I sold my last motorcycle in 1988 when my wife was pregnant with our first child and promised not to get another until after our kids were pretty well raised. We're getting pretty close now and my youngest son has no desire to ride one, so I'm really there for all intents and purposes.
My last bike was a V65 Magna Honda. A reasonably quick bike but it had terrible balance. You could literally flip it over backwards if you just twisted on the throttle in 4th gear running 60 mph. Worse yet, they had a terrible track record for speed related head shake; otherwise known as a 'death wobble'. The front end was so light that it would begin what was literally tank slapping with each handlebar and there was nothing you could do as a rider except try to get it shut down ASAP. I left squiggly black marks on a highway for a full 1/8th mile after mine started a speed wobble at 130 mph and, by the grace of God, I rode it out until it quit at 45-50 mph. So, no V65 Magna.
However, I just looked at a Yamaha VMAX and it had that look that I really like; not at all like a crotch rocket, but will run with them if pushed. A friend let me ride his which has had the fuel electronics re-mapped, a larger air intake and exhaust that flows more freely (but NOT loud). It runs the 1/4 mile in the low 9's. It looked WAY cool to me and rode great. Nice manners until you twisted the throttle. It's not supercharged or turbo charged, but it sure seemed to really come on strong around 6000 RPM and pull hard. It's probably the only thing I've ever driven that pulls harder than the 300hp Jet Ski I have. I drove a new 600+ hp Mustang and really liked it, but I already have a 600+ hp car. It's really loud, even with 3 chamber Flowmasters on each side and drinks gas like crazy. This VMAX has all that performance but costs waaaay less and still gets around 40 mpg. Thoughts?
My last bike was a V65 Magna Honda. A reasonably quick bike but it had terrible balance. You could literally flip it over backwards if you just twisted on the throttle in 4th gear running 60 mph. Worse yet, they had a terrible track record for speed related head shake; otherwise known as a 'death wobble'. The front end was so light that it would begin what was literally tank slapping with each handlebar and there was nothing you could do as a rider except try to get it shut down ASAP. I left squiggly black marks on a highway for a full 1/8th mile after mine started a speed wobble at 130 mph and, by the grace of God, I rode it out until it quit at 45-50 mph. So, no V65 Magna.
However, I just looked at a Yamaha VMAX and it had that look that I really like; not at all like a crotch rocket, but will run with them if pushed. A friend let me ride his which has had the fuel electronics re-mapped, a larger air intake and exhaust that flows more freely (but NOT loud). It runs the 1/4 mile in the low 9's. It looked WAY cool to me and rode great. Nice manners until you twisted the throttle. It's not supercharged or turbo charged, but it sure seemed to really come on strong around 6000 RPM and pull hard. It's probably the only thing I've ever driven that pulls harder than the 300hp Jet Ski I have. I drove a new 600+ hp Mustang and really liked it, but I already have a 600+ hp car. It's really loud, even with 3 chamber Flowmasters on each side and drinks gas like crazy. This VMAX has all that performance but costs waaaay less and still gets around 40 mpg. Thoughts?