garyk

Sure. It wasn't a long ride--20 minutes; it was 80F, and we were in stop-and-go traffic on CA210 for about three miles. It was warm, but not hot. I'm not sure when the Gold Wing will be delivered--probably a couple of weeks. I'll post my impressions.

I agree with a lot--well, almost all--of what you say. Honda's decisions to decrease seating room, fuel capacity, and storage capacity are simply goofy. There's no other word for it. When has a motorcycle rider ever complained about having too much room, too much range, or too much storage? That all being said, the Gold Wing is primarily for my wife to be able to ride with me, and we will not be making long trips, so the lack of storage and decreased range are not deal breakers for me, plus I will be keeping the FJR for solo riding. Wife is comfortable on the back despite the decrease in seating room, so that's also okay. The Traxxion Dynamic shocks are on order, and as I am having the dealer put on a bunch of GW accessories, the tupperware will already be off the bike, so the dealer has agreed to stick the new shocks in there as part of the deal. IOW, I won't have to pay anything extra for labor on the TD shocks. According to people on the GW forum, the tie-rods are not turning out to be a problem for those who have put some miles on their GWs. Fingers-crossed, but I also bought the extended warranty, so worse-comes-to-worst, there will either be a recall of that part or I will have it replaced under warranty, hopefully with an upgraded part. Thanks very much for the caution and the warning. Once I get the bike and put a few miles on it, I'll post about it here.

Hi All, Wife and I rode the SVTC today. I think it's a terrific motorcycle, but it's not going to be my motorcycle. I'm going with the 2018 Gold Wing DCT/Airbag to which I'm adding Traxxion Dynamic front/rear shocks. I've been riding a 2006 FJR since it was new. Wife can no longer ride that comfortably--too sporty--so we've ridden the BMW Grand America (also too sporty, a sport-tourer in cruiser drag), the Gold Wing, and today the new Star Venture TC. The TC is an awesome machine, and the fact that Yamaha got so much right on a brand-new motorcycle model is amazing. Wife thought it very comfortable, on a par with the Gold Wing, although she thought it was a bit noisy. At stock settings there was virtually no wind or buffeting in the cockpit. Wife and I were able to converse quite comfortably even with full-face helmets and no intercoms, which I thought that was remarkable. We weren't on a long ride--maybe twenty minutes freeway and street combined, but for that short interval the seating position was fine, as was the seat. The transmission was crisp and sure, and finding neutral was no problem at all. Gauges were well laid out and easy to read. The suspension soaks up pavement irregularities (although not nearly as well as the Gold Wing), and the bike stays on track. There was just a hint of vagueness in the steering, but that's an observation, not a criticism. It's a half-ton cruiser. Engine heat from the air-cooled twin is a non-issue. There was considerably less heat than the heat from the FJR's water-cooled 4. I can't explain about the heat complaints. Maybe because I've had over a decade getting my left calf roasted by the FJR and have grown inured to it, the SVTC's heat just wasn't a big deal. The riding: I thought the SVTC was big. I mean, I know it's big--nearly a thousand pounds--but to me it felt big. Really, really big. Massive. And I didn't like the constant vibration in the tank, which was there all the time and at all speeds, vibrating my legs as they straddled the tank. I'm sure that's in part natural to big twins, on which I don't have a lot of time, but I just didn't like it. It was distracting. I kept trying to reposition my legs, and there wasn't anywhere else for them to go. I don't like that it has no center-stand. At the bike shop--Yamaha of Pasadena--they said that the bike is just too big and too low for a center-stand. Maybe that's so, but I've come to appreciate and want a center-stand. For me, riding the SVTC just wasn't any fun. I felt like I was riding on an elephant. I do hope it does well. It's a fabulous highway bike. It just wasn't my highway bike.

Thanks. Definitely something to be concerned about. That video makes the Honda shock look remarkably lame. Still, the ride is extraordinarily smooth, so whatever they've done, it works, at least in the short term, and if I get the GW, I'll also get the extended warranty (5 years total), so if the Honda effort turns out to be a problem, they'll be replacing it, and maybe upgrading the part. Plus I will have the option of buying the TD shocks later. I don't want to repeat the mistake I made with the SVTC--judging the bike based on pre-real-life-experience. The Honda engineers have a good track record, and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Not that this necessarily means anything--I think TD is a good company and I have their shocks on the FJR, but do also have to consider that the TD video is selling TD parts.

My wife and I will be riding. She's a many-decades veteran of pillioning (is that a word?), plus she rode her own Honda 400F around San Francisco for years, so she knows whereof she speaks. I don't have access to an infrared thermometer, so that's out, but I should be able to get a sense of the engine heat, particularly relative to the FJR. We did ride the Gold WIng (twice). No engine heat on us at all. Don't know about the engineering of the fins. I'll post tomorrow after the test SVTC ride.

Thanks for pointing that out. When I think about it, I suppose they're all going to do produce heat, aren't they? I mean they're internal-combustion engines; they burning/exploding stuff less than a foot beneath me and just a few inches beside either leg. The three bikes around which I have circled are the new BMW Grand America, the Gold Wing, and the SVTC. I quickly eliminated the SVTC, put off by the early heat reports. My FJR experience, which is otherwise very positive, has me leery of the heat reported in early SVTC reviews. The FJR can get very hot; even when moving quickly on a hot/humid day, the heat coming off it can be very unpleasant. We quickly eliminated the BMW after riding it. Even in Touring mode the ride is stiff and jiggly, far more of a sport bike than a touring bike. (The K1600 GTL is too high for my wife's arthritic knees, and the seating is too cramped for us.) BMWs are, in an odd way, too sophisticated. I think of them as over-engineered. Plus their reputation is not good maintenance-wise, and BMW doesn't stand behind its products the way Yamaha does. The Gold Wing and SVTC are also sophisticated machines, but, and I don't know how exactly to quantify this, they are not "overly sophisticated" the way the BMW is, and that, to me, is a good thing. The touring-mode ride on the new Gold Wing, and the ride is the main criteria for this purchase, is amazingly supple. Bumps from street irregularities are still there, but they are distant, cushioned, more like echoes of bumps. Yet I'm repeatedly drawn back to the SVTC because of my very positive experience with Yamaha over the decades, first on a 2-stroke 350 in the early 70s, then on an XS750 triple, then after 11 years on the FJR/AE (the AE is the designation for the auto-clutch), which, aside from the heat issue, is to my money the greatest all-around street motorcycle ever created. I have a test ride scheduled for Saturday in Pasadena on the SVTC. It should be a hot day, and there should be traffic on the 110 that we can sit in. And as I write this I realize how perverted that sounds: On a test ride I will be seeking out traffic to sit in.

Thank you for taking time to respond. There is only one situation about which I worry, and I will address that on my test ride Saturday: It can get very hot sitting in traffic on the blacktopped freeway in SoCal. I got stuck in a massive traffic jam on the 101 in the valley last year on my FJR. Couldn't even lane split. It was 113F, and my calves were roasting. Air vents don't help there. I hope to see how the SVTC compares to the FJR. If it's worse, than I'll probably go with a Gold WIng. If it's better, than I have a problem. A good problem.

I had pretty much dropped the new Venture, but thanks very much for the responses, as a result of which I will give it a test ride. GaryK

Maybe I'm missing it, but I've been searching for a ride review from someone who's purchased and ridden the 2018 Star Venture. (I've read the Rider review.) I live in Southern California, and I've seen temperatures of 113F while stuck in traffic on my FJR on Highway 101 in the summer, so, excited as I am about the new Star Venture TC, I'm afraid to buy one. Are there rider reviews on this forum that I'm missing?