Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Ven ture Royale, which last roamed the cou nt rys ide in 1992. That year, Yamaha surre ndered the in tersta tes to the Gold Win g . Even Suz uk i and eventua lly . Kaw ns aki' pul led th e plu g o n t heir res pective gra nd tourers - the Cavalcade and the Voyager - as they were unable to compete with the Gold Wing's Cadillac-sm ooth performan ce. But e ve n s ome Gold Win g e rs are beg inning to gru m ble a little bit. Re centl y , we' v e h eard m ore a n d more Win ger s say tha t they' re ge tti ng so mewh at tired of th e Go ld W in g ' s styli ng , which ha sn ' t changed much in t he last 10 yea rs. Some have eve n sa id that they're getting a little tu rne d off by the Wing 's carli ke man nerism s and that they want so me thing with more "motorcycle character," yet tha t still provides long-range rid ing comfort. Obviously , Yamaha has hea rd th e same things and go t to thinking. Yamaha kn ew that whe n it came to "styli ng" and "mo to rcycle character," they already had th ose ba ses covered with its Royal Star mod els. Tack on a few to u ring n ecessities - such as fu ll wind protection, large sa ddlebags, and ste reo - and Yama ha knew th e timing was r ight to re in trod uce t he a ll- ne w Ven tu re. Actually, transforming the Royal Star in to a long-d ista nce tou rer was no t as eas y as it so u nds; in fact, it was a major undertaki ng . For on e, en gi neers and design ers knew that the ad d ition of big saddlebags , tru nk , a full fairin g and a stereo, among o ther things, would add weight to a mot orcycle alrea dy in need of a d iet. Furthermore, the increased ballast certainly would not benefit a motor tha t, in previous Royal Star mod els, wa s cr iti ciz ed for b ein g u nd e rpo w e red . Th ere was no way around it: A n ew fra me and major engi ne modificati on s we re in orde r. The maj or d iffer en ce betw een the Venture' s frame an d that of the rest of th e Royal Star lin e is its single (ra ther th an dual ) p erim et er-t ype backbo ne. Not onl y is the new frame claimed to be ligh ter and more rigid , it provid es more sp ace for a larger six -ga llon fu el ta nk and am ple br eathing room 'for the larger 32mrn (up 4mrn )·BDSR Mikuni carbure- · tors. The other Royal Star models suffer from an overly compact int ake area (not to mention small carbs), which resulted in a lack of air and a lack of horsepower. The frame' s geometry remains pretty m uch the same, excep t for changing the cas ter angle by one d egr ee, fro m 30 to 29. Wheelbase expanded by abou t an inch, as we ll. Since the carr ying load s o f tourin g bikes ch a nge o fte n, an air-ad justable shock is used in the Ventu re. To accornmoda te the new s hock, the lin k-t ype rear-sus pension sys tem is radica lly a (Left) Counterrotating balance rs in the eng ine helps produce a smooth and nea rly vibration-free ride. The Venture doesn't produ ce what we would call booming cruiser s ound , but the exhaust is designed with the afterma rkets in mind. (Above) The Venture's Instrum ent panel featu res neoclassic styling. It looks good , but s ome of the dis plays are sma ll and a little ha rd to read. The Venture also features a full aud io . syst em, including four-way s pea kers and a hookup for a CD changer. (Right) The travel trunk is large enough to store two helmets and has easy-touse latch es, as do the saddlebags. altered . Whereas the shoc k on the Royal Star mod els lies parallel to the gro u nd a nd undern eath the s wingra m- p ivot area , the Venture's sho ck sits stra ight up and down, runs through the swi ng arm a nd behind th e piv o t a rea . Ya m a ha claims 4.13 inche s of rea r-whee l tra vel. Air-ass iste d 43mm forks, furn ishi ng 5.51 inches of wh eel travel, hold up the front of the bike. -percen t Yam aha engineers claim a 3D horsepower in cr ease ou t o f the Ven ture ' s r e vamp ed , li quid -co ol ed , 79 cu b ic-inc h, DOH C, 16- valve , V-fo u r motor. Most of tha t increase was fou nd by sim ply gi ving the Venture mor e air to br eathe through its new large-capacity, dual-intak e sys tem . Of co u rse , th e lar ger Mikunis help as well. Since vibrat ion is one of the touring rid er's worst en emies, Yamaha engineers tried to allev iate .th is problem by installing a counter-rotating balance r in the eng ine. At the opposite end of the in take system , Yama ha chose to go wit h a fourin to- two, three-piece ex ha ust sys tem , d esign ed to be easi ly broken d own for replacement with an afte rma rke t conversion, if the owner so desires. Compared to the ot he r Royal Star s, the Venture features different transmi ssion ra tios (geared toward tou ring) , cam ti ming, a la rger radia tor, and a mo re ' powerful 14-volt electrical sys tem to run plen ty of accessories. The Ven tu re is stacked full of touring a menit ies to make th ose lon g, n ev er ending stretches of open highway bearable. A large upper fairing (incl uding separ at e low er s) and wind screen protect s th e rid er and pa ssenger from the elements, and the fairing also hou ses the cruise co ntro l on / off sw itch (the fun ction button s, however , are located next to the thro ttle), a DC ou tle t, a kn ob to adjust the ang le of the headligh t beam, a nd a full au dio sys te m . Th e remo te thu m b-con trolled aud io system includes an AM-FM tuner / cassette pl ayer, CB, intercom and four-wa y speakers, as well as bei ng rigged fo r th e install a tion of your ow n CD cha nge r. The eye-ca tchi ng in strument panel looks like it was taken straig ht ou t of a ' 57 Stu debake r, but the LC D need le, which runs from one side of the panel to the other, takes away some of that feeling of nostalgia that Yama ha was obvious ly going after. The hard, colo r-m atched sad d lebags (35 liters ) a n d trunk (57 li ters ) offer plenty of storage spa ce and are designed to be extreme ly easy to op erate (which they are) . You can eas ily squeeze tw o helmets in to the trunk. The sadd lebags are not, however, easily deta chab le, but removabl e bag liners will be.available for them from Yamaha ' s a cce ssory department. (By the way, one key opera tes the ignition and bag locks .) As for ot her accessories for the Ven- . ture, Yamaha says it will offer many a fte rm a rke t goodies, such as a trunk rack, saddlebag trim rails, a front-fend er trim rail , plenty of ch ro me covers, and an asso rtme nt of bille t items . Colorwise, the Venture will be available in tw o con serv ati ve color schemes: Titanium grey / Ma rble silver, and Bordeaux red / Sh immering silver. Yamaha obvious ly has a lot of faith in the Venture's reliability, as it will be o ffere d with a s ta n d a r d fiv e- ye a r , unli mited-mileag e wa rranty. But fo r eve n more peace of mind, Yamaha will be offeri ng its Royal Star Road Service membership , which includes a 24-hour toll-free se rvice line, 24-h Qur ro ads ide ass ista nce, 24-hotlr eme rgency towing, locksmith service, d ealer-locator serv ice, tr ip-interrup tion ben efits, and a cu stomized trip-planning serv ice. Yama ha recentl y gave us the opportunity to put a few hundred miles on the Venture, and we cam e away impressed with th e new tou rer. Unfortu nately, every on e of those miles came in .cold and drizzly w ea ther condition s w hile we tou red in Main e. But the Ven tu re' s fai ring a nd la rge windsc reen proved their worth by doing an admirable job of ke eping t h e wet s tuff off the rider, though there are small openings in the low er s ecti o ns th at leave th e r ider' s kn ees and shins exposed. We a lso saw no eviden ce of water s neakin g into a ny of the bags or the trunk. Despite the ad ded weig ht, the Ven ture is by far th e most powerful of all R ~ ~ ..- ~ l-< Q) ..0 E Q) :> o Z 17

• Cover