Yamaha Discontinues Iconic VMAX Power Cruiser

For as exaggerated and intense as the Yamaha VMAX is, the news of its demise came as more of a whimper than a scream, snuck in at the end of a press release detailing the exciting new colors coming for the rest of the 2021 Yamaha street bike range. If you blinked, you missed it, but there it was: Thanks to age and the inability to come anywhere close to meeting Euro 5 emissions standards, the Yamaha VMAX will be discontinued after 2020.

There is a good argument that it was about time.

Introduced in 1985, the VMAX enjoyed exactly one major update in its 35-year reign as the original power cruiser. Even when it was thoroughly revamped in 2009, the formula stayed the same. Massive V-4 plus relaxed riding position plus pirate-skycycle looks equals VMAX. It was a great idea, but so were cigarette machines. Neither lands that well in 2020, as we stand on a melting planet facing a generational social reckoning.

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But the simple equation is why the VMAX became the muscle bike by which all others were judged. The power cruiser that begat and then killed Harley-Davidson’s radical V-Rod. The monster that made machines like the Ducati Diavel possible.

But it didn’t even meet Euro 4 emissions standards, and though it was fast and torquey in a straight line, it wasn’t exactly comfortable and it handled about like it looked. And, at $17,995, it wasn’t cheap.

Still, I have always loved this bike. It is an almost perfect embodiment of what a motorcycle should be. It’s impractical, louder than it is fast, almost entirely antisocial, and perfectly devoid of any practical justification. If you have to ask whether you need a VMAX, you have missed the point. And that is, well, the point.

And so, we say goodbye to the 1,679cc V-4 muscle missile. We wish the swan song had been louder, longer, and played through a Les Paul and a wall of Marshalls, but we’ll make do with the memories. And remember that anywhere that tire smoke lingers in a dive bar parking lot, the spirit of the VMAX is alive.