Yamaha XMAX 400

Yamaha designed the 2015 XMAX 400 to fit the jack-of-all-trades niche in the maxi-scooter market. This scooter comes well equipped for daily commuting and light grocery runs right out of the box, and if you spring for the touring accessories, you can set it up as a rather sporty tour-scooter for weekend trips. Yamaha says it designed this scooter to serve as a seven-day-a-week vehicle, and looking at the features it seems that they managed to do just that.

Form follows closely behind function on this scooter, and Yamaha blended the new features with DNA from the X-Max and TMAX family to preserve the sleek and sophisticated look associated with the line. The front cowl and windshield provide moderate protection from the elements (read: bugstrikes), and a large footboard area gives you plenty of room to shift your feet as comfort demands. One safety-related feature that I like is the LED position lights and tail lights. The visibility of LED lights is impossible to overstate – they are like laser beams in your eyes – and the safety that they offer is impossible to ignore. This is most definitely a desirable feature since you are really hanging it out there on a scooter, even moreso than on a full-size motorcycle. Built-in storage is located beneath the seat, and is large enough to hold two full-face helmets with room left over for small items so you can store your helmets out of the sun, or use the scooter as a grocery-getter.

Chassis
Yamaha took pains to ensure that the ride quality is smooth and balanced. The unsprung weight is kept down through the use of lightweight aluminum rims to mount the 15-inch front and 13-inch rear tires. This scooter even has dual front disc brakes with 267 mm brake discs, which is comparable to brake systems seen on much larger bikes and should be more than sufficient to bring the XMAX 400’s modest 211 kilograms to a halt, screeching or otherwise. Wide-ratio tires round out the chassis features with large contact patches that are sure to make the most of all those brakes and allow for some fairly sporty maneuvers in the corners.

Drivetrain
A 395 cc, four-stroke engine provides the power driving Yamaha’s self-described “dynamic all-rounder” through its daily routine. Liquid cooling keeps the heat radiated from the engine low and ensures that becoming stuck in stop-and-go traffic or other high-heat situations won’t leave you on the side of the road with a toasted motor. Though this engine is rather small, Yamaha managed to shoehorn in a four-valve head with dual-overhead cam to make the XMAX 400 engine produce 23.18 kw at 7,500 rpm and 33.88 nm of torque at 6,000 rpm, making this engine over 54 percent more powerful than the X-Max 250. This gives the scooter a decent power-to-weight ratio and ensures that it can at least get out of its own way! Engine power seamlessly routes to the rear tire through a V-belt automatic transmission, which eliminates the need to continuously manipulate a clutch and shifter and simplifies the necessary riding techniques.