Just joined the club...

[Trondyne]

Hi all....

Just got my first V-Max...

A 1993 blonde.... Sounds hot....

I was surprised to find out that she has an 18" rear wheel, apparently at one time had T-Boost installed, although I don't know if it is connected now and a few other things that make her slightly unusual...Corbin seat and different pipes... She also came with a giant binder with every single receipt, from every single thing ever done to or for the bike...looks like thousands of $$ had been invested at one time or another... I'll post some pics later..

I could really use some help trying to figure out how to get the most out of the bike... I have never owned a bike like this and many things are new to me with this girl....

The first issue for me is that she seems to need new rear shocks... The ones she has are aftermarket and quite rusted...but, it seems because of the larger rear wheel, she occasionally bottoms out, which may have caused a small crack to form in the rear fender....

I am looking at getting new shocks and possibly raising the rear of the bike an inch to allow for more clearance for the rear tire....

 

[Bill Seward]

Welcome! You came to the right place for advice on anything VMax. Remember, there are no "dumb questions", and everyone here is more than willing to help. Post pics!

 

[sdt354]

Welcome. What size tire is on the rear? Pics would held with advice from everyone. We usually lower our bikes for handling purposes. There are tons of aftermarket parts available.

 

[93max]

Welcome!

 

[Fire-medic]

The 1993's were a purple-blue color, stock. Not uncommon the 'tins' were painted. Show us a pic of the rear wheel and we can probably tell you who made the rear wheel.

Just because shocks are rusted, doesn't mean they are knackered, as our UK friends are fond of saying. If the shafts aren't rusted, and they still are damping on jounce and rebound, you may just need to re-adjust the spring preload for your body weight. Progressive Suspension 412's are OEM or better. There are others, but they can become very expensive, look at Penske's. Stock length is 13" which I suggest staying with if you are 5'10" or taller, and aren't going to be using your bike as a 1/4-mile every-weekend toy. Your ground clearance suffers when you go shorter, max 'shorter' is 11-1/2" which will definitely make you 'ground' your hard parts much-sooner leaning the bike for curves. Given that the bike has an expensive aftermarket rear wheel, you probably are on radials, can you confirm that? Front and rear, please. I consider radials to be the best move to improve the bike's handling.

The front end probably has a set of Progressive Suspension springs in there, and these can lower internally the front end up to 2". Look in the receipts or contact the seller to see if that's the case. If you lower the front, lower the rear an equal amount, as a rule of thumb.

Your fender most-likely cracked because of some load on it, unless your shocks are the very-short ones. The 18" wheel is close to the stock diameter of the 15" 90-series profile, and is actually a bit smaller. Try jacking up the engine area to allow the swingarm to extend fully, and measure your shocks eye-to-eye, on-center. As mentioned, stock is 13".

 

[Traumahawk]

I'm with the others, a pic of the rear wheel is in order. If it is 18, just be aware, that is an AFTERMARKET rear wheel. The stock gen 1 Vmax is 15 inches, and has a bias ply tire on it. Your 18 inch will have a radial on it.

if your bottoming out, you will need to adjust the preload on the rear shocks which will make for a stiffer ride, but you wont bottom out either.

Lastly, welcome to the best forum out there. ANY Vmax question can be answered on this site, and a lot of Non Vmax ones as well.

 

[Trondyne]

Just got off work so I'll post more pics later with more info...

The rear shocks need to be replaced but do work.... The settings 1-5? On the left work but the right is frozen... There doesn't seem to be much in the way of clearance under the fender, and I was considering raising the rear an inch...

It feels like it bottoms out when it hits a hard bump, or something reaches the end of travel... I have to look again at the shocks to see if I can adjust the preload...

I just started riding her and I need to make some adjustments, the left footpeg is too far away from the shifter yet I wear size 12 shoe...and the right side is lower than the brake pedal and offset a bit...

When she turns I often feel the bars fighting to turn more, so when turning right, the right side of the bars is pushing back to me... I can't remember if my other bikes ever did that but I'm not sure what it means...

Here's the only pic I have so far, I'll take more later and get sizes....

Thanks...

 

[Fire-medic]

I think that's an RC Engineering rear wheel, Corbin 'plug' seat, crash bars. Some good accessories. Does the front wheel pattern match the rear? You may have a pair of aftermarket wheels. That's a $2K upgrade, new.

The rear exhausts look like they could be the dreaded Cobra 4 into 4's. They cost you 10% of your max power, and are slip-ons using stock header pipes. Is it really-loud? They could be UFO Quadzillas, a full custom exhaust, wear your ear plugs, or face hearing loss. Are the stock header pipe shields on the rear cylinders? That would be a clue about the manufacturer.

 

[vwaxxed]

Just got off work so I'll post more pics later with more info...

The rear shocks need to be replaced but do work.... The settings 1-5? On the left work but the right is frozen... There doesn't seem to be much in the way of clearance under the fender, and I was considering raising the rear an inch...

It feels like it bottoms out when it hits a hard bump, or something reaches the end of travel... I have to look again at the shocks to see if I can adjust the preload...

I just started riding her and I need to make some adjustments, the left footpeg is too far away from the shifter yet I wear size 12 shoe...and the right side is lower than the brake pedal and offset a bit...

When she turns I often feel the bars fighting to turn more, so when turning right, the right side of the bars is pushing back to me... I can't remember if my other bikes ever did that but I'm not sure what it means...

Here's the only pic I have so far, I'll take more later and get sizes....

Thanks...

My bike was really bad about the bars wanting to turn more before I changed my steering bearings. Your bearings could be fine and the steering may just need tightened a bit. I tightened my steering before I did the bearings and it helped. I noticed with new bearings and the steering not being tightened enough it was worse than with the old bearings because the new ones slid like butter lol. But once I got everything tightened up it was good to go. I think there is a video that Sean made on this.

 

[vwaxxed]

http://vmaxforum.net/showthread.php?t=3827


Here is a link to the sticky that talks about steering bearings.

 

[Trondyne]

I think that's an RC Engineering rear wheel, Corbin 'plug' seat, crash bars. Some good accessories. Does the front wheel pattern match the rear? You may have a pair of aftermarket wheels. That's a $2K upgrade, new.

The rear exhausts look like they could be the dreaded Cobra 4 into 4's. They cost you 10% of your max power, and are slip-ons using stock header pipes. Is it really-loud? They could be UFO Quadzillas, a full custom exhaust, wear your ear plugs, or face hearing loss. Are the stock header pipe shields on the rear cylinders? That would be a clue about the manufacturer.

Yes, the front and rear wheels are the same.... They are stained and covered with some kind of corrosion... I have to figure a way to clean them up....

I am going to take some pics in a little while if I can....

 

[Trondyne]

The rear exhausts look like they could be the dreaded Cobra 4 into 4's. They cost you 10% of your max power, and are slip-ons using stock header pipes. Is it really-loud? They could be UFO Quadzillas, a full custom exhaust, wear your ear plugs, or face hearing loss. Are the stock header pipe shields on the rear cylinders? That would be a clue about the manufacturer.

I'll take some better pics soon of those...

They are not that loud, at least not at idle, but I can't tell what's what with the power.... The off the line power, say, 0-40 is a bit disappointing... It's not much better than my 1981 CB900C... Then later when the revs pick up and I get moving it feels more powerful... Then I feel like my butt is going to slide off the slippery Corbin seat.... I need to wear sandpaper pants or something... maybe tie myself to the seat.... :ummm:

 

[Trondyne]

Welcome! You came to the right place for advice on anything VMax. Remember, there are no "dumb questions", and everyone here is more than willing to help. Post pics!

Thanks, nice to know..... Some forums can be snooty.... glad this one isn't...

 

[Trondyne]

Okay well here's two more pics of her rear....

It's dark and I can't see the exact numbers on the tire, I'll post that when the sun comes up, I'm working now, sort of....

Do I have the dreaded power robbing exhaust?

 

[Trondyne]

Still hard to see the numbers on the tire when I got home, as it's still pretty dark...

I did see an 18 on there and took another pic but apparently as I brightened up the pic I didn't get the key numbers... I would guess some of you may know exactly what wheels and tire I have though from these pics...

The rims need to be sand blasted or something.... so much crud on there... It looks like the bike was taken care of very well for years and then something changed...

 

[sdt354]

Those wheels will clean up nice, but you'll have to continuously polish them to keep them that way. Powder coating is a good option. Chrome if your budget allows, or paint. No doubt, long after market shocks.

 

[Fire-medic]

Here's an RC wheel, this is 17". (pic #1)

The other pics are of wheels I've had made, the bolt-up is an 18" (pics #1-3) and the weld-up is a 17" (pics#4-6). Both are 5-1/2" wide inside the flanges. The 17" is less-expensive than the 18" because the 18" starts with an 18" wheel blank, while the 17" uses a donor wheel rim.

I wouldn't sand-blast the wheels, wet-or-dry sandpaper and elbow grease will remove the oxidation, then you could clear-coat them or powdercoat.

 

[propwash]

Okay well here's two more pics of her rear....

It's dark and I can't see the exact numbers on the tire, I'll post that when the sun comes up, I'm working now, sort of....

Do I have the dreaded power robbing exhaust?

You're exhaust setup looks exactly like mine (granted it's a bit dark so i can only see the pipes). I'm going to guess they're Cobras. I'm not quite fond of the sound... not very loud and you don't get the deep-base grunt of the dual exhaust pipes more common on Maxes. Mine is pop-pop-pop on idle.

 

[Fire-medic]

I rode a Cobra 4 into 4 recently and its midrange was very much weaker than a stock VMax.

 

[Trondyne]

I rode a Cobra 4 into 4 recently and its midrange was very much weaker than a stock VMax.

Yeah that's what I noticed... Without knowing exactly how it supposed to perform, it felt like it was weak until it started to rev up....

Any chance some tuning might help? Returning to a stock exhaust would probably be too costly...