Introducing the Yamaha VMAX Carbon SE

Introducing the Yamaha VMAX Carbon SE Did you know the Yamaha VMAX has been around for 30 years now? With every new generation came a facelift for...

By: Sanjoy Alexander

Feb 10, 2015 at 7:19am ET

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Did you know the Yamaha VMAX has been around for 30 years now? With every new generation came a facelift for the bike, but Yamaha carefully preserved the essence of the 1985 original through each reincarnation.

It’s a cruiser, which isn’t a cruiser in the typical sense: It was the coolest madhouse production cruisers until the V-Rod came rumbling in. Let’s just say, it is a muscle car in the world of cruisers—Yamaha's muscle bike.

Yamaha seems to be quite excited about the 30th anniversary of their beloved icon—so excited that they've launched a special edition to commemorate the big day. Meet the VMAX Carbon and if you are someone outside Europe, let’s end this conversation here. It’s not crossing the borders into other territories and will be available in Europe only.

To live up to the Carbon surname, it gets ample carbon fiber to spice things up and to lighten the package down— form with a bit of function, we’d say. The tank cover, front and rear fenders, and side covers are made of the light-weight material. To sweeten the deal, Yamaha traded the standard stacked dual exhaust for a single Akrapovic slip-on muffler.

Yamaha has retained the nuclear reactor powerplant specs of the original—so the 1679cc liquid-cooled V4 unit that produces 200bhp of power and 166.8Nm torque is still nestled in that rigid frame. Harnessing the savagery is a 5-speed constant mesh gearbox mated to a traditional shaft drive. Stopping power comes in the form of 320mm discs up front and 298mm discs at the rear with 6-piston callipers taking care of the chewing duties.

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Our thoughts? Quite an alluring package for the VMAX enthusiast who would like to have his ride stand out in the crowd—even if that crowd consists of badass VMAXes.