So Turtle, you were one of the pioneer V-Max owners!
I bought mine new in 1988. Like you, I also almost bought a V65 until I asked the sales guy whether it was really the quickest thing you could buy. He answered honestly and lost a sale. I went straight to a yammy dealer and grabbed his shiny red Max off the floor.
Yup...same feeling as I have now with the Busa. But not quite as obsessive. I'm friggin' nuts about my Busa. No bike has ever bit me this bad.
The thing I liked best about the Max was that it launched so hard and it was so easy to launch. The perfect street fighter. Perfect full power launches every time with no effort and no technique required.
That ease of launching was the reason why I was NEVER ONCE challenged at a traffic light by a rice rocket. Weird eh? I think they knew they were taking a risk of screwing up on a full power launch, and lots of them did, but that the Max would fire off perfect every time.
On the highway was another matter. Did you ever get your ass hammered by a sport bike in a top speed run?
I'll never forget the first time that happened. Got into a roll-on race from about 80 mph with a rice jockey...didn't notice what bike he was on...we were about even up to 150mph.
Then the Max hit a wall and the rice jockey just kept haulin'! I was freaked! I stabbed the shifter to get a higher gear but there wasn't one.
Defeat stinks.
I still believe to this day that the Max could use another gear. It's not wind that stops it at 150...it's the red line.
Got on a buddy's Max the other day for a long ride on fast country roads. The Max felt foreign and crude. Like a fat old dirt bike. Tranny like a tractor and only 4 gears. Kinda slow, too, compared to what we ride now.
But I can tell you, I still have to have my sh*t together to beat my buddy off the line. And when I do get a good launch...is he ever toast! (That's my huge contact patch and 135 fewer pounds at work...we both burn a lot of rubber.) Roll-ons after tire burning time are a joke.
I haven't ridden the "new" Max with the thicker fork tubes and better front brakes, but a friend who has says it's night and day. Handles much better.
How did you like the high speed wobble at about 130 mph? I just tucked in and it went away, but it made a lot of Max owners I knew mental.
Never had a single mechanical problem with that bike in 35,000 miles and I used to drag it a lot. 11.4 at 125 was my time vs mag tests at 10.95. But I was cheating with the Dale Walker (Holeshot) V-Boost switch, a 4 into 1 Hindle and some other little tweaks.
I wish I could have kept that bike along with the Busa because sometimes I get in that kind of a mood. You know, different drugs for different moods.
Any other ex-Max Busa pilots out there?
[This message has been edited by Dirty Pete (edited 23 September 1999).]
