This was published in Asian Auto quite a while back - very long article, only for motoheads!
Intro
Imagine a Suzuki VS125 that can leave a Satria GTi for dead at the traffic lights. Or a Vespa that can cruise easily on the fast lane and is comfortable enough for that trip to Haadyai. What about a Pasola that can keep up with the superbikes up the windy bits at Bukit Tinggi.
Welcome to scooter heaven. Finally, you don't have to be called Ronnie, have slicked back Brylcreamed hair, wear drain pipe trousers and a jacket with "Mod Rules" scrawled on the back to look respectable on a scooter. The days of big bikers poking fun at scooters are over.
Motorcycle Sales Centre ("MSC") in PJ (03-79563472) was to lend us two of the biggest scooters in the world, the Yamaha T-Max and the Honda SilverWing, but got a bit delayed, so come actual test day, the T-Max had gone of to his wife's second sister's cousin's twice removed house in Batang Berjuntai. Or something like that. So we got Capt Nik who got his T-Max at MSC sometime last year to come and stand in instead. Many many thanks to both.
Styling
Honda decided to play safe on the Wing, and it looks much like your normal modern scoot, only bigger and a lot longer. Ours was in, what else, silver, and bereft of any go faster stripes and decals, looks decidely plain Jane.
On the other hand, if only the Transformers would stop getting into scraps every Sunday morning and instead made love, not war, Megatron would soon be the proud father of Scooteron, and it would look exactly like the T-Max. You could just about imagine those bug-eyed headlamps and fake frame mouldings morphing into a bazooka laden banzai robot. Stylistically, the Max has a leg up with a beautifully sculptured rear swing arm and hidden monoshock making for a much tidier rear end.
Build Quality
Both have high levels of build quality, with faultless paint jobs and tight panel gaps. But it seems that Honda's designers have been caught napping. The quality of plastic mouldings are not as good as the Max's, and unlike the Max with its fully covered handlebar, there was only a cursory cover on top but none at the sides and bottom, leaving the plumbing free to peep out from different angles. Tsk tsk... straight to bed and no supper tonight for you blokes.
Practicality
If your definition of practical has any mention of space at all, then go buy the Wing. Period. The Honda has so much more storage space that it's almost too embarrassing to compare. Although the Max has enough underseat space for a full face helmet, Honda says their mothership has space for TWO. We were having none of that PR bull so off we went to MSC's shop for two of their biggest full face helmets. Then we stood back in disbelief, jaws agape as the Wing swallowed both helmets with ease. Now we know why the Wing's passenger looks like he or she is sitting on a Coleman cooler box.
Up front, the Max continues to lose its battle for space. Both have a small glove box for your ciggies or a phone, but the Wing also comes with an unbelievably deep lockable box. Ah... this must be how country vets feel when they're delivering cows, I thought as I groped around elbow deep in that hole. It'll take a rain suit or a chain lock easily.
Both have a completely enclosed drive, which means the end of messy hours spent oiling and cleaning chains. And believe it or not, the Honda even comes with a parking brake.
Specs
Both scooter are within a gnat's whiskers of each other. The Wing is a tad longer (2cm in wheelbase and 3cm in length), a tad heavier (by 7 kilos), has a bigger engine (600cc vs 500cc) and is thus more powerful (at 49bhp vs 40bhp). Mechanically very similar too, with the same parallel twin configuration engine, CVT auto tranny, disk brakes on both ends, and 120 front and 150 rear tyres.
A word of caution - the Max's seat height is a whole 5cms higher than the Wing. Those below 5' 5" should try the bike for height before signing on the dotted line.
Slow Speed Ride & Handling
The road encircling MSC was made for this with all sorts of road surfaces and width thrown in. What was immediately apparent was the Wing's tendency to flop into slow speed turns. This made u-turns dicey as the bike feels like its going to fall down. That never happened and you get used to it after a fashion but the Max had no such problems. Potholes and ruts taken at low speeds gave the Wing's softer suspension an edge over the Max.
Another quirk is the Wing's non-linear throttle response. Twist the throttle and you'd think that most of its 50 horses had bolted out the barn the night before. Then at 3000 rpm the motor suddenly wakes up and yanks you forward as if the turbo just kicked in. Only it hasn't got one. Eh? What maketh of black magic doth Honda playing at?
Apparently, Honda, thinking that folks would be caught unawares has retarded ignition at low speeds, dousing power. Unfortunately, this only makes the floppy slow speed handling even more suspect. In contrast, the Max's drive feels more direct and linear. It might feel comparatively underpowered but it's largely an illusion due to the Wing's power step. Its ironic that Honda, famous for building "hop on and ride" bikes gets beaten by Yamaha on this count. A case of trying to be too clever.
High Speed Ride & Handling
Its when you're cruising that you get to relax and take in stuff that you don't have time to notice when you're busy cutting through traffic. Take screen height. Both are non-adjustable so you've got to live with what you get. The Max's screen is significantly lower than the Wing, so I was looking above it, rather than getting my vision split in half. If you happen to be 5' 8", tough luck. Both do a good job of deflecting wind and rain and is ace for our inclement weather.
The Wing's backrest is a lot higher than the Max's, encouraging you to slouch back, feet well forward on infinitely long floorboards. Ahh.... this is what I like most about scooters. Relieved of clutch and back brake duties, your feet can lounge around anywhere you fancy them to be. Only mega full boat tourers can hope to exceed this level of luxury. The Max's smaller backrest somehow gave me a backache after a few minutes of slouching. Sitting with feet tucked is best, which is no bad thing as this allows more control when the road turns windy.
Not that you'd want to go corner straffing on the Wing. Its suspension is too soft for spirited high speed cornering and wobbled embarassingly on a fast undulating sweeper. The scoot still steered true but the grin on Capt Nik's face as he drew level told me that the Max had no such problems. At the hands of an experienced rider like Capt Nik, the Max can keep up with most of the sportbike kakis going up Awana. He only ever gets left behind at Karak Highway, where the Max tops out at around 160kph. The Wing with its bigger engine should go around 15-20kph faster, which is bloody fast for a scooter.
Ground clearance is also a bit limited on the Wing, and a few spirited laps of a small roundabout had it scraping its centre stand. The Max touches down later, but that has not stopped Capt Nik from grounding his centre stand, then the side stand, and then the bottom fairing as he hunted down sportbikes. Don't try this at home folks, as Capt Nik really does have red underwear and yes, he wears them outside his blue jumpsuit.
Performance & Refinement
Thankfully both scoots have balancer shafts to counter their parallet twin vibrations, and come close an inline four's smoothness. However, you have this distinct feeling of riding a washing machine in spin cycle.
Both scoots with their sub 7 sec 0-100kph times will have you winning that traffic light drag with almost any car that is not blown or charged. Twist and grin and your "fuddy duddy" scooter leaves the boy-racers fumbling in your politically correct four-stroke exhaust fumes. The extra cc.s of the Wing will only show at extra-legal limits and high speed roll-ons.
Conclusion
Two scoots, two manufacturers, and two totally different target audiences. After you get used to the Honda's strange power delivery, both scoots with their automatic transmissions were a joy to use around town and in any situation requiring stop-start riding or frequent gear-changes. And with their big capacity engines, the term "twist-and-go" will never be the same again in scooter land.
The SilverWing, like its name implies, is really trying to be a smaller version of Honda's full-on tourer, the GoldWing. It has slightly dodgy handling, but who in their right mind would contemplate knee down antics on a boat? Stand back a bit, loosen up a little, and lounge in a lap of luxury as the world passes you by at more sedate speeds. Flip up your full-face and reach for that coke or fag as you contemplate the meaning of life whilst passing through endless padi fields that stretch to the horizon. When you finally get to the end of that rainbow, a flick of the key will open the "boot", revealing enough luggage for a week's worth of cruising.
The T-Max takes its monicker from its fire-breathing bad boy cruiser cousin, the V-Max. Only, its nowhere near as fast. But it handles shed loads better, so it's really more an R-1 than a V-Max. You get a scooter that's brilliant in town, and in the right hands can embarrass more than a few sportbikes in the twisties. It too, can take that cruise to the end of the rainbow, but at the end of the week, your bones will be aching a tad more, and you'd start to smell a bit.
첫댓글 둘다 좋다는 말이죠?
english i don't know! ^^
영어는 싫사 옵니다... 전하
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윙이가...
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