ChiefGunner

Have to work a few days this week but temps for Thursday, Friday & Saturday are clear and 74, 78 & 71 respectively. You betcha I’m going riding! 😁

Great video, but wrongly titled. He was on 129 which is TAIL of the Dragon. The DRAGON is another on my bucket list which runs from Kentucky all the way up to New England area. Would take a normal rider about 3-4 days to ride. IMHO Tail of the Dragon is all hype and overrated. The Rattler is 290 curves in 24 miles. Has much better scenery if you dare look, but the road is far more technically challenging. Outside cambered corners, decreasing radius corners. Sharp and banked chicanes as well as a quick drop into a hairpin corner on a blind rock wall. As the ride/route coordinator for an annual rally in Maggie Valley, it the first ride of the event that I schedule.. We use it to assess riders capabilities and then know where to put them in the group on the remaining rides.

Well, spent a couple days doing some needed maintenance in between work. Tore it apart and did valve check/adjustment. Oil change, cleaned K&N air filter, new plugs and fixed a couple led lighting issues. Just got it back together about midnight and took it for a test ride. Definitely worth the effort. The really good thing is my mileage went from 35mpg to 41.9mpg!

I hope you don’t mind if I chime in here? As a previous owner of a 91 Venture Royale and a current owner of the new Star Venture with over 76k miles on it, I may have an interesting perspective. Granted anyone’s perspective is personal and subject to dismissal. I loved the heck out of my 91 Royale. It was my first touring bike and was beyond anything I’d imagined. It had the best “tech” of the time and I really liked the easily adjustable air ride suspension. As far as power goes… it was indomitable! Even sport bikes refused to tangle with it. It did great for many multi state trips my wife and I took and never gave me a problem except ONE and that was the clutch. The motor was so strong and the only weak point was the clutch. I found a fix on line though that all you had to do was ADD a second concave clutch spring ring to it. It was much harder to pull the clutch in but when you revved that motor and let the clutch go there was no place for the power to go except lifting the front end up! Did it many times. In a way, the old Venture was like having a luxury sport touring bike. Fast forward almost 13 years… I was shopping for a bike and truly there was nothing out there that truly fit the “touring” model except the Goldwing. I did not and do not like the upright seating position. It feels like you’re riding ON the bike and not in it as a part of it, however the wing was my only option for reliability and performance. I was just about to pull the trigger on a stage 3 2017 wing when Yamaha debuted the SVTC. As soon as I saw it I KNEW that’s what I wanted. It didn’t look like a cookie cutter bike like every other manufacturer out there. It was unique, had its own badass stance and was factory loaded with almost every tech you could imagine. I even went so far as to purchase the bike sight unseen! Had never seen or sat on one nor taken one for a test ride until the day it was delivered 29 Dec 2017. Now, having had the bike for over 5yrs and putting over 76k miles on it I feel uniquely qualified to comment on it. It’s 964lbs but is incredibly nimble at slow speeds and is extremely predictable and steady when you throw it hard into corners. Myself having taken it at 75mph into a corner marked 40mph, and I have the scrapes down both pipes to prove it. It’s super comfortable on very long rides and there something relaxing about that sound of a v-twin low unhurried rumble at 70 mph and about 2600 rpm. Is the bike “underpowered” , I don’t think so. I was looking for a touring rig not a full dress racing bike. There’s more than enough torque to move the bike 2 up loads and with a loaded trailer. No problems passing either. Yes, the 4750 rpm limit took some learning to adjust to but that’s MY issue not the bike. And since having had the Ivan’s flash tune to the ECM, the bikes performance is vastly more impressive. Actually more in line with what I’d had expected straight from Yamaha but that’s neither here nor there. The fact is the performance increase IS available. I don’t know about you gentleman but when riding and especially long trips, having an excellent sound system is very important. The Harmon Kardon Surround system on this bike is truly spectacular. As good as some I’ve heard on other bikes who spent a couple thousand dollars for and this one is stock! Add to that the DUAL audio where the passenger can listen to what they want at their own volume levels regardless of what you’re listening to and you have a system that provides customized enjoyment for BOTH people. Every single volume item.. CB, COMMS, NAV, MUSIC, PHONE. Each one has its own volume control INDIVIDUALLY customizable by rider and passenger. Again, they had each person in mind when they did this obviously. Now the electronic “quirks”. Yamaha was made known about many of these issues but never addressed them. 1. When CB was ON and you used COMMS, what you said between the two of you was also broadcast over the CB. Yeah, not good. They needed to separate it so that COMMS were VOX control (like the Royale was) and CB required you to push the transmit button. The NAV system worked well BUT was only limited to 5 way points and your destination so 6 total. Some of us however found a way around that by utilizing a gpx1.1 with POI and were able to get it to accept routes with as many as 27 way points! Of course another issue is that you could not save any address as a “name”. You could only save the address. That was frustrating cu I may not remember where “Robby’s Ribs” are but I remember the name. So you see the issue. Another tech piece I like is the VOX control of all functions. I just tap a button and it says “say a command”. Everything from placing a call to volume control or source selection etc… THAT is very nice cuz I don’t need to look to see what I’m doing. Sure Park is great! Honda has only reverse but this has FORWARD & REVERSE and trust me, riding 2up loaded with a trailer and trying to maneuver in gravel, sand or loose whatever, this is a true lifesaver! Another complaint said often is about the “heat”. The Royale was water cooled true, but when the cooling fans kicked in where did that heat go? YEP ! It got blown but up on you the rider! This bike is air cooled. If you’re stuck in stop and go in the summer YES it’s gonna be hot. I have found since the Ivan’s ECM Tune that the bike runs cooled. I have a hunch that these bikes were factory tuned lean to meet emissions standards hence the heat issue. Even when stuck in traffic with 10’s of thousands of bikes like the last Rolling Thunder in DC which I attended, the heat was still bearable but I’ll admit not by much. Has the bike has some issues, yes. Has Yamaha stepped up in every issue except the software… YES. IMHO, Yamaha made the most awesome v-twin touring bike available but you can’t get past peoples stereotypes and people don’t think v-twin when they think Yamaha. I think their poor marketing and initial release are to blame for much of the poor sales. Another big part of it is the many here who just cannot envision the name “Venture” and v-twin being in the same sentence let alone the same bike. TRUTH! See, the “stereotyping” exists on all sides. Would I have loved to see them stuff thw 1700 VMAX motor into this? HECK YEAH! But I also know I would not be getting 42mpg with that NOR would the bike have a 6.6 gal tank for range because of the down draft design of the VMAX KOTOR. There’s always gives & takes. This current design in the SVTC truly is the best “touring” package available. That’s my 2 cents… well maybe buck fifty. 😁

Well, my Wolo Bad Boy air horn has been nice but I broke down this morning and ordered a train horn for the bike. Now I could care less if you’re blasting tunes in your vehicle… you WILL hear me! 😁 Also, my custom plate arrived yesterday. Woo Hoo!

A lot of “PURDY” bikes here! I know many do NOT like the new model Star Venture, but IMHO as far as amenities, comfort and sheer unique looks I love the current rig I have. It truly is my “dream bike” setup.

@Freebird I hear ya! Well, I rode not drove 7.5hrs one way 15hrs round trip to get my Hannigan trailer for the bike. It was a tremendous deal and worth it but the return trip was a brutal 38 degrees!

Nope. Anything you do for these bikes will have to be custom fabricated. Have seen some who bought a HD 1/2 trunk and mounted that but again, they had to manufacture the mounting brackets.

Not only do they attach to the trunk but they block quite a bit of the rear speaker on an SVTC. No thanks.

Well, after all the work I couldn’t help but post a walk around!

Thank you! Well, I tried to do it with my stock windshield but it has a slight tint. Consequently it would only pass a certain light wavelength which was a dull bluish white regardless of the color input. The key is to have a true clear windshield or it won’t work right. The bike is outfitted with XKGlow lighting (self installed) and I happen to have some extra 10” lighting strips and cables. I put a light strip facing inward towards the windshield and touching the edge, then covered with rubber trim to keep the light from going anywhere but “in”. Then just ran my cables to tie into the section of lighting I wanted. In my case I have “dual zone”. The engine area is ZONE 1, the rest of the bike is ZONE 2. There are manufacturers who make edge lighting kits but they are all limited to 4 color choices. I wanted mine to match since I literally have 22 million color choices and they’re app controlled. They can breath, strobe, brighteness adjustment, go brighter the faster if go (speed control) or dance to the music I’m playing.

Just finished my latest upgrade; edge lighting my new ClearView windshield.

My ClearView windshield came in today.

I’m loving it. Everybody names their ride, and mine is called “CrimsonViper”. So, I had custom emblems made out of 316 stainless polished to chrome mirror finish. They finally arrived today!