RSD YAMAHA TMAX HYPER MODIFIED
TEST
P64
home to papa, ready to be ridden
rather than merely displayed on
a show stand. Creating it wasn't
easy, though.
"I have to say this scooter was
one of the most difficult proj-
ects I've done yet," said Sands,
squinting critically at the MAX'd-
out product of his fertile imagi-
nation as it stood in front of his
office desk (complete with orna-
mental Roberts V-five MotoGP
engine!) in RSD's Los Alamitos
shop. "I kept wanting to turn it
into a motorcycle. All my design
sensibilities told me to eliminate
the step-through, straight line it
from the seat to the neck, build a
custom gas tank for it, and make
it into a cafe racer. But I said to
myself, 'whoa – if we're going to
do a motorcycle, let's start with a
out what, exactly.
"There was nothing easy about
this project – it was the equiva-
lent of walking on Mars," he says.
"There were no guidelines, no
magazines, no pages of internet
content to help guide crucial de-
sign decisions – basically, no-
body had ever done something
like this before. There was no
one to call on the phone for ad-
vice, who'd created something
similar – there really was nothing
but our own ideas for guidance
and inspiration. That means it's
been one of those projects that's
had everyone in the shop con-
stantly battling to put their own
personal stamp on it. So it's had
a surfboard rack over the top, it's
had a drinks holder on the front,
we hung a crazy cooler box out
back – in fact we have a lot of ac-
cessories already designed for it
when Yamaha puts it into produc-
tion. As if."
motorcycle. Let's take advantage
of what this thing is – it's a scoot-
er!' There's a reason why the mo-
tor's so low, why it's below where
you sit, why the gas tank's where
it is – so we ended up building a
kind of sit-up surf racer, that you
can take to the beach but also go
racing through the canyons with.
Call it a Supermoto Scooter."
However, having decided to do
something completely different,
Sands initially struggled to figure
(Above) The bike retains its stock
chassis, wheels, suspension and
engine, but Sands has shed weight
from the bike and giving it a custom
look like no other. (Far left) It's still
belt-driven… (Left) The three-gallon
tank has been made by RSD and
re-positioned under the tail section of
RSD's aluminum dual seat.
