Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Yamaha XP500 Tmax er, where it was invented by Piaggio half a century ago. DOES IT RIDE LIKE A SCOOTER? rrHE SCD By ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE cooters are practical, motorcycles are fun. One offers twist-n-go convenience, the other twist-n-run performance. Is it possible to combine the two and end up with something that is truly the sum of both parts, rather than a compromised concoction that misses out on the best of each? Yamaha has stepped up to the plate to try to achieve this, with the XP500 Tmax mega-scooter launched this summer, and now about to go on sale in Europe and Japan. It's just ahead of its Honda Silver Wing rival launched at Intermot last September in what appears to be a catch-up ploy fueled by the fact that Yamaha was well publicized one year ago as intending to debut the Tmax at the '99 Milan Show. It ended up holding it back, though, for ongoing R&D to further refine an innovative product that breaks new ground in two-wheeled personal transportation just as the best-selling, but more conventionally engineered 250cc Yamaha Majesty did in creating the large(r)- S 20 JANUARY 31.2001 • cue. e capacity scooter class more than half a decade ago. Since then, the Majesty has not only become the best-selling powered two-wheeler bigger than 125cc in key markets like Italy - where scooters are now responsible for 75 percent of all two-wheeled sales - but its success has helped fuel a Europewide boom in scooter sales, with 232,000 such products sold in the last model year, and a corresponding 55percent increase in sales of the 250ccand-over larger-capacity models. Even the British market (where sportbikes rule) registered a 21-percent increase in scooter sales last year, and sales charts have been topped for the first time in well over a quarter-century by a scooter, the Peuge;'t Speedflight. There's seemingly a chance to capture even more cross-over sales in markets like the USA and Australia hitherto immune to convenience chic, with a larger-engined PTW product offering the performance of a motorcycle, but the convenience of a scooter. Worth a try, anyway, and try is what we did to the Tmax during the press launch in where else? - Italy, home of the scootne'IIVs Getting on board, the Tmax requires slinging a leg over the (relatively high) 32-inch seat just as with a bike - there's less space behind the front bodywork for you to just slide your foot than on other scooters. Once aboard, you find the seat is quite spacious and comfortable, with lots of passenger space on almost the same level as the rider, who has a small seat squab to nestle his or' her rear end into, to provide some back support. This results in a slightly inclined riding position as you reach forward to the quite-wide-spread handlebars, provided you put your feet flat on the footboards on either side of the front of the engine cover. This gives more control for a twisting country lane or mountain pass - as well as for town work or in traffic - but for cruising a highway it's more relaxing to place your feet on the other optional location for them below the dashboard, leaning back against the seat squab for added comfort. Yamaha has a taller screen as part of the wide range of options, including luggage, available for the model though this wouldn't have helped cure the frozen fingers incurred on a sunny winter morning crossing the foothills of the Abruzzi mountains en route to Subiaco, south of Rome. Wind protection for the rest of your body is just fine only the hands could do with more protection as standard. Oh - Yamaha has thought of that, as well: both wind deflectors and hand protectors come as options, too. The relatively narrow footboards allow your legs to tuck in well, so they get protected from the breeze. There's a quite comprehensive and very legible dashboard, with white-faced speedojtemperaturejfuel gauges, as well as various warning lights and a digital clock, plus a single - rather small - storage compartment on the right for autostrada tickets and small change. At least one more compartment would have been appreciated, to give more space for sunglasses, a mobile phone etc., and the catch needs to be more accessible for a rider wearing gloves - it's too fiddly to open easily. There is, however, a larger 8.3-gallon storage space beneath the seat, opened by turning the key in the ignition, which will comfortably take a single full-face helmet (or a pair of open-face ones, or even a lap- top computer), along with a rainsuit and gloves, and there's also space here for the optional mobile-phone charger. Your view of the open ride does seem more motorcycle-orientated than scooter-sized, while with the exception of the clutch lever being replaced by one for the rear brake, and the ignition key halfway down the legboard, on the right, all the controls and the dashboard seem relatively bikish. Thumb the starter, and the engine fires up and settles down to an almost imperceptible idle - both at rest and at speed, engine noise is extremely restrained, and you'll have a hard time (while on-board) distinguishing this as a twin-cylinder motor, thanks to the heavily muffled bike-type exhaust silencer, with built-in catalyst - though it does sound more like that to bystanders, uttering the trademark muted blat of a 360-degree twin as you ride past them. Twist the throttle, though, and it's another story - no scooter (and not many 500cc motorcycles) accelerates as hard and fast as the Tmax. You won't exactly need wheelie-bars to keep the front wheel on the ground especially with the Tmax's rangy 63inch wheelbase, coupled with its surprisingly hefty 433-pound dry weight's low-down center of gravity, and the mere 40-horsepower claimed crankshaft output from the DOHC engine (around 32 ponies at the back wheel), whose long-stroke format does, however, deliver good torque and impressive midrange performance. And at least that long wheelbase doesn't affect the turning circle, which at 9.2 feet is adequately agile to make performing a Uturn in a city street no problem. But once out of town, there's a completely linear power delivery from standstill to an impressive indicated 101 mph sitting up along a level road (107 tucked behind the screen on a slight downhill stretch). However, the completely smooth and all-but silent way in which this power is delivered is worthy of an electric motor and distinctly soul-less by motorcycle standards: it's function without form - or at least, without furore. That's not to say you can't get a buzz out of one thing - the sheer improbability of the Tmax's power-up performance, as well as of its efficacy. Finding yourself on a winding road in a line of traffic which you can quickly dispatch one by one by simply opening the throttle wide open and squirting the Tmax forward into the next gap, is practically addictive - especially when you look in the functional mirrors and see the driver of the car you've just zapped craning forward over his steering wheel in disbelief. Pickup from 5075 mph is especially brisk, once you've got the Tmax's rather high weight up and running. There is some turbo-like pickup lag when you open the throttle, presumably occasioned by the centrifugal transmission taking its time to

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