I am about to buy my first Maxi scooter, yamaha Majesty 400 , 2008, 9000 miles. I checked the scooter, everything seems to be where it needs, so that's good. Anything special to watch on these? I did a search on here and MajestyUSA.com but couldn't come up with anything significant. so far - Check with Yamaha that the fuel pump recall was done. - Watch the air filters they can get dirty real quick. - Slow off the start - can be adjusted with different variator weights - Belts to be replaced at 12k miles normally - some keep it longer. - Valve check at 24k miles Anything bad like engine, or other ? Kind of like the 950/990 KTM with their water pump, 640 KTM with their crankshaft bearing, Vstrom with their clutch chudder, etc... Each bike has their issues, just trying to know about the Majesty ones before buying. Thank you Christian
The wife has about 25k miles on hers. It's been solid as a rock and we've had no problems whatsoever. If your over 6' tall, leg room may be a little short. I'm 6'2" and a little more room would be nice. She's 5'8" and has no problems.
The Majesty seems to be rock solid, with one major issue. The valves. While they don't need to be checked for a long time, when they do, it is such a major job that I have heard it is cheaper to buy another scooter than to do the valves. I got this information from a Majesty forum when I was considering buying one. Apparently you have to just about disassemble the entire scooter, including removing the engine, to get to the valves. I was considering buying a brand new leftover model, for almost $10K OTD, and would have reached valve adjustment time in about 3 years. I decided if it was that bad, the investment wasn't worth it. My three year old $10K scooter with 24K miles on it would be worth less than $3K. That is some very expensive riding. Used seems to be the only way to go with these.
Thanks, this one has 9000, I do ~4000 miles a year commuting that gives me 3 1/2 year - so I'll deal with it then and I do all my service anyway.
I recently bought a Majesty, "used", with 160 miles. I've read as much as could about it. This is the first time I read about valve check/adjustment being THAT expensive. I don't believe it. I know BMW bikes. To replace a clutch you take off all the body (a lot on some) and then split the bike in half. The labor on that is steep, but not so much that you would rather replace the scooter if that cost would be on the Majesty. I'll find out fairly soon. With my R1200GS I rode 25 to 30K miles a year. I won't ride that much on the Majesty, but I guess around 15K. We'll see...
I have an '06 I bought in '08 with 700 miles. It has been great so far and I prefer to commute on it rather than my Marauder. I have about 17k miles and replaced the belt this summer. I was getting a little nervous about it. The belt light will come on at 12500, and there's a procedure to reset. Find it on majestyusa. Scooter club rides and scooter events are a lot of fun too.
Love my '05, has about 20K on it, no issues. I tried lighter/fewer roller weights and they helped but ended up going with a J Costa variator, much better! I really think the Maj is dangerously slow off the line stock. Stock I got 60mpg and now I get 50mpg, totally worth it.
From what I read on the Majesty forum, adjusting the valves is akin to rebuilding the engine on some bikes. It seems that many just ignore the valve adjustment, and ride it for as long as it runs, or sell it before it quits running. Valves seem to be the biggest issue on maxi scooters, I don't know why they didn't design them so they are easier to get to, or use hydraulic valves. I chose the Zuma 125 over the PCX150 solely based on how hard it was to do the valves. Zuma, 15 minutes. PCX, 3 hours.
I'm assuming your looking at the black one off of the bay area Craigslist. If so, buyer beware. I looked at it as well. Felt like it had been ridden hard and put away wet. I've owned a Majesty before and found that one to be much smoother through the gears and with less clutch noise and play. The price is right though. I talked the owner down to 2,000 for it and just couldn't pull the trigger. Good luck!
I own a 2008 and love it, I have done some mods to it, and I just bought a Laminar Lip to see if it will help the buffeting effect, going to do a full video on it as soon as the weather breaks. I am looking at maybe buying a Burgman 650E in 2014 but it does make me look at my Majesty, I only have 5K miles on it I do my own work on it.
I can't believe nobody has adjusted the valves on one. Time to do some research. I have been looking at these as an option for next purchase(along with a lot of other bikes/cars as well and the valve issue is enough to scare me off. I used to enjoy wrenching on bikes/cars/R/C, but not as much any more. Why not hydraulic lifters??? Functional obsolescence and more jobs?
I did some snooping around there and it seems the folks who took the bikes to dealers had mechanics who "said" the valves were in spec, which working in several MC shops over the years means they were too lazy to check. Apparently it is a big job of up to 7 hours of shop time to do the full procedure. Sounds like a good long running bike though.
well I really enjoy my Majesty, it came with a bagster apron/leg cover which I don't need/use. It's up for sale in the flea market, Let me know if anyone is interested. thx
Glad you like it. If it is 7 hours shop time to do the valves, that's over $1000 here. $100 hr labor, plus marked up parts and shop supplies, plus tax. I figure a new one would last at least 100,000 miles, so that's $4000 in valves alone. If that were over 25-30 years, it wouldn't be so bad, but most dealers around here won't work on a bike over 10 years old. One neat thing about the Majesty is that it has been around a while, and is still here for 2013, so even an older model should still be current. I have a 2002 Kawasaki motorcycle, but it was made through 2006 completely unchanged so parts will be available for a few years yet, and they should be available for quite some time on the online parts places. I do find it somewhat disturbing how fast maxi scooters depreciate. Great if you are buying used, not so great if you buy new. I'm not to crazy about buying a used vehicle if I plan to ride it all around the country. I have seen to many that were never maintained, many that were abused, and worse yet, many that were modified. I have never modified the engine/drivetrain on a street motorcycle/scooter. If you are going to rack up a lot of miles, it's reliability over everything else for me.
I bought a 2008 w 7600 mi last year an love it. I cruise with others on swings and keep up fine. Good to 105 mph indicated and gets 60 mpg every tank. I bought mine BC everyone claimed they were one of the most reliable bikes made. Fwiw wife says the pillion is real uncomfortable and she likes the helix clone better, but the majesty 400 hits a sweet spot for performance and economy. Have not researched valves, but this bike seems to come apart easy for maintenance and other yamahas I have had have been pretty easy for valve work. I think plastic scares people and shops take advantage of it by charging extra to work on scoots.
I haven't ridden the newer higher power majesty but my first scoot was a majesty YP125. It was a great scoot, and i went all over the UK on it. It was a proper workhorse, and could run for hours and hours at 60mph without complaint, it was comfortable to ride on, and cornered really well. It handled dirt and potholes as well as can be expected for a small wheeled scoot, and if the 2004 is anything as nice as the 1999 i'd buy one in a heartbeat if i had the money. I don't know if this is an issue on the higher powered maj, but on my 125 (which majestyusa seem oblivious of even existing) i paid the price by taking mine to a clueless place to be fixed. After a 400 mile ride it started leaking oil out of the airbox. It turned out that the piston rings had gone, and after months of being in and out of the shop at great expense to me, it finally seized up due to the true nature of the issue not being noticed and me not being technical enough myself to fix it at home. Don't let me sob story put you off though as mine was an old beater (1999 model!) and likely to fail sooner rather than later as i'd put 10,000 miles on it... I hope my information is of some use from someone that rode a majesty for almost two years even if i didn't ride exactly the same model
