Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128641
Yamaha Road Star If av er ag e mo to rcycle guy. Th e Mis sion Viejo , Ca lifornian is en thusiastic enough , rel ishing a good pu tt to the local burg er joi n t t o m eet h is buddies and ma ybe th e occas ional lon g -d ist a nc e ja unt to Laguna Seca fo r a Superbike race. But his motorcycl e is more a n e s c a p e from life th an a way o f life , wi t h O lb r ic h t de votin g the m aj ority of his energy tow a rd h is afterma rket tr a c t io n p a d compa ny , Hydro Turf. So when it came time to pu rc ha s e a re p laceme nt for h is ag ing Ho nd a Magn a , O lb r ic ht wanted a nother c ruiser, but one with styling that was m o re indicative of the cruising her itage . A Ha rley -Davi ds on was a defi ni te possi bili ty , but t hen again , his m etric mount had nev er given him a lick of troubl e . As he pared down his ch oi c e s , Olbr icht fo u nd that th e Yamaha Road S tar was just th e ma chine to satisfy his ne eds. To say tha t Yamaha folk a re ov er th e m oon about the Road Sta r is an und erstatement. Next to the PW50 mi ni and th e V-Star, the Road Star is one of the co mpany 's most popularselli ng mode ls . Prop o n e n t s o f th e mach ine poi nt to its extre m ely co m petitive price tag a nd the fac t that it captu res the essence of he ritage-style c ruisers , right down to its be lt drive. 1 6 NOVEMBER 29 . 2000' c u e I e S T O RY B Y S COTT R OU SSE AU P HOT OS B Y BLA KE C O N NER [lfl ou mig ht call Arno Olbricht you r nevvs As such , th e Road Sta r h a s q uickly caught on as the canvas of c hoice of metric cruiser custom frea k -types . As a supplier to Yamaha , Olbrich t was able to s c o re a s we ethea rt of a dea l o n a used Road Star that was sl at ed for a n e m p loy ee au ction , but he a lso wanted to spruce the bike up a bi t , s o as to set it a p a rt from a stoc k Sta r. He needed to loo k no furthe r than two sources , th e Yamaha Parts . and Ac cesso ries c a t a lo g and Miss ion Yamaha/ Kawasaki in Lag una Nig ue l, Ca lifornia , whic h is right next door to Mission Viejo . O lbricht deli vered the Road Star to hi s ol d pal Tedd y Boyko , t h e hea d ho nc h o of Mission 's ho t rod skunkworks - a .k .a . Speed Tech - in s e arch of a lit tl e more o o m p h th a n t he s t oc k Ro ad Sta r offered. Th a t was no p roble m for Bo y ko . who says that he and shop owner John Matherson have devel oped some sens ible mods for the model. In fact , sa ys Bo yko , no Miss ion customer ever leaves the shop without having at least a couple mods made to his Road Sta r. "They [Roaa Stars 1 are neat bikes because the y are h ighly custom izable , just like a Harley ," Boyko says. "And with the motor, we have found that th ere is a lot of potentia l for ex tra perform an c e with j ust a few simpl e steps . It' s not formall y named , but we' ll call it our 'sta ge one' mods ." Bo y ko says that the first th in g a Road Sta r owne r will want to d o is free up th e breathing by ins ta lling an op en- e le ment filter system. He favors the Baron's Big Air kit , wh ich comes with a n icel y finished , chrom ed a ir cl eaner and th e necessary jetting to take advantage of the added huff. Add itionall y , Bo yko s a ys that he installs what he calls a "bloc k off kit" on the e m iss io ns system ins ide the heads. "Th e law says th at you can't tamper with or remo ve the em iss ions equ ipment, but th e re is no law that says you can 't b lock it off," Bo yko says . "It' s easy to do , and it's worth two horsepower rig ht off the bat." Even mor e po t ent ial c an b e un locked in the ex haus t. a nd Bo yko is partia l t o Cobr a En g in e er ing 's tubes fo r a cou ple re aso ns . Fo r o ne, Bo yko's brothe r Ken happens to ow n th e com pa ny , but more im portantly . th e y are top-qua lity . For Olbric ht's mac hine . Boyko went with a set of Cobra 's Low-Boy Shotguns. "You' ve got to hav e a good s et of pipes to take adva nta ge of th e inta ke mods that we do , a nd I've found th at th e Cobra p ipe s loo k re a lly good a nd fit perfectly - I'm no t just saying that because m y brother runs the show ove r there . They als o sound good , and they really wak e th e Road Star up in conjunct ion w ith our other mods . Just t he p ip es alone do enha nce the stock performance, but we recom mend that our customers go wit h the Big Air kit for the greatest im p ro ve m e nt. For most guys , afte r they do those three thi ngs, they p roba bly won 't even wa nt to me ss arou nd wit h g etti ng in sid e th e e n gi ne a n d doin g thing s like port ing a nd ca ms and bigger valves , ev en though we a re fully c a pa ble of do ing all of that here too . We are con stantl y doing R&D on a variety of models to try and co me up 'wit h performanc e im pro vements for our customers ' bikes." In fact . Boyko to ld us th at afte r he co mpleted t he wo rk on O lbr icht's Roa d Star, he came up with a fe w more gadgets , su ch as a Dy n a adjusta ble ignit ion and a Mikuni carburetor kit tha t can coax even more grunt ou t of th e Yamaha pushrod Vtwin.