Pic: Long Jon Godin
44T regulars will know of our recent jaunt over to Cape Town, South Africa to ride Yamaha’s pimping new MT-10 SP. Now, many would assume that this badass supernaked would be the primary motive for such a lengthy journey darn sarf. But you’d be wrong.
Having flown so far south of the equator and with time to kill, sitting in our hotel and towing ourselves around the room would be a pointless exercise. Instead, we hired out some sidecars and got a guided tour of Cape Town before the main attraction. It would have been rude not to vlog it.
Since 2001, the TMAX has owned Europe. Not only is it the best-selling scooter, it’s also Yamaha’s bestseller with 250,000 units flogged since its inception all those years ago. While maxi scooters in the UK are about as popular as Jeremy Corbyn/Ms May, they’re immensely admired on the continent and make up 40% of European sales. This launch wasn’t an SP launch. It was a TMAX launch.
We were riding the fully-loaded TMAX DX, with more electronic toys than a Dixons store. For 2017, there’s a new lightweight front-end, a new exhaust, a redesigned cockpit that includes a snazzy TFT dash, revised suspension and a longer wheelbase. All in all, the frame is 30% lighter and the whole bike weighs 9kg less than the 2016 model. A new airbox, injectors and YCC-T work alongside the 530cc parallel twin.
Enjoy…
