Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Impression: 1983 Yamaha Venture R~ale Yamaha's longdistanee runner By David Edwards Introducing the 1983 Yamaha XVZ12 TDK Venture Royale, the new turn-key tourer that would be King of America's highways. For the past eight years or so that title has rested firmly on the mantlepiece of the Honda Motor Company, buffed to a higher luster with each passing model year. 18 Ever since its debut in 1975, the Gold Wing and its fully equipped derivatives, the Interstate and the Aspencade, have entrenched themselves on the throne as America's favorite longdistance mileage gobblers. Other companies - Yamaha included - have halfheartedly. tried for the title, offering standard-model motorcycles dressed up with fairings, saddlebags and rear trunks. Nice enough efforts, but not complete. enough to wrest the crown away from the Gold Wing at the end of a 1000mile day. This year, though, Yamaha decided to make a serious effort at toppling the mighty Wing from its royal perch. The Venture, the end result of three years of design and planning, is definitely not just a dressed-up standard model. In fact, there is no standard model. The bike only comes in two flavors; the regular-issue Venture, which incl udes the fairing, saddlebags and trunk. and the bike we tested. the top-of-the-line Venture Royale. which adds a radio/cassette play.er and an onboard air compres- sor for adjusting the suspension front and rear. The option list for the Royale is short - a CB with intercom system should be available soon for those Venture riders who like to keep track of where the radar guns are; that's it. Rather than saddling their new touring bike with an old in-line four, Yamaha came up with an entirely new engine to propel the Venture down the road. Using lessons learned from their mid-'70s endurance racer project and the 550cc V-twin Vision, the engine designers at Yamaha came up with an impressive ll9&c, 70-deRI"ee, water-cooled V-4. The new engine has several advantages over a more-conventional unit. First off, with the rear cylinders located behind the leading pair, the engine can be made narrower than an across-the·frame four, and subsequently mounted lower in the frame, lowering the. center or gravity without sacrificing cornering clearance. and theoretically improving handling. Water-cooling is almost mandatory on a big touring bike these days because it makes for more constant operating temperatures and allows closer tolerances. both of which should add up to many thousands of trouble·lrcz.miles. Yamaha's faith in the new engine is evidenced by the two-year, 24,OOO-mile warranty on the engine and drivetrain (one year on body parts and radio equipment). The water. jackets around the cylinders also act as sound deadeners, cut· tingdown on theclauercoming from the engine's internals - an important feature for bikes whose riders may spend all day in the saddle. More important than all of its technical specifications, though, is the fact that the engine in the Venture works beautifully. Aided by its four Mikuni downdraft CV carbs mounted between the cylinder banks, the V-4 pulls willingly from idle and winds smoothly past its 7500-rpm redline, all the while accompanied by a surprisingly rich exhaust tone. Performance is impressive. Two-up and loaded for a weekend tour, the Venture is still quicker than all but the most super of superbikes. At a federally mandated 55 miles an hour, the engine is yawning along at an easy !lOOO rpm. Vibration at cruising speeds is negligible, although the footpegs do tingle ever so slightly at ce.rtain rpm levels. We got about 40 miles to the gallon, no matter how we rode the Venture. Pretty good for a bike as big as the Venture, but combine the mileage with the 5.!I-gallon fuel capacity and you have a motorcycle intended to cross continents that needs to be gassed up every 200 miles or so. We'd like to see at least a gallon added to the fuel capacity. Unless you're a tourer of the kitchen sink variety, though, the saddlebags and rear trunk should have more than enough capacity. Each , injection-molded ABS plastic unit is rated to carry 20 pounds, and on a weekend tour, we found the luggage served nicely for two people, with just enough room left over to can home the obligatory souvenirs. Twoweek-long forays to the midwest with camping gear will probably require the use of a tank bag or an aftermarket rack for the trunk, though. Unlike the Honda's bolted-on saddlebags, those on the Venture are removable with the turn of a key. Resembling somewhat overfed bowling ball bags, the Yamaha's panniers are irregularly shaped to beuer conform to the sides of the bike. Shaped so, the bags take a little practice to pack efficiently, but aided by a plastic partition in the bouom and an elastic strap on top, it soon becomes second nature to stuff aT-shirt here or some rolled-up socks there. The rackmounted rear trunk, also removable with the ignition key, will easily swallow two full-face helmets and is padded at the front to serve as a passenger backrest. Like the saddlebags, the trunk has four small plastic bumpers on its bottom side that allow . the I uggage to be set on the ground without scratching the finish. Inside the trunk are other nice touches; a foam pad and two cinch straps keep delicate items - camera equipment in our case - from jumping around on bumpy roads. Up front there's more ABS plastic in the form of a nicely shaped fairing that includes flush turn signal/running lights and a faired-in headlight shield. Siuing on the Royale for the first time, a rider is intimidated by the amount of gadgetry that spreads out before him. It seems more like some kind of rolling computer board than a motorcycle. There are no less than !I J separate buttons and knobs to punch or twirl. The radio alone has more controls than a bank of video games at your local arcade. Still, after spending a few miles behind the !l1-inch-wide dash, a rider becomes accustomed to it. One edi tor jumped on his sport bike after spend· inga 750-mileweekend with the Ven· ture and felt positively naked. Despite all the various buttons, the important area of the dashboard, the section holding the speedometer, tach. accurate digital clock, voltmeter and temperature gauge. is well laid out and easy to read. Thankfully, Yamaha resisted the urge to go with fancy digital readouts or pie-chart graphics when they put the package together. Three items contained in the fairing deserve special mention. The radio/casette player, priced at over S1000, may seem a little steep to the casual buyer, but it more than pays for itself when the sun goes down and you still have !lOO miles [0 travel before pulling into your driveway. Yamaha says the Mitsubishi-built unit is completely waterproof, and our experience with three thundershowers and numerous trips to the spray wash bears their claim out. The AM/ FM radio is controlled by a button just in front of the left handgrip, and changing stations is as easy as a push of the thumb. The radio has five memory buttons for selecting your favorite stations without having to run through the entire tuning scale. Its most appealing feature, though, is a built-in microphone that monitors ambient noise and kicks the volume of the music up as road noise increases and brings it back down when speed (and noise)diminishes. No more turning the volume way up so you can hear well on the highway, then having to fumble with controls when you get on side streets for fear of causing every dog within a city block to start barking. A nice touch. and one that shows how serious Yamaha is about building a top-flight tourer.

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