VOL. 51 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 4, 2014 P65
Eventually the decision was
made to take the TMAX back to
basics with delete option body-
work to make a stripped out Su-
perscoot focusing visually on the
running gear beneath, which is
normally hidden from sight.
"I saw a picture of a naked
TMAX, and I was blown away by
what was underneath the plas-
tic, with the separate frame and
stuff," says Sands. "Structurally,
the TMAX looks really cool – it's
pretty different from anything
else, and a little bit weird, which
all appeals to me. But we had
budget constraints from Yamaha,
so we stuck with the stock rolling
gear like wheels, brakes, suspen-
sion and so on – it would have to
be one of the few bikes I ever
built which kept all that, though
I'd have loved to make some cra-
zy little wheels for it. So building
it was more about throwing stuff
away than bolting parts on, but
we've taken so much weight off
of it, at least 80-100 pounds, that
even though the engine is stock it
can really motor. It has twist and
go attitude."
That it has, as we discovered
while hustling the Hyper Modi-
fied TMAX through the foothills of
the San Gabriel Mountains north
of Los Angeles, with the parallel-
twin motor's 180-degree crank
format delivering meaty-sounding
music thanks to the RSD exhaust
system.
While even with the freer
breathing this delivers, the com-
pletely unmodified motor may
not be much over the 46 hp that
Yamaha claims for it at 6750 rpm
in stock form. But there's a re-
ally noticeable increase in perfor-
mance thanks to the weight be-
ing slashed by as much as a third
with all the bodywork removed.
The result is a completely im-
probable dragster that'll have you
smiling while staging at traffic
lights in anticipation of the accel-
eration unleashed when you twist
your wrist hard. It's even more im-
pressive exiting a corner, where
the Yamaha's midrange roll-on
is awesome – a much overused
word that in this case perfectly
describes the effect the stripped
down Superscoot's mid-turn
pickup will deliver when you wind
open the gas. And all without you
having to work any clutch lever or
gearshift. Just twist, and go.
I can't tell you how low down in
terms of road speed or rpm this
all happens, because Sands has
removed the bulky but informa-
tive stock instrument dash in his
deletion drive, and hasn't yet re-
placed it with anything more mini-
malist. But it seems to happen
practically anywhere, delivering
serious oomph via the CVT trans-
mission.
And, yes, it is a motorcycle, es-
pecially in the way it steers and
handles with good ride quality
and excellent damping from the
completely stock KYB suspen-
sion settings that aren't recali-
brated to take account of its sig-
nificantly lower 286-pound curb
(Above) One thing that's not stock
on the bike is the RSD exhaust
system. (Above right) The scooter
gets Dunlop's Sportmax GPR-100
rubber and the stock brakes work
extremely well – especially with the
weight Sands has removed.
