Is there a 750cc TMAX on the way?

There’s strong speculation out there in industry land at the moment that Yamaha will soon announce a monster 750cc version of its flagship maxi, the 500cc TMAX. In theory the conversion is relatively simple, as the 500’s parallel-twin in fact already has a third ‘dummy’ cylinder in the middle, running a counter-balancer at 180 degrees to the other two.

The TMAX gained a lot of praise early in its career for combining scooter and motorcycle thinking to come up with what was then (2001) an unusually capable chassis for a big scoot.

However, there is no shortage of competition these days with machines such as Suzuki’s well-established 650 Burgman twin, Piaggio’s 500 single and the more recent Gilera 800 V-twin (which has yet to make it to Australia).

So will Yamaha take up the challenge? It’s possible, even though it’s not long (2008) since the TMAX underwent a major makeover. However, it’s already bigger than a one-litre sportsbike, so one of the challenges may well be to keep it down to a reasonable size.

The target is 75hp, which is no small feat and will probably require a serious revision of the chassis.

So who’s going to buy it? In theory the baby boomer market could be perfect – that is anyone looking for a halfway decent tourer that’s lighter than a full-dress motorcycle to ride. The problem, though, is that market has stubbornly refused to take off, so far…

Click here for more information on the Yamaha TMAX.

In other scooter news:

- Indian maker LML, which has clung to making ‘traditional’ two-stroke Vespa replicas in 125cc and 150cc guises, has announced it’s now moving up to four-stroke 150cc powerplants in the hope of expanding its markets.
The company has had a patchy history over recent times, and in fact had to cease production for a while in 2005.

However, it seems to be bouncing back with 1500-plus sales in its local region (Delhi and Punjab) and claims up to a further 2500 per month in export sales under the Stella brand.

Little is so far known about the new machine, other than we believe it shares its manual four-speed hand-change with its two-stroke predecessor. The local price in India is around 40,000 rupees, which translates to a little under $1100.

- UK scooter tuner Dactek has the perfect solution for the well-heeled restorer who’s fed up with trying to get their aged Lambretta engine to hang together – fit it with a kit that incorporates a two-stroke KTM engine enduro powerplant that lifts the power from 9hp (or 30 if tuned to within a whisker of self-destruction) to a reliable 50.

We’re told the demo version (the red scooter in the attached image bank) will wheelie in the first few gears and makes all sorts of entertaining noises, thanks to the expansion chamber and stinger.

Essentially the company radically modifies the original crankcase to accept the new top end, but leaves the original KTM tuning largely intact.

The only sad part is the price, which is a hefty £6000 (A$12,400) for a complete engine.