How do you distinguish...

[turbopete]

A Midnight Maxim from an ordinary black Maxim? Or is it that the black ones were called the "Midnight Maxim"?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Pete,
Well, first below is just a "Black" Maxim, only an 82 US model, don't know if Yamaha did things differently for the EURO market in the later years?


Whereas, a TRUE Midnight Maxim should have the same color scheme as below, the blackened fenders, engine, handlebars, etc., along with all of the fancy gold toned trim!

[trbig]

Hmmmmm... didn't even know there WAS such a critter! I like a few of the gold accents... especially the rims, but the reg maxim looks a bit "Sportier" to me with the seat and tank shapes. Just my opinion... and we all know about those..
Ya think if I let the front cam adjuster leak a bit more... that my motor will get completely black and start to look cool??


Tod

[turbopete]

Hmm the first pic is exactly what I have, except the grabrail has been removed on that one, but the second pic looks like an XS special. It has XS handlebars and grabrail, and an XS tank, although it has Maxim wheels by the look of it. I'm not overly-familiar with the different models. Details are very difficult to find on the model.

[TopCatGr58]

Pete,

Sorry for the confusion, the second picture IS an XS11, it's the same picture in the AD without the Ad text, I forgot that it didn't say "81 Midnight Special" on it, I was just showing it to show ALL of WHAT is blacked out on the MNS's, and would assume similar color schemes for the MAXIMS! We don't have a photo of the XJ MNS in the archives/photos section! The 81MNS has the curved spoked wheels, the linked braking system, both of which are incorporated in the 82 XJ's
T.C.

[turbopete]

Oh thanks T.C.

The midnight Maxim seems to rarer than rocking horse doo-doo. I've only seen a couple of references to it, and never a photo.

[dpotter58]

I had a 1981 Midnight Maxim but it was an xj650 not 1100 cc.

[Jerry]

Someone must have been reading eBay ads recently; there was an '82 XJ advertised as a "rare midninght Maxim" when in fact is was a stock New Yamaha Black XJ, not a Midnight at all. Midnights, by definition, have the gold trim. (The other, and less common, color for the XJ is New Ruby Red.)

The Yamaha brochures suggest there was an 1100cc Midnight Maxim, but I have never seen one. The reported sightings have turned out to be smaller displacement Yamahas or the stock black regular Maxim. To be sure, the XJ's tank emblems are gold, or have turned gold over the years, but the XJ does not have the other gold trim components. Some items, like wheels and rotors, are interchangeable and could be swapped in to give you a partial Midnight, but I am not convinced Yamaha ever sold a full-blown '82 1100cc XJ Midnight Maxim.

[Do Lee]

Yamaha did not have a Midnight maxim in an 1100cc that I'm aware of and I worked for Yamaha back then when these bikes were coming off the production line. I think the only midnight anything in 1982 was the Midnight Maxim XJ650LJ. In 1983 several Midnight bikes Maxims XJ650, XJ750, Viragos XV750, XV920 even a little 50cc street bike had the black and gold to look like the midnight special bikes, BUT no 1100 Midnight Maxims