Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm impressed with your long term planning! I think I'd be kidding myself to say I'll keep any vehicle for 10 years, but actually it makes an awful lot of sense. I'll see how I go after 5!

Just got back from Europe, a 3,000 mile loop through northern italy, Austria and Germany encompassing a couple dozen alpine passes. Both myself and my partner were very comfortable on the T-Max - multiple sitting positions for both rider and pillion make it easy to stretch out joints and there's loads of space between the rider and the pillion due the generous seating.

The only black mark was that, despite cranking the preload up to maximum before the trip the extra load of pillion and luggage meant that the bike was sitting lower in the rear than usual, pointing the headlights at oncoming drivers and compromising ground clearance. There is significantly less metal on the centrestand now than when we departed, and that's a scary thing to happen half-way around an alpine hairpin!

My pillion and I are both quite slight and we respected the load limits so I suspect that Yamaha simply specced' the spring on the softer side for improved solo comfort. Aside from that, the T-Max performed admirably! I'll be writing a full report on my blog soon, so watch this space, but if anyone has any particular questions, fire away...

Nick

So, did you need to do a pitstop for tyres? How many miles have you done on the current set?

Ah yes, the tyres! Well, after the initial panic and buying a new set before the trip they're still sitting in the conservatory. The bike now has almost 7k on those originals and despite half of those miles being fully-loaded two-up I still have 2mm on both front and rear. At this rate, I won't be changing them until almost 9,000 miles!

The wear is definitely affecting the handling - the rear is squared off on the bottom and sides, making for an unpleasant lurch and it tramlines badly on torn-up surfaces. The front also starts to wobble if I take my hands off the bars, but I reckon I've still got plenty of life in these yet.

Nick

Good to hear you enjoyed the trip and glad the Tmax performed well. Interesting comment on the shock, I’d figured the adjustable DX version would be more heavily sprung. I’m guessing you have a top box also?

EvilRacer329 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:10 am Ah yes, the tyres! The bike now has almost 7k on those originals and despite half of those miles being fully-loaded two-up I still have 2mm on both front and rear. At this rate, I won't be changing them until almost 9,000 miles!

So how on earth do I rip them up after 4600 miles And I thought that wasn't too bad! I don't even take a pillion!

Yep, the small 39l top box, but well within the 5kg load limit. I haven't touched the damping adjustment as it's actually remarkably well-judged for a stock system. That being said, I'm already pricing up aftermarket replacements with stiffer springs and remote preload adjusters! As for the tyres...no idea. I can't comment on the first 2,200 miles, those could easily have been low-speed, gentle riding, and a large proportion of this trip was trundling along gently behind py parents' bike. Slow acceleration, gentle braking, it all adds up I guess! My first set of tyres on my Street Triple lasted 13k, these days I'm lucky to get half that the way I ride...

Nick

EvilRacer329 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2019 4:35 am Y As for the tyres...no idea. , . Slow acceleration, gentle braking, it all adds up I guess!

Oh....as that's not how I ride, I guess that says it all!

Hehe there you go! If you're WOT all the time and dragging the front brakes hard for every corner then yes, things will wear out faster

Nick

For those interested, I finished my write-up: https://boymeetsbike.com/2019/09/22/i-b ... ax-530-dx/

There's not a lot more to add for pillion comfort, but it does go into more detail on the two-up experience.

Nick