image from the PGO website.

Long time MCP member and past President of the MIB, Dennis “Dencio” Opina, share with us his real world review of the G-Max 150.

PGO borrowed their tried and reliable tranny from the hard working two-stroke P-Max and gave it a new engine and a new angular body and called it G-Max150 EVO.

Like most of you, I never really enjoyed the running-in period of a new scoot, like I could fall asleep while riding. But I was very patient and now that my new G-Max150 has already past the 1000kms break-in period I couldn’t be any happier.

Sitting on a G-Max gives me a commanding view of the road with its 820mm seat height, an advantage when you are filtering traffic in the streets of Manila. The racy cluster greeted me the moment I sat on the Max. To make up for lack of a trip meter it offers a clock instead. What? To tell me that I am late again. Ha, ha, ha.

As a new G-Max rider I missed the big helmet bay those other brand offers but then so long as a full-face lid fits under the seat who would really mind. After a couple of trips from Alabang to Pasay I noticed my frozen bottled water is still relatively cold. My old Joyride200 compartment is so hot with just less a kilometer of traffic riding, it will fry an egg and brew me coffee.

Another one on the plus side of this new scooter are the lights -seven lights(lucky number) on the front and three at the rear. Now this comes very useful if you do a lot of riding at night like me. And the stock headlight(35W) is adequate, thanks to the OEM halogen that comes with the Max.

For the street, the G-Max is a bit on the hard side, this bocomes apparent in a bumpy road. This could be attributed to the six-bar centralized link rear suspension. Too bad its not adjustable. The Max’ seemingly hard ride on the other hand, gives me a clear feel of the road and what’s going on under those sure footed Maxxis rubber that hugs the tar like a bugger under my desk. The low center of gravity of the Max works with its 60 series low profile tyres on a big 13-inch alloy that gives it a precise steering on the street and on the race track. This scoot doesn’t just perform on curves -it excels in curves!

A claimed 11.6 ps/7750rpm of power is more than I need for the street. But I could used more on the track.Top speed of this stock scoot is about 120Kph and could cruise at 100 all day with out worry. The pull will come at about 4800rpm and as I turn the throttle wider so is my speed, and it’ll cruise at 80kph at 6000rpm. 6Krpm is just the beginning, the big pull comes past 6Krpm up to 9000rpm where beyond 9Krpm is a flat spot up to redline.

I did my own math and came up with a 34Kms/liter for mixed city and hi-speed riding, not bad. Max has a superb stopper with a four pot caliper at the front found only in sports bikes. An air and oil cooled engine means less parts to worry about, no coolant to top up, no C-clamp to come loose, no water hose to leak, no water pump to seize and no thermo switch and fan to go haywire so I could concentrate more on my riding skills.

Also, there are little positive things that I like about this scoot like the 7-point ignition switch, keyless gas cover, the EVO exhaust that gives a deep note, and that light cut off feature( lights turn off when I press the kill engine button, so I could leave the key in on position with out draining power), access to battery is very easy too, female riders will love the relatively very light effort to put the scoot to her center stand.

Hey, no scooter is perfect, compartment light is useless(drains your battery), decals sucks, digi clock reads military hour, the side stand is too tall and the mirrors are way too wide.

At an SRP of Php130K, the PGO G-Max150 EVO is a little bit on the higher price range, but then quality doesn’t come cheap.

If you’re looking for a sporty, futuristic styling, a sophisticated suspension, an ergonomic layout and a looker that will keep you smiling every time you remove the bike cover, then G-Max150 EVO fits you.