Modern Buddy

I was just looking at the Yamaha Smax 60 scooter and felt pangs of remorse knowing that I'll probably never see or ride one here in the US. They call it their 60th anniversary model, based on their regular Smax 155, which is available here. The engine is a 155cc, fuel injected, liquid cooled and 4 valve. Designed and made in Taiwan for Yamaha. Anyway, one of our local Yamaha dealers carry the normal Smax, so I contacted them about this anniversary model. Though he didn't know anything about this model, he contacted US Yamaha corporate and was told they'll never bring it in because there's not enough demand for it. If only the US wasn't so backwards when it comes to sport scooters. Maybe I can gray market one in here, after all, it is just a restyled Smax 155. Or, I can just buy the regular one and modify/repaint it to look like the anniversary model. Life sucks in scooter land...or should I say, non-scooter land.



Here's a YouTube video from Taiwan. Though it's in Mandarin Chinese, you at least get to see some of it's features.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XIlfQ0Ai9Sw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In case anyone is interested, here is a US review of the regular Smax 155: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/revie ... first-ride

Wow. That's a handsome scooter. If it did come to the US, I would have to have one. Sold!

Yery nice! Maybe we can order body panels and make replicas here.

At least I could sorta fake it with my '03 Zuma...

Looks very similar in basic components from what I can tell to the regular one.

bgwss wrote:Looks very similar in basic components from what I can tell to the regular one.

That's what I was thinking. Is the difference the color?

The windshield and the tail light are different, wheels are gold in color not silver, brake components and fork are black instead of silver. Other than the color and decals those are the subtle things I noticed.

k1dude wrote: If it did come to the US, I would have to have one.

And you could park it next to the standard Yamaha SMAX, the Burgman 200, and the Honda PCX. Isn't this pretty much standard fare from the Japanese brands in this market segment?

The color and stripes remind me of the Kenny Roberts racing bikes.

wheelbender6 wrote:The color and stripes remind me of the Kenny Roberts racing bikes.

It's suppose to, as part of the so called anniversary theme. That's one of the things that attract me to this scooter.