Just discovered how horrible an '85 Max handles...

[QuarterHorse]

Maximus - I would say a noticeable difference in handling would be going progressive front and rear and lower. Nosboss on here is a good friend of mine, and when I rode his bike back from Illinois I couldn't BELIEVE the difference from his to mine. It truly is night and day. However, my bike isn't a sport bike nor will it ever be, but it's night and day over stock that's for sure.

 

[Redbone]

vmaxman99 brought up a good point about rider weight, which I never disclosed. I am around 165 with gear.

Also, I am running EBC HH pads, front and rear.

Redbone mentioned the progressive springs in front, and that they lowered the front end 2". How does that affect rake angle? Does the installation of these springs automatically lower or do you raise the forks up the trees an inch or two?

The progressive springs come in two flavors: one kit replaces your stock springs and won't affect ride height. They will greatly improve the fork control/ diving. The second kit is a lowering kit and it comes with one pair of progessivly wound main springs. It also includes 4 - 1" long "lowering" springs. You can use one "lowering" spring each side to achieve a 1" lower ride height; or two "lowering" springs to get a 2" lower ride height like I did. No need to raise the forks in the trees. It quickens the steering a bit but not too bad. My fender does not touch the radiator at all although the brake lines do. I will take care of that problem when I install SS brake lines with the brake (thinking R1) conversion.

 

[Shuriken]

Just providing a link to another helpful post:
http://www.vmaxforum.net/showthread.php?t=13462

 

[Rhoy Carter]

The standard progressive fork springs keep the same height. My 85 would dive so bad the tire was catching the radiator screen with 14 psi. Progressive springs (with no air) solved this problem,also the lag was so bad that if i power shifted to 3rd the bike was straight up in the air and now with the lag right i dont have wheelie problems, i have stock rear shocks and weigh 250 so a few small changes willhelpm a lot.

 

[rebar]

Welcome to the VMAX!
The best thing I would recomend is to ride a 1970's Norton for awhile and this way when you ride your VMAX again it wont seem so bad you will be like the rest here and think the VMAX handles fairly well.

:rofl_200::rofl_200:

 

[tbutera2112]

yea they dont handle that bad like youre describing.... you need to go over the bike and do some maintenance...check bearings, steering head bolt, tires, etc

i just put ME880s on my bike...it made a world of difference

i go out riding with full on sport bikes and i can keep up decently...obviously it doesnt turn like a sport bike, but im always within distance of seeing the 1ks, and i can hang right behind 600s because i catch up on straights

my bikes stock

 

[RaWarrior]

The single biggest improvement to my Max's handling was switching to Metzeler tires. WOW. I was totally amazed when I first rode it with the new rubber, I also went up from a 150 to a 170 rear(no "washer swap" required for me, I can fit like 2 quarters in the space between tire and swingarm). Cornering stability is 100% better. Progressive springs and zero air are also excellent. Dive is minimal even on hard braking. I'm actually running the "nicetect" (aka ebay special) rear shocks. When the p/o told me about them I was really skeptical and figured they'd be the first thing to go. However, I honestly think they're not bad. They're a dual spring with seperate preload adjusters, and an air adjustable reservoir. Got about 8000 miles on them and no issues. With a passenger on hard bumps you can feel them lightly bottom, but by myself(maybe 190 in full gear) I've never felt them case out. The only slight issue is that the bottom eye mount on them isn't as "thick" as the stockers, so if you reinstall the original bolt and washer, the washer won't quite touch the shock and there will be a small amount of play. I just found another suitable washer to use as a spacer to tighten things up.

I think my Max handles better than my V30 Magna did, and surprisingly good for a bike of it's wheelbase and weight. You'll never compete with a sportbike in that department, but my Max is stable and confident to as far as I dare to take it, dragging the edge of my boot at 70mph.

 

[ouchez]

On my 05 with 17,000 miles, other than adjusting my front steering bearings and running Avon Venoms, I have had no problems, handles just like a cruiser should,,,but not a sport bike.

I have to agree, you have a 23 year old machine, you can't expect much without spending alot of time and money.

I enjoy putting mine through the sweeps and corners and coming out with a burst of power,,no problem.:eusa_dance:

 

[sidwin]

i own a fz1 2nd gen, a 01 vmax and 750 shadow. if i had to only keep one bike it would definitely be the fz1. by far the best bang for the buck out there. my vmax is more rare and pretty much the ultimate muscle cruiser if you don't count the 2nd gen vmax. when i first got my vmax i started down the path like everyone else... new tires. but that wasn't enough because i've always felt the vmax to be soo top heavy so then came the aftermarket seat... I was almost satisfied with that but i wanted to try progressive springs in the front. This has made my vmax feel so much like a sport bike i have to be honest... i miss the stock springs. I had to stiffen the rears to 4 to even out the bump steering. Alot of guys on here like that feeling because they miss the sport bike feel on a cruiser... Me personally since i own both, i kind of wish i had the cruiser feel back

 

[pumacorp]

I put solid mounts and frame braces and that made a huge differences ,,,then I did the gsxr front fork conversion with sport bike rims front and back with power pilots OMG this bike handles like an animal...I can dip a turn as good as my zx9 now...Oh I also got a set of progessives in the rear the 418s and that was a nice addition to the handling...

Hey it costs money to build a nice bike when its 1980s technology..
Sure u can go buy a honda or some other crap,,,but its not a v-4 powerhouse like the max...No other bike can compare with the offline power of a max...

I see alot of guys on here happy as clams with there stock maxes and that should tell u something..Its a piece of engineering that hasnt changed since 85 and that same old ass bike is still slamming the new power cruisers to this date!!!

I was at a bike show tonight with a ton of Harleys and choppers,,,,,guess whose bike got the crowd surrounding it,,,,u got it my max...So keep the hondaz!!!

 

[RaWarrior]

The only thing even close to the Vmax plant is Honda's V65...which to be honest was the "original" muscle cruiser since it came out in '82. 1100cc V4, believe it was rated at like 115hp or so. Fastest bike you could buy until Yamaha took a dump on Honda's parade in '85. Honda tried again with the X4, but it was shoveling against the Vmax tide and didn't last long.

V65's are fast bikes. You can tell they don't have quite the power of a Max, but they're pretty close, and still give a lot of modern bikes a run for their money. Unfortunately, the V65 had some inherent issues, namely since the V4 was a 90 degree and oriented almost like an L (back head almost vertical, front almost horizontal), the upper head didn't get enough oil under 2000RPM's or so and the cams/chain would always wear out fast. The smaller V45 and V30(what I had) avoided this issue, but just barely. The Magna's had some electrical gremlins much like the Max, and were also plagued with high-speed wobble.

For once, a manufacturer realized when they were onto a good thing and didn't go and screw it up. Yamaha just rode out the success, slowly working out a few bugs but keeping the bike largely unchanged. They didn't even have any pressure to improve it, since nobody else really tried to compete with it(probably after the flop of the X4, nobody gave a serious effort to unseat the Max).