Folks who ride motorcycles today often started out on scooters, especially in Europe. But Maciej Bielawski of Poland did it the other way round. ?I?ve been riding motorbikes since I was a child, starting in the 80s,? he tells us. ?But then I switched to scooters. Why" Because they?re easy, especially in the city where I live.?
We can see his point. Some modern maxi-scooters offer motorcycle levels of performance, but with tons of extra convenience?especially for touring or city commuting.

Maciej usually trades his bikes in after one season, but he did not want to part with his 2009 TMAX XP500?even though he acknowledges that it was ?past its best? in terms of visual style. ?There are several quality ?maxi scooters? you can get, but the best of them is the Yamaha,? he says. ?It?s like a smart connection between a scooter and a sporty motorbike.? The XP500 is fast for a scooter, easily topping 100 mph, and handles exceptionally well despite its size. A contemporary road test compared it to a Yamaha R6 on twisty roads (and the monoblock four-piston front brakes are indeed derived from the R6).

To breathe new life into his favorite steed, Maciej got in touch with Grzegorz ?Greg? Korczak. Greg is a cinematographer and Oscar-nominated special effects director, but he?s also been running Unikat Motorworks since 2013. His company now has over 200 builds to its name, with four craftsmen turning Greg?s ?virtual? creations into reality.
?Maciej wanted his TMAX to look ?...