30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

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30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Yamaha

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

19th photos

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Yamaha

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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Like cannons in James Bond: But to this day the air scoops are dummies.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Yamaha

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… and no-frills design turn on.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Yamaha

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The current one came in 2008: 200 hp …

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

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Almost unchanged until 2002, the fork got a bit stronger.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

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1985: built to drive straight ahead. And to show off.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Yamaha

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Radically reduced to the essentials – and finally the V-Block can snorkel through the thick aluminum funnels as befits its standing.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Yamaha

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Flat, narrow, long. The Cologne motorcycle designer Jens vom Brauck on his interpretation of the perfect Vmax: the Infrared, built for the Yamaha anniversary.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
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Yamaha Vmax.

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Yamaha Vmax.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

Happy Burnday

Doesn’t anyone over 30 trust? She was always politically incorrect and wanted to be. Now that the Yamaha Vmax is coming of age, Yamaha is showing with an official show model that the V4 party is far from over. For the anniversary, the prices also tumble.

The motorcycle that can be seen in the picture gallery has a 30-year history. And that takes us back to 1985. But even before the motorway toll was introduced in Switzerland, Enver Hoxha died in Albania and Mikhail Gorbachev became the new head of the Kremlin, Akira Araki from Japan had a brilliant idea. During a business trip to the USA, he observed a couple of US boys in a sprint race: whoever was the first to thunder his bike over the dead straight quartermile had won. It rattled in the brain of Yamaha man Araki. From zero to – Yamaha Vmax.

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30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax
Happy Burnday

Yamaha Vmax suddenly entered this 1985 idyll (the good BMW R 80 G / S was still rolling off the assembly line in Berlin-Spandau), the good news for Germany’s motorcyclists: Yamaha did it! Unleashed the hungry beast, created the Antichrist on two wheels.

There is actually no technological voodoo magic

The creation of the Yamaha Vmax was actually anything but technological voodoo magic. According to Araki’s plans, the large, but also well-behaved travel tourer XVZ 12 served as the basis. Its robust 1198 cubic centimeter V4 engine already had a remarkable 97 hp at the time. But with larger valves and sharper camshafts, lighter pistons and a new crankshaft, the four-cylinder was tuned to become the most powerful of all cardan circulation pumps.

The Yamaha Vmax should not only defeat the assembled competition in the performance data arm wrestling. With the system baptized V-Boost, it was supposed to introduce a new force in the arms race of the systems. From 6500 revolutions, connecting flaps between the intake ports of the right and left cylinders are opened by a servo motor. At 8000 these were finally as open as the silos of the Pershing II on the one hand and the SS-20 missiles on the other in the hot phase of the Cold War. Only they let something in and nothing out: highly explosive air / fuel mixture from two carburetors per cylinder. The thrust was just grueling.

Even if the Yamaha Vmax was only able to drive straight ahead due to an overloaded chassis, the deterrent worked. But in a kind of reverse NATO double decision, Yamaha had decided not to station this missile on German soil. Until 1996, the Japanese left the field completely without a fight to a small group of gray importers who launched the dragster (of course in the open US version with V-Boost) in Central Europe.

30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

Naked bike


Test Yamaha Vmax


200 hp monster bike


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30th anniversary of the Yamaha Vmax

Used purchase


Second-hand advice Yamaha Vmax (1985 – 2010)


The Yamaha muscle bike as a used one


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Yamaha never gave up

It was all 30 years ago. And a Yamaha Vmax of the first hour, if it is still fit today, can go for a drive in the afternoon, strengthened by a sip of Super Plus, with an H license plate. The driver will then be happy to help her back to the garage. But Yamaha never gave up, gave the name Vmax 2008 new strength and presented a worthy successor for the retirees.

It is true that the V-Boost system on the new Yamaha Vmax fell victim to a disarmament campaign. But with 200 hp as standard, nobody will miss that little extra. In its basic features, the dragster has remained true to itself anyway. Right up to the two air scoops, which give the dummy tank fire protection on the right and left – as toy guns. Because they too were and are pure fakes. And as an indispensable style element, they make the evil look of the Vmax.

What to do with the bulky plastic tank of the Yamaha Vmax?

That is why Jens vom Brauck (JvB), otherwise a master of radical reduction, did not want to do without it on his Infrared, which was built for Yamaha. But he took on a trick, used the hoods of the old for his 30-year-old Vmax tribute model based on the new Yamaha Vmax – and filled them with function and intake air. So the JvB-moto Infrared breathes through ex-dummies. In addition to a range of exquisite accessories such as clip-on handlebar stubs with Moto-Gadget ox-eye indicators, instruments from the accessories and various specially made carbon parts, it is above all the completely new, significantly higher, much narrower and slightly shorter rear frame that the infrared first gives the actual dragster look: The wheelbase appears much longer.

In order to achieve this effect, Jens vom Brauck had to solve a tricky problem: What should you do with the bulky plastic tank that is under the seat of the Vmax? A hand-made, narrow aluminum container was the solution. The JvB-moto Infrared will remain unique. But Yamaha still has a few models left from its base. And especially for the birthday, it not only launched the special carbon model (with Akrapovic exhaust, see online information below and issue 5/2015), but also significantly reduced the price of the Yamaha Vmax: the dragster now costs 19,495 instead of 23,495 Euro. Well, if that’s not a nice Burnday present.

Technical data Yamaha Vmax

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