It's difficult to form a riding impression of a new bike in only 12 seconds - especially 12 noisy, very intense, seconds on a drag strip.
Tarlton drag strip, west of Johannesburg, was where Yamaha's second-generation V-Max was launched to the South African motoring media - an appropriate setting, nevertheless, for what Yamaha claims is the most powerful four-cylinder motorcycle yet unleashed on the public and which embodies more than any other the American obsession with acceleration from a standing start.
The original V-Max was born out of the muscle-car era of the 1970's; this one reflects the recent resurgence of interest in the genre with the re-creation of cars such as the Ford Mustang and Chev Camaro.
But, like the Mustang and the Camaro, it's been brought right up to date. The original 1198cc V4 has been replaced by a 1679cc with electronic fuel injection, forged pistons and one-piece, fracture-split con-rods for which Yamaha quotes 147kW at 9000rpm and 167Nm at 6500.
Thanks to a narrower V angle, plated cylinder bores with no liners and magnesium outer covers, however, the new engine is lighter and more compact than the original.
The same cannot be said of the chassis; its wheelbase has been stretched from 1590 to 1700mm and its weight is up from 263kg to an intimidating 310kg with its 15-litre fuel tank brimming over.
The longer wheelbase, 52mm inverted forks and a much longer swing arm with multi-adjustable monoshock provide welcome extra stability, however (original V-Maxes have a well-deserved reputation for vicious headshaking on the slightest provocation) and Yamaha's latest "power cruiser" has a number of 21st-century safety and comfort features such as anti-lock brakes, a slipper clutch, a shift light and comprehensive multidata readouts in a tank-mounted LCD.
My first impression on throwing a leg over the V-Max was of just how big it is - you can feel every one of those 310kg as you heave it off its side-stand. But the clutch is light, positive and easily modulated, helping you place the front wheel precisely between the staging beams.
The revs rise and fall like a cobra striking and it's easy to feed in a little too much throttle off the line. Even on the tacky surface of the drag strip the rear wheel will spin in first and second if given half a chance, although the bike remains controllable - as long as you remember not to close the throttle!
The original V-Max had a feature called V-Boost that fed each cylinder from two carburettors instead of one above 6000rpm and gave that bike an astonishing burst of power as it passed the magic line on the rev-counter.
Now, thanks to the electronic wizardry of an electronic throttle and a variable-length intake manifold borrowed from the latest R1, the new V-Max will give you that same rush - at any revs - any time you give it a big handful of throttle.
After a momentary hesitation at low revs the power simply pours on and this big, slightly clumsy-looking bike accelerates like little else on wheels.
STEADY AS A ROCK
My three runs averaged out at just under 12sec each, with a terminal speed of 199km/h, and more experienced racers such as former Superbike rider Robbie Petersen knocked nearly a second off that - although with about the same terminal speed.
More importantly, once the rear tyre hooks up and the tail-end wiggle generated by the spinning wheel settles down, the bike runs as steady as a rock.
There's no headshake, even on full-throttle upshifts, and not much wind-up in the rear suspension - a notable feature of early shaft-drive performance bikes such as the Moto Guzzi Le Mans and Kawasaki Z1300.
That's partly thanks to a marvellously slick gearshift, much smoother and lighter than I expected for a transmission that has to transmit more than 150Nm. A slipper clutch is standard, allowing ultra-slick gear changes in either direction, with or without the clutch.
It's notable that not one of the assembled journos, racers and owners of original V-Maxes missed a shift all day. Believe me, if they had we'd have heard it from the start line - we heard it every time somebody ignored the shift light and hit the rev limiter!
TURN SHARP RIGHT
Before you even have time to take a breath you're over the finish line and hard on the brakes (there's not a lot of run-off at Tarlton). The V-Max sports very trick-looking one-piece, six-piston Sumitomo callipers on 320mm petal discs that haul down its 310kg with authority, very little nose-dive and no wiggling.
Whether they will make the bike sit up when applied in the middle of a corner I don't know since I haven't actually ridden a new V-Max round a corner.
The only turn on a drag strip is the sharp right at the end, taken at not much more than walking pace, on to the service road to ride back to the start. There the Yamaha displayed slightly slow steering (welcome on a bike this size) but great stability, partly thanks to a very low centre of gravity.
What impressed me most, however, was that there were only two V-Maxes at the launch for more than two dozen media and guests. Those two bikes stood up to a whole day of full-throttle thrashing, clutch-abuse, full-tilt clutchless upshifts by the hundred, wheelies, burnouts and generally unsympathetic mayhem in scorching weather.
NICE TO KNOW...
Neither bike missed a beat, there were no oil weeps from either engine, no juddering or slipping clutches - in fact the quickest run of the day, Robbie Petersen's 11.13sec pass, came right at the end.
This is one tough motorcycle. I know you won't treat your V-Max like we did these two but it's nice to know it could handle it if you did.