Notices by Yamaha TMax 560 (nach@bae.st)

Scooters have been woven into the cultural fabric of Mediterranean Europe since the 1950s, with Vespas and Lambrettas becoming as much a part of everyday life in Italy as parmesan and prosciutto. Even in the chillier centers of mainland Europe, the scooter has crossed class, gender, and age gaps to rule the urban roost for decades. Out in the sticks of France and Spain, the soundtrack of village life is not merely moo of cow or bleat of sheep but punctuated by a Peugeot Speedfight running an ear-splitting exhaust, throttle pinned to the stop.But in 2001, the landscape shifted. Europe went crazy for a new type of scooter—the maxi-scooter—when Yamaha introduced the XP500, far better known as the TMAX.There were larger-capacity scooters before the TMAX, such as Suzuki’s popular Burgman AN250 and AN400 models, but the Yamaha hit a new chord altogether. Its 499cc motor made it unquestionably the biggest and most powerful scooter, meaning a new generation of European customers were att