Monster Max!!!
MONSTER MAX!!!
ROUNDUP
PROBABLY NO JAPANESE motorcycle has inspired tuners and custom builders as much as the V-Max. Yamaha hasn’t bothered to perform a significant update to the king of the power-cruisers since its introduction in 1985, but so emblazoned is the image of the V-Max in the mind of motorcyclists that they try to make up for it. The latest is French bike-builder Ludovic Lazareth, who has transformed a V-Max into the radical machine pictured here.
All that remains of the original Max is its heart: the dohc, 16-valve 1198ccVFour. Of course, even that hasn’t gone unaltered. As with many builders of wild V-Maxes before, Lazareth (www.lazareth.fr) has eliminated the VMax’s shaft drive, and replaced it with a much lighter chain. That’s relatively easy, because Yamaha designed the driveline as almost a bolt-on part, with the output shaft rotating the correct direction for a chain. Lazareth replaced the standard Yamaha frame with a custom tubular trellis, and transformed the front suspension into a twin-arm design with a steered upright. It’s only slightly similar to that of the Yamaha GTS 1000, and closer to the Bimota Tesi. Lazareth has made liberal use of other people’s parts where possible. The lower arm of the front suspension is a highly modified Triumph rear swingarm, and the same piece is used at the rear, as well. Triumph wheels carry the tires on both ends, but the front wheel was originally a 6-inch Speed Triple rear, sectioned down to 3.5 inches to get the right offset to work with the front suspension. Multiple Brembo calipers grab the inner portion of a single disc mounted on the inside of the front wheel, a la Buell.
Of course, with all this technology, you’d think Lazareth is the kind who would be hunched over a CAD program, but it’s actually the opposite. He uses his computer only to check e-mails and reply to customers or admirers. He imagines parts and draws everything on paper. Then he works directly on metal with a blowtorch, subcontracting only the machining. He whips out dummy pieces from soft materials as he shapes his future motorcycle.
“My method is kind of empiric,” he admits. “When I have an idea of the motorcycle I want to build, I start working on it before finalizing the concept, which gives me the opportunity to adapt to mechanical and aesthetic requirements. I conceive my parts along the way. At the end, I’m rarely wrong.”
In this case, the aesthetic is 21 st-century power-cruiser, influenced more by techno trends and supermoto racers, and less by the older hot-rod traditions that were used by Yamaha’s American designers to shape the original V-Max. The big side scoops remain, though stretched out and stronger appearing, and deemphasized by a layer of black. Lazareth has hewed to other traditions, as well.
You don’t have to look too hard to see the inspiration for the exhaust system. The twin mufflers that tuck under the passenger seat are a direct lift from the Yamaha MT-01 showbike, that monster V-Twin that thrilled at the Tokyo Motor Show a few years ago, but went no further.
Lazareth’s new Max is a work of art, sculpture as much as motorcycle, and is priced accordingly: 60,000 Euros, or about $73,000 at current exchange rates. Of course, for that kind of money, you get details that are far from everyday motorcycling, such as a rear-view camera that feeds a handlebarmounted display-this bike isn’t going to have its long, lean and brutal look broken by conventional mirrors.
Now, if Yamaha would just take the hint, and build something similar for about 20 percent of the price...
Steve Anderson
