No, you have missed my point, but no worries- it's all good. I made the Wal-Mart comment, because those folks who can't afford the bike here for whatever reason, decide to "validate" their negative statements about this bike (or anything else for that matter) by bashing the thing to oblivian before they even seen the thing first-hand, so they constantly scream and cry, "it's too expensive" as a result.
It is a damn expensive bike and whether you're riding a pricey Harley or this VMAX that costs this much, give credit where credit is due, until you've had the opportunity to ride one for yourself to make the decision etheir way if it's worth it or not. Opinions are like assholes as they say...even un-informed stupid ones........
I for one think the bike looks to be very well engineered and from my only experience in seeing it online (just like you guys) I don't have anything negative to judge it from. Now if I ride this thing and it's a turd, well then I'll be the first to come on here and say it a POS, but I'll at least of had the common decency and personal courtesy to wait to pass negative judgement on the thing ***AFTER*** I saw it first hand- price included.
It seems everyone is only bashing the thing this hard because it's out of their price range and that pisses them off. I mean, it is *REALLY* that big of deal if the headlite isn't to your liking, the gas tank isn't big enough, the scoops look stupid, blah, blah, blah of other stupid stuff?? I'll bet no one would be nit-pick bitching about that little stuff if the bike was 12k now would they? No, they would buy the bike and "live" with the issues, just like they've done with the Gen 1 bike to date. I didn't see anyone bitching about the 2007, 22 year old Gen 1 bike design they bought that had so many problems with chassis, brakes, electrical over the years now did they??? No...... So, to make themselves feel better, they knock the new bike in every way they can to validate their un-informed claims. Now *THAT* is simple minded bullshit!
I love my bike now- even with it's issues and I'd buy it again if I could. However, the new bike seems to be built with all the improvements and upgrades that everyone has been crying to Yamaha about for years. So now that it's here and it's not what some would like to pay for those improvements, they cry anyway. As they say, you'll never please everyone no matter what you do, because there will always be negative folks everywhere you go and I think Yamaha has already factored that in with the development of this bike. Good for them.
BTW- We shop at Wal-Mart too, but I don't expect much from them either..
- john