Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128208
Egli Yamaha V-Max 1500 ha engineers who developed this bike were very clever people, and it's a tribute to their abilities that the V-Max is so long-lived, simply because they designed it so well!" So, although Egli has also built a supercharged V-Max fitted with a Roots compressor and producing in excess of 200 bhp, that was a oneoff, whereas there are lots of big-bore V-Maxes with full-monty 1500cc Egli conversion kits staging at Central European traffic lights. Such was the Egli demonstrator I went Porschehunting near Zurich with; it was also equipped with a good selection of custom body parts from the Egli catalog. "Customers very often asked for tuning kits to make the best even better," Egli said, "but in considering developing a camshaft kit or high compression head, I felt this is the wrong way - the V-Max is for road use only, not on the track, so it needs to be torquey and punchy with lots of midrange, without sacrificing bottomend performance for top-end numbers. Going the big-bore route was the logical way for such a road-going bike, so three years ago we started working on a 1500cc conversion kit, and now we have it in production. It's the only real practical improvement you can deliver to this engine." Getting there wasn't plain sailing, though. "The head is not clamped evenly enough to the cylinder block, so we had problems with blown gaskets," Egli said. "But we fixed this with a special head gasket employing a wire O-ring system that is forced into the block to make sure it remains sealed - but then we had problems fmding a big-bore piston that wasn't so heavy it caused problems with the stock connecting rods. We gave up after some attempts that all failed and decided not to stroke the engine, only to go for the extra capacity with Venolia pistons for a 9mm bigger bore and Carrillo rods, which are very reliable and well made." Thus the resulting 1498cc power unit has a 25-percent bigger cubic capacity than the original 1198cc liquid-cooled 70-degree V4 engine measuring 76 x 66mm. The 85mm-bore Wiseco pistons are of a two-ring design, rather than the stock threeringers, for reduced friction without encountering oil blow-by problems, says Fritz, while the unmodified stock crank retains the same balance factor in spite of the heavier pistons. The stock five-speed transmission with shaft final drive is retained but with a modified clutch to resolve problems in delivering the massively increased power - up to 174 bhp at 8200 rpm as measured at the clutch, from the stock 138 bhp crankshaft figure at 8500 rpm, which equates to not more than 120 bhp at the back wheel; all of this means that 18 years from now, the unmodified V-Max is fair game for a well-ridden 600 Supersport bike. That's certainly not the case with the Egli Iiter-and-a-half maxi-rod, especially thanks to its meaty torque, which is seriously tractor-like at 5000 rpm and ideally requires the use of a centrifugal clutch sourced in Ameri- 52 APRIL 9. 2003' c u e I e n e _ s ca, which Fritz has previously used on several of his other mega-powerful streetbikes like the Egli-Kawasaki 1200 turbo and GSX1400 Egli-Suzuki. This delivers extra bite without increasing lever pressure unduly, asserts Egli, but owing to supply problems, he's had to compromise on the big-bore V-Max by simply fitting an extra plate and stiffer springs to the stock clutch. "I'd be happy with less spring pressure, but I think this is acceptable," he said. "It's not as hard to use as a Ducati!" The result is a two-wheeled equivalent of a V8 muscle car rather than a German performance limo - think Shelby Mustang, not Mercedes-Benz. Steve McQueen could have related to riding this bike - the spirit of Bullitt is alive and well in the Swiss Alps! Riding the mad 'Max as elaborated by Egli half makes you wonder why there's no Hurst shifter for the fiveby-your-foot gearchange, as de rigueur on American four-wheeled dragstrip hardware - though changing gear in street use on this motorcycle is almost superfluous because of the power available to go in any gear. Top gear roll-on is literally awesome - a much-overused word that here is truly appropriate, though if you use the gearbox a little and work the throttle harder, you'll be glad that the V-Max has such a long wheelbase to minimize wheelies and also that the shaft drive means you won't have to stop to adjust a well-stretched chain every half-dozen launches. Respect. That's not to say that it wasn't worth using the gearbox once I'd gotten the hang of the pretty-smoothaction clutch, which is more progressive and less snatchy than I remember the stock one that I managed to lunch doing burnouts on a California highway back in 1985 (though in my defense I should point out I wasn't the only one, until Yamaha beefed it up the following year). Do that, and there's seriously impressive top-end performance, especially for something with the aerodynamic qualities of a brick - I saw 136 mph on the big white-faced speedo with 8000 rpm on the tank-top tacho, an affectation that you have to be glad nobody else ever copied, since taking your eye off the road to look at it on a bike this fast is flirting with disaster. But rather than aiming for the nine grand rev limiter that takes some finding, short-shifting at 7000 rpm and riding the fat torque curve while holding on tight to the wide, flat handlebar is for sure the way to go. There also aren't many bikes I've ridden with this much midrange grunt, delivered with muscle-beach might to the rear Bridgestone, to the background accompaniment of that meaty offbeat growl from the openedup exhausts. The tires are 17-inchers, by the way, in order to allow a more rational choice of rubber than the original crossply 18-inch front/15inch rear combo, an improvement that does make going around comers at any pace less fraught aboard this straight-line special than on the definitely daunting stock bike, which was