? actually quite intruiging!
Not that I would but gimme a bike anyday. Plenty of choice at that money.
Just checked on the Yamaha Italy website and the XJ6 costs €7k and the TMAX just over €10k, so its not pricing here that is killing them!
I get the reasoning behind them though. Do quite a lot of work around Europe and see major cities full of scooters and even in winter, they make sense. Smaller ones with those leg covers. Bar muffs and helmet storage - what more do you need? Decent underground parking? Ah well, cant have everything I suppose.
I thought long and hard about a superscoot. But given I would use the bike for at least 50 mile journeys, a bike made a much better proposition. If I lived in the outskirts of London (or similar large city) then they make massive sense for some.
I might still get one for airport runs in the rain - or might chop the 800 in for the new 1200 next year (or a Multistrada!). Who knows. Options is what I like though.
Trouble with it though is that it's not a motorbike so you still need one of those as well. It's just not fast enough to give you that ride for the fun of it thrill or powerful enough to take to the Alps for a weeks hooning with yer mates. It's just a mode of transport although a brilliant one at that for our congested roads.
To ride one of these things you've got to go through a lot of hassle to pass your tests etc and only someone thats a potential "biker" will make the effort. That very same "biker' still needs a proper motorbike to for fill the other needs I've already stated and so at £8.5k the TMax is just too much money for what is basically a utility device.
Make it easier to get on one and start marketing the thing to car drivers rather than bikers and they might just sell more. You're average motorist or little 125cc scooter rider has no idea they even exist. I somehow think BMW may therefore do a better job and maybe give the Yamaha a lift in the process
Trouble with it though is that it's not a motorbike so you still need one of those as well. It's just not fast enough to give you that ride for the fun of it thrill or powerful enough to take to the Alps for a weeks hooning with yer mates. It's just a mode of transport although a brilliant one at that for our congested roads.
To ride one of these things you've got to go through a lot of hassle to pass your tests etc and only someone thats a potential "biker" will make the effort. That very same "biker' still needs a proper motorbike to for fill the other needs I've already stated and so at £8.5k the TMax is just too much money for what is basically a utility device.
Make it easier to get on one and start marketing the thing to car drivers rather than bikers and they might just sell more. You're average motorist or little 125cc scooter rider has no idea they even exist. I somehow think BMW may therefore do a better job and maybe give the Yamaha a lift in the process
The cost per mile on the TMax is pretty low compared to what I've spent on the Monster and GSX-R. If you are a one-bike hardcore/enthusiast biker, then the TMax probably won't be where you choose to plonk 8.5k of your hard earned. But that's just a prioritisation of personal funds allocation and has nothing to do with whether the TMax is a bad bike or not.
If every biker had a spare 8.5k on top of all the other toys they had/wanted, I suspect many would choose a TMax as their utility
I'd rather stay at home than dawdle around in these conditions.
Also, in the summer it's easy to get an olive skinned bella to hop on the back and take her for a romantic ride.
Try getting one of these pasty fattys onto the back of a moped around here. You'll need a crane of some sort, and when she's finally on you'll need a winch to get it all moving.
Already got a dirt bike for winter mud, a sports bike for nutter adrenaline fixes, and an adventure bike for those far flung places which doubles up as the commuter tool. If a Tmax made financial sense in terms of reduced running costs for the commute I'd have one too but at £8.5k it just doesn't work.
Lets face it most motorists would be better off with a Tmax instead of a second car but as someone else has pointed out in another thread you can buy a brand new Suzuki Swift cage for less money and it would probably do more than 50mpg with tyres that last 20k miles so even cheaper to run.
Why would you buy a Tmax over say a GS800 which is more economical and has the legs for a run to far flung places. Slightly less practical for the commute but the potential for greater uses.
http://ladot.lacity.org/pdf/PDF10.pdf
"In the City of Los Angeles, there are a total number of 2,499,764 registered vehicles. Of that, 1,977,803 are automobiles."
So unless car ownership has quadrupled in the last in the 4 years, during a recession, that stat is as crazy as I originally thought...sorry to be pedantic about it but it's wildly inaccurate.
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