With its last launch taking place just a few years ago, the changes for this year’s bike aren’t the biggest, and centre around the styling, its clutch and its technology. For starters, the styling has been tweaked here and there, with a much smaller front fairing making the bike seem a little less bulky when viewed from the side. It’s also said to provide better weather protection, which will be handy in the UK. Not so much here in Benidorm, where I’m basking in unbroken sunshine! Like before, the Tech Max still gets the electronically adjusted screen, heated grips, heated riders seat, and a tyre pressure monitoring system.
Technical updates to the bike come in the form of exhaust and intake updates, mostly for Euro5+ but also to help improve delivery, and the new bike comes equipped with Yamaha’s Brake Control system, which is a type of cornering ABS. Cruise control now allows for changes of plus or minus 10km when holding the cruise control button, and Yamaha has placed more of a distance between the bike’s Sport and Touring riding modes.
The final major change is a revised clutch, with new balance weights and different tension springs. The idea with this change is to make pulling away from a stop and fine control a little easier thanks to a more organic clutch engagement.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
In the UK, the TMax Tech Max will set you back a chunky £14,403. Yep, that makes the top-spec maxi scooter on the market £2,000 more than the two-wheeled fun-factory that is the MT-10. Is that why people don’t buy big scooters like this in the UK? Possibly, but I also don’t think we on this side of the channel truly ‘get’ this kind of bike. After all, the Tech Max costs €15,699 in Italy, and they sell by the bucketload over there!
The 2025 model is available in either Ceramic Grey (as ridden in the pics) or the more stealthy Dark Magma colour with a matt finish. Bikes will be in dealerships ready for testing from April 2025.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – riding
I first rode a TMax at the launch of the 2022 model in Valencia. Up until then, the biggest scooter I’d ridden would have been a 300cc Vespa, making the launch a very steep learning curve. While I can’t claim to be an absolute convert to the segment, I can see why these sorts of bikes have such a big following on the continent, where the weather and the lifestyle suit them much more than back in Blighty.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
Lining up inside the hotel courtyard, my panic levels are rising as I think I might be about to ride through the hotel foyer. Easy peasy, I hear you cry, although from where my bike is placed in the lineup, it’s a fairly tight little turn and has me imagining me whisky-throttling the thing through the glass hotel doors as PR people and videographers are sent cartwheeling through the air.
Riding through the hotel at the start of the ride
It’s a lighthearted start to the ride, but it does highlight one issue with bikes like this, in that if you’re a short arse like me, paddling around on them can be quite a task. The 800mm seat isn’t the issue, it’s the vast stepover that means if I want both feet on the ground, I’m only getting the very tip of my tootsies on terra firma. It’s hard to avoid on a bike like this, given that the 563cc parallel twin-cylinder engine is slanted forward to enable the underseat storage to exist.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
With the scariest part of the ride completed, it’s out into the throng of uptown La Nucia in the foothills above Benidorm. It’s busy, and hot, but as we get up to speed and quickly into the mountains, the breeze starts to cool me.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – riding
We go from hustling town to super fast sweeping roads very quickly, and straight away, the TMax is raising the same grin it did three years ago. These things are a hoot to ride fast. It’s similar to how a Honda Gold Wing , or BMW K1600 B , is fun to thrash around a B-road on, because bikes that are that long, low-slung and heavy have no right handling as well as they do. It seems strange to lump the TMax in with those two touring heavyweights, but on the handling and comfort front, at least, there are a lot of comparisons to be drawn.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
With little in the way of changes to the suspension, geometry or weight, the bike feels very much like it did last time. It’s not the fastest turning bike (obviously!), but when you get it into a fast sweeping corner, it’s got brilliant composure and stability. And when I say it’s not the quickest turning bike out there, I don’t mean that it’s some lumbering beast in quick direction changes; you just have to remember its limitations. And should you forget this bike has limits, its centre stand will remind you, as it gouges into the road at every opportunity.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – riding
Like before, the brakes are phenomenally strong, and with the back brake mounted on the left handlebar, I’ve got brilliant control over how much pressure I’m sending to the rear wheel. Pulling hard on both levers into a corner, I can bleed out my front brake pressure as I near the apex, but carry some of the rear brake through the corner. In doing this, the 221kg TMax feels almost glued to the road, and during the day, I only have a couple of occasions when the rear steps out of line under hard braking.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
One new feature of the bike that I like a lot is the Brake Control function, which is Yamaha’s take on cornering ABS. The system on the TMax is fairly intrusive, but the way it intervenes is genuinely brilliant and nothing like I’ve encountered on two wheels before. Braking hard into a corner will fire the system fairly easily, but instead of the pressure bleeding from the lever and sending my fingers to the handlebar, the TMax kicks the lever back into my hand, meaning I can just give it another squeeze ready for when the electronics have sorted everything out again. Even at the kind of lean angles that would normally have me sliding into a ditch, the TMax, thanks to its funky new ABS, feels like a bike you can take huge liberties with on the brakes.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – riding
With little changes taking place in the engine (and what there is not affecting the 47bhp and 40lb ft delivery) the engine is still about as exciting as you get in this kind of bike. It’ll ping you off the line as quick as most other two-wheelers, and once up to speed will waft you along at above 100mph while still returning 50 or 60mpg. This year, the bike is said to have more of a difference between the Sport and Touring riding modes, although if I’m honest, I couldn’t really feel it. If anything, the Sport mode has a bit more urgency when rolling on the throttle for overtakes, but it feels like fine margins of change between the two.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
One mechanical change that does make itself felt is the clutch. The old bike had a tendency to grab when pulling away, making fine control sometimes feel clumsier than it should. You could always mitigate this by riding the back brake during slow riding, but the new clutch all but eliminates the need to do this. The clutch engagement on the new bike is noticeably smoother, and much more in tune with how a manual clutch would be used by a rider.
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – riding
With a final stretch of dual carriageway leading us back to the hotel at the end of the day, I take a few miles to kick back (or forward) and relax. Winding the screen up to its full extension removes all the wind noise and buffeting that’s been hammering my head all day, and I’m nicely cocooned in a relaxed bubble of still air. The riding position, especially if you use the feet-forward position, is very relaxing, and while some people were moaning of back ache at the end of the day, I didn’t have any whatsoever. If anything, the seat could be a little bit plusher, and while they’re at it one with shaved sides for short arse riders would be nice!
Yamaha TMAX Tech Max – static
If you want the biggest, fastest, best looking and best handling maxi scooter on the market, you still need to knock on Yamaha’s door. The new bike has seen small revisions for 2025, and while many won’t make themselves felt while riding, the update to Brake Control and the revised clutch are both very positive changes. And while it still looks very much like the old bike; comparing the two side-by-side reveals the new model is significantly sleeker and less inflated.
There’s no getting away from the elephant in the room, though, and the nearly £14,500 price tag stands between most people and TMax ownership. Do you buy an MT-10, which can wheelie, stoppie, hit the track and do rolling burnouts, or do you put that money into a bike that can do none of that but does mean you can stash your lid under the seat?
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