Some of you may recall that when I attended the International Motorcycle Show in Rosemont last February (see My Good Day at the 2018 Chicago IMS), I had come away quite smitten with the 2018 Yamaha Star Venture and commented that I would need to ride the bike in order to understand what it really has to offer. Well, earlier today I did exactly that and now I’m here to tell you about it.
Despite having been planned months in advance, my demo ride very nearly didn’t happen. Rich’s Yamaha in Lockport, Illinois hosted the factory demo truck for three days, Friday through Sunday, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and they’d been promoting the event on Facebook since last winter. I work all day Fridays and until noon Saturdays, so I pulled in at the demo location at 2:00 Saturday afternoon. The bikes were out on a demo run and there were only a few people hanging around, so I walked up assuming my chances of throwing a leg over a Star Venture that afternoon would be good. Well, no.
“Hi! Where do I sign up?”
“You can’t. We’re all booked up.”
“Huh?”
“I said we’re all booked up. We open again at 8:30 tomorrow. First ride goes out at 9.”
“Can I sign up for tomorrow?”
“Nope. I can’t even access the sign-up screen until tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll try again tomorrow.”
I gotta’ admit, I was a little sore about not being able to ride yesterday, mostly due to a lack of understanding on my part about how Yamaha USA structures their demo events. And I do mean structure. Up until now, the only demo truck events I’d been to were put on by Victory Motorcycles and their events were set up to accommodate as many riders as possible. There was no rigid schedule of excursions. Rather, the bikes went out for 15 minutes at a time, as many times as they could for the duration of the event. I would arrive at the event site, sign up, wait for the bikes to come in from a run, and place my helmet on whatever bike I wanted to ride. And riders could pretty much repeat this process as many times as they wanted.
By comparison, Yamaha has a set schedule of demo rides for any given day and riders are assigned to specific bikes by appointment, created on little digital touchscreens, for a given time slot and model. By setting everything up electronically, Yamaha USA collects my contact information, current bike brand, etc. and in return, I get a demo rider card that can be scanned at any Yamaha demo event for the rest of this year. It’s just a different way of doing things, but one of which I was not aware. Until today.
For fear of not getting a chance to ride a Venture this weekend, I arrived at the demo site a few minutes prior to opening this morning and managed to be first in line when registration opened. This is when and how I learned about their scheduling methodology. I even got a donut out of the deal.
I spent the next fifteen minutes looking over the bikes, especially the one I was going to ride, and chatting with a Yamaha USA rep who had been cleaning and polishing them. I do not recall the gentleman’s name, but he was exceptionally helpful. As soon as this rep had learned I would be taking the Venture out, he spent a fair amount of time with me, explaining some of the features—like the starting sequence for the keyless ignition and how to toggle between the “sport” and “touring” power modes. I was grateful for the one-on-one orientation session, believe me.
After a brief pre-ride talk, we mounted our assigned machines, started them up, and headed out. The first thing I noticed about the Venture was its low seat height, which is odd because at 27.4 inches, this seat should have been several inches higher than that of my Victory Vision, which boasts a nominal seat height of only 24.5 inches. But the lowest point of my Vision’s slanted seat is indeed a single point whereas the lowest part of the Venture’s scooped seat occurs over a much more prominent area. So you see, the Venture’s seat is nominally higher than mine but in practical application—that is, where the tush meets the cush—it is indeed lower.
What positively floored me was how effortlessly the Venture comes off its side stand and how weightless the bike feels almost as soon as it is underway. Why? Because again, the numbers indicate that it should have been otherwise. My 2012 Victory Vision Tour, not a minibike by any means, has a wheelbase of 65.7 inches and an estimated wet weight of 869 pounds. Imagine my expectations when I read that the Venture has a 67.3-inch wheelbase and, in its Transcontinental (premium) configuration, a wet weight of 963 pounds. But once again, the numbers do not tell the entire story.
Without getting into a physics lesson, which I am not qualified to give, we know that a bike’s center of gravity, rider placement, and steering geometry (aka rake and trail) each play a large part in its handling characteristics. All I know is that when I first acquired my Vision Tour, riding it at parking lot speeds felt a lot like piloting an ocean liner. By comparison, on my very first time out on the Yamaha Star Venture, I was leaning into slow corners with confidence. The bike feels extremely well-balanced at any speed and to the extent that a bike weighing almost half a ton can feel agile, this machine felt agile and very responsive to my rider inputs.
About mid-way through our demo run, the rain began to fall. While I could complain, I was actually glad for the opportunity to see how the Venture handles in wet surface conditions. She handles beautifully! Sure, I kept the bike in touring mode and went easier on the throttle during the downpour, but the fact is this bike felt downright planted to me from the time we left the parking lot until the time we returned.
Let me share a few final observations and opinions with you. First, this bike has a lot of features I did not try out, mainly because I didn’t know how. There are a lot of controls in that cockpit. At one point, I had inadvertently activated the satellite navigation system and while I did play the radio while underway, I did not try to learn the entertainment system while I was riding the bike. Just like my Vision, there are a lot of handlebar-mounted controls that are not intuitive to the uninitiated. Some quiet time with the operating manual would prove very helpful in that regard.
The trunk and side bags are quite generously sized and there are additional small storage compartments as well. One of the few complaints I’ve had about my Victory Vision is the relative lack of luggage capacity. Definitely not a problem with the Venture.
The 113 cubic inch (1854cc) V-twin engine moves the bike fine, but I wouldn’t race a sportbike (or even a Gold Wing) for papers. The vibration factor is just enough to let the rider know there’s a big V-twin at work, but it was never intrusive or annoying at any speed. The exhaust note is downright muted by American V-twin standards. Refined seems to be a good word to describe this powerplant.
The bike I rode lists for over $27K in its Transcontinental trim. Asking whether it has to be that expensive is a lot like asking whether it has to weigh over 900 pounds. It is what it is. Right?
Finally, I regret that my favorite pillion passenger/photographer Ann was not available to join me for this demo ride. Had she been there, you would be enjoying far better photos—and maybe a video or two—from this outing. Ann’s presence would also have enabled me to evaluate the Venture’s handling characteristics with a passenger on board. By the same token, Ann is not a fan of riding in the cold rain. So maybe next time. After all, I have a Yamaha demo rider card that’s good for the rest of the year.
As always, thanks for hanging with me.
This Is MGD Time 