Test Fleet:
Paul took the opportunity to order some accessories for the X-MAX 400.
If you read the April issue of MSL you’ll know that Jonathan took the X-MAX out to stretch its legs – riding from MSL towers to Matlock. Without the bike and having time on my hands, I took the opportunity to order some accessories for it.
The accessories on Yamaha’s website are extensive. What should I go for? I could try to make it look sporty, comfy or practical. I started looking. The slip-on mufflers in black (at
£704 – ouch!) with a nice sport screen (£76.40) and some replacement aluminium foot panels (£60.40) initially took my fancy. I then took a look at what I was doing with her – the daily commute with a bit of weekend fun, when I find the time. With this in mind, I reassessed what I might actually find useful.
Being 6ft 2in I’m usually sat in the wind a little with the standard screen. Not a major discomfort, but if there’s an opportunity to make riding even more comfortable I’m going to take it. I decided to order a high screen (£144) and in the same vein, why not the comfort seat (£244) too? The standard seat is far from uncomfortable but if you can make that even plusher, who am I to turn it down? I’ve been considering taking the wife on the back, so a 39 litre city top case (£132) with a passenger backrest cushion (£52.20) would make her feel more welcome.
I’m not much of a spanner man but after flicking through the instructions I decided to give it a go. Everything is held together with Hex bolts, so it seemed straightforward enough.
Fitting the rear carrier (£141), which supports the top box, required the removal of the lining of the under-seat compartment. Taking the seat off allowed for better access and it was being replaced with the comfort seat anyway. The old seat came off with the removal of four bolts – an easy job. The lining of the under-seat compartment came out with the removal of five bolts.
One thing to be mindful of is disconnecting the electrics to the bulb which lights up the storage area. It’s easy and the instructions are very simple to follow. It was also necessary to remove the hand rails, as the carrier integrates the hand rails into the top box connection. As an aside, looking into the guts of the X-MAX with the seat storage liner and hand rails removed, you can see just how much road crud gets through around the engine.
It’s made me aware that I should really have given her more of a jet washing over these winter months, especially with all the salt on the roads. Really though, it’s nothing you wouldn’t expect. It certainly highlights how well packaged the rear of the scooter is – giving you so much storage space. Why am I fitting a top box again?
Getting the new parts on proved to be as simple as taking the old parts off. For now, I decided against fitting the passenger backrest cushion, as it entails drilling holes in the top box. It comes with a paper template but drilling holes in a perfectly good top box with no indication as to where to drill, put me off a bit. I may do that next month.
The high screen is just a matter of removing the old screen and using the longer bolts and spacers to fit the higher screen. It’s massive: just what I wanted. Like I said, I’m 6ft 2in and the new screen is almost as tall as the top of my head. This is going to keep the wind off. I’m looking forward to the first ride out on her with all the new parts in place.