Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~iI:J,-Yca_m_a_h_a_R_Oya_I_S_~_a_r_To_u_r_D_e_'_ux_e _ _ so ry ca talog for th os e who w ant to personalize ho w their bike 's oxidized hydrocarbons are introd uce d into the atmos phere. Fish tail. for instance . Like all Royal Sta rs. the Tour Delu xe has fro nt and rear crash bars. altho ugh I do n't think "cras h" is t he w ord Yamaha uses to defin e them. In fro nt of the leading crash... urn, I mean disco bars. are low e rs incorporating th e engine 's air intake. protecting the rider fro m the e lements wh ile pro viding the engi ne w ith an ele me nt it ne ed s. Air. Wh at this all adds up to is that Yamaha is ab le to claim the bes t weather pro tection in class. Yamaha forced us to ride the new Tour Sta r through the countryside o f western Virginia. no t to be con fused w ith Wes t Virginia. We stayed in C harlottesville. site of the Un ive rsity of Virginia and home to T homas Jeffe rso n. Well. home to his house. anyway. because he 's no longer living t he re . although we did have the op po rt unity to meet a mod e rn interpretatio n of the dead slave owner. Suffice to say. it was a frighte ning ex pe rie nce . and I'll never be able to think of 01' Tom as quite th e ma n I used to. We spent the morning taking t hese lovely images of the bike yo u see he re an d then had lunch at a local winery. w he re we were not allowed to drink any w ine . W hat was up with that. I don't know. But fo r the rest of the day we did some serious riding . heading up into the mountains fo r a cruise down the Skyline Drive. And cruise the Tour Deluxe does. Smooth cruise. unlike a twin . The electronic cruise control does all the tiresome work of ma inta ining throttle position when the road is clear. Steering w ith only the left hand while ascending hills is an entertainingly peculiar distraction. Since I'm not properly practiced in riding cruisers. I preferred cruising in fourth gear rather than in overdrive. That allowed more poop whenever I twisted the go stick. I gotta learn how to relax . For some reas on . up on t he Drive w e saw mostly sportbikes and ve ry few other cru isers . But th e th ing was. nearly all of those riders were cru ising. an d some were eve n going too damn slow. There th e Tour De luxe proved its e lf a fun ma ch ine with its good torque for exiti ng turns and c lim bing stee p grades . O f co urse the floorboards dragged here and there in the tight stu ff. but since th e bike has a po sitive lean-in. th e feel of it was neve r nervo us. The brakes on the To ur Deluxe actually work. unlike those on so me cruisers . O h, and it has self-eanceling blinke rs. which makes o ne wo nder wh y all bikes don't. O r makes you wonder w hy any bike does. Maybe it might SPECIFICATIONS 2005 Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe LIST PRICE DISPLACEMENT ENGINE TYPE $ 13.999 I298cc Air/liquid-cooled V-four BORE x STROKE 79 x 66m m COMPRESSION RATIO 10: 1 CARBURETION ........(4) 32mm Mikuni CV car bs IGNITION Solid state digital TRANSM ISSION Five-speed STARTING SYSTEM Electric FUEL CAPACITY 5.3 gal. WHEELBASE 67 .5 in. RAKEITRAIL 23°11 3 1mm SEAT HEIGHT 29. 1 in. FRONT TIRE 150/80 -16 REAR TIRE 150/90 - 15 FRONT·WHEEL TRAVEL. 5.6 in. REAR-WHEEL TRAVEL .4. 1 in. FRONT BRAKE ........Dual 298m m discs with four-piston calipers REAR BRAKE Single 320m m disc FINAL DRIVE Shaft CLAIMED DRY WEIGHT 787Ibs. COLORS Charcoal Silver/Raven. Raspberry Metallic/Raven 34 JUNE 30, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS be because if a bike is over 800 pounds. it means it's half-re lated to an automobile, so it has car-like features . Remember that dash? So where's the cu p holder? The hard bags o pen an d close w ith ease. so much so tha t I fo und myself searching for a candy bar in the bottom of one w hile rolling along with the cru ise on. I'm not sure if that's what Yamaha had in m ind. The co nvertible screen is defi nitely a cool feature. But we had the help o f a chase veh icle to carry ours when we wanted to remove them m idtrip. You'lI just have to plan ahead each morning. Cruising is most po pularly abo ut comfort and relaxing and taking the long wa y do wn slow roads . The Tour Deluxe does all of th ose th ings with the proper att itude . but it also does them with a reserve of abilities. It has great power for its class of bike and handles pro perly and stops just like a rea l bike shou ld. T he engi ne . being a V-fo ur. even though it 's designed to look like a V-twi n. means that it has little in t he way of vibration at any rp m at any speed in any gear. And th e bars have a so lid feel connecting th e ride r with the fro nt e nd,.unlike so me cru ise rs that have an e lastic. doughy and num b fee l. It 's so lid, yet w ithout vibration. The De luxe 's co nt rols a re all easy to _ use . es pecially the le ft-bar-m ou nted crui se control. And the das h shows clearly all the informat ion neede d at a glance without be ing unnecessarily cute or confusing. Th e seat is big and co mfy. T he floorboards are well placed for cruising, and the lowers' upper edges provide an additional foo trest, if you fe e l the need fo r an altered riding position. I wasn't much fo r the giant levers. but I'm told most cruiser people like things big. Admittedly. they do ma tch the pro portions of the rest o f the bike . It's an impr essive amo unt of bike for its $13.999 price tag. Impressive. too . is how Yamaha has over 100 ac ce ssories alread y available fo r the Tou r De luxe in its Gen uine Sta r Access o ries catalog. like billet pieces and passing lamps and such . See the sidebar o n these pages that talks m ore about that. Although I o nly rode the To ur Delu xe fo r a day, it was easy to see that it does its job w e ll as a con ve rti ble to ure r and boul evarder. Th e re 's to ns of room in t he bags , great protect ion fro m the wi nd if desi red , a big tank for the long ro ad, and it's an unfaire d bike with clean lines for a day 's ride arou nd to wn o r a s hort jaunt to you r favo rite wa te rfall. An d, as far as cruiser ae sthe tics go , it has go od lines and looks like a cru iser sho uld. eN Speaking of Per§onalized At the press introduction for the new Royal Star Tour Deluxe. Yamahaallowed us each to take a gander and a spin on a Deluxe decked out with accessories out of Yamaha's Star catalog. This particular bike featured dressaccessories such as a billet air box cover, casecovers, and shift lever. The passenger pad was replaced with a chromed luggage rack accompanied by a chromed seat guard and trim pieces along the top of each hard bag. The leather seat was embossed with an ostrich skin pattern , and the bars were lower, flatter and more pulled back. The windscreen was chopped to just above the dash. giving the bike more of a performance attitude. Driving this attitude into one's senses was an accessory pipe that improves the power a tad but, most im porta ntly, makes more noise. For my tastes, the customizations Yamaha chose for this test unit are right on. The lower, wider bars force the rider into more of a hunched position, like an animal ready to charge. It's funny how a change in posture can redefine a person's psyche. But that shouldn 't really be surprising because we all know that if you lie on the couch. it makes you lethargic and prone to taking a hockey puck in the stomach... pun intended. But if you're stand ing. legs apart, bocIy bent forward and arms out , your posture alone makes you more ale" to what 's com- ing at you , be it a baseball. tennis ball. a charging pass receiver, or a swerving truck with an unsecured load. Posture determines your attitude and preparedness. So hun- kered forward into flatter bars and having a louder pipe are more in tune with my personality. Which reminds , one of the mods Yamaha popped onto this bike was a pipe that breathes better and rumbles louder. The sound. the wind , the riding stance... within a mile of riding this thing. I started wondering about Yamaha's low-interest loan deals. Putting a little bad in something always makes it good. Correct me if I'm wrong. but isn't that why we ride bikes? 40th Anniversary

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