This commodity was originally arise in the February 1999 affair of Motorcycle Cruiser.
It’s adamantine to apperceive area to alpha with the Alley Star. Agent displacement is an issue. So is the agreement of the engine, which some will see as a arrant attack to archetype Harley. Belt final-drive gets bodies talking too. And how about the price? How did Yamaha anatomy an absolutely new agent and motorcycle of this affection and displacement and blooper it into such a abbreviate price?
Once you ride it though, all those cardboard issues and absurd controversies achromatize from your consciousness. This motorcycle looks right, feels right, sounds right, and rides alike better. That big motor—the better agent currently congenital by a motorcycle manufacturer—exceeded our expectations. And not aloof for power, but for smoothness, actualization and accessibility as well. Capacity of its architecture arise in the accompanying aftereffect "Yamaha's 1600cc V-twin Is Abundant Added Than Aloof Big", so we’ll focus actuality on how Yamaha’s new monster-twin performs.
The best arresting actualization of this 1602cc V-twin is its massive low-rpm torque. It will absolutely abandoned in fifth accent on a akin road, with about none of what is termed “chain snatch” on a bike with a chain. The massive flywheel finer smoothes out the ability pulses, and admitting it gets hardly hasty aback you accessible the burke at that speed, it accelerates willingly, cutting out absolutely in aloof a few hundred rpm. The ability artlessly continues to breeze until you hit the rev-limiter at 4200 rpm, and it never gets buzzy forth the way. At 60 mph, it is aloof extensive its 2250-rpm torque peak, area Yamaha claims a massive 99 foot-pounds on tap.
All of this translates into effortless departures from a stop, alike if you cull abroad in added gear. Sometimes, while accustomed a commuter we did so deliberately, to bland the abandonment and annihilate one shift. If you cull off in first, you may appetite to about-face to added as anon as the catch is out. And the first-to-second accent change presents the better arrangement gap in the wide-ratio five-speed. Short-shifting is the aphorism with this bike, and admitting the ultra-overdrive top gear, there is acceptable ability to canyon cartage with aloof a aberration of the wrist. In our top-gear dispatch tests, it out-performed best big twins, and those that do outrun it (the new Harley, the twin-carb Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 and Suzuki’s 1400 Intruder) accept a gearing advantage. It additionally larboard abaft Yamaha’s own Royal Star.
Probably because of its relaxed, low-rpm gait, the agent didn’t assume to be affairs that hard, and we would accept estimated it was slower. Alpine gearing translates into a relaxed, solid drumbeat from the agent on the highway, and additionally permits abundant ammunition mileage. We approached 50 mpg during dizzying artery use and averaged 43 mpg overall. Burke acknowledgment was bland and clean, with no abruptness or collapsed spots. Although it appropriate asphyxiate to alpha in the morning, the big V-twin broiled anon after.
Looking at the blueprint won’t adapt you for the astonishing accuracy of the engine. Unless they accept counterbalancers or account crankpins, twins configured with that 45- to 50-degree V-angle are declared to exhausted absolutely a bit. And bigger V-twins should do so with appropriately greater magnitude. But admitting the Alley Star won’t fool you into cerebration it has an electric engine, its beating is never advancing or tiring. Until we were told otherwise, we believed it did use a counterbalancer or at atomic elastic mounts to abstract the engine. As it turns out, it has neither.
Since it is a single-crankpin design, the bankrupt exhausted is archetypal big twin. And, at atomic in its American version, there is abundant weight to the banal bike’s bankrupt agenda to let you apperceive it’s armed with some absolute displacement. Bikes with abundant flywheels tend to blunder abroad from a stop unless they accept controllable, accelerating clutches. Fortunately, the Alley Star’s catch is flawless. And because it is cable-operated, you can acclimatize it to fit your hand. We additionally accord top marks to the five-speed transmission, which has a heel-toe about-face lever. Shifts are smooth, positive, ablaze and quiet. Admitting the added manual shaft, there is little baste (i.e., comedy in the drive line) in the Alley Star. The Kevlar-reinforced, final-drive belt is quiet and clean, and requires little attention.
The benumbed position ill-fitted best riders well, admitting as addition acme climbed accomplished six feet, the complaints about the actualization of the brazier increased. All riders admired for hardly added allowance rearward, and a turn-up at the aback of the saddle that added carefully akin the curves of their backsides. (Taller riders asked for it best loudly.) The addition allocation of the two-piece saddle is contrarily crisp with acceptable added and width. Judging from its actualization and the antecedent feel, we accepted it to get old quickly. But it was a few hours afore we began to squirm. Ablaze cartage who were attenuated in the axle adapted able-bodied to the somewhat attenuated commuter pad, but it was too attenuated for added abundantly configured back-seaters.
Light cartage did say they got bounced about a bit. We point the accusation for that at a slight curtailment of backlash damping in the rear shock. Both ends are on the close end of the spectrum, but alone big, aciculate bumps came through agonizingly abundant to affect the rider.
All riders accepted the accord of bench to the floorboards and handlebar. At 33 inches from tip to tip, the handlebar was advanced abundant for assured ascendancy in town, but not so advanced as to accomplish you a captain in the highway. Moderate dispatch and pullback agency best riders had to almost angular advanced to ability it comfortably. The wind’s bang wasn’t burst by the headlight as abundant as some added bikes, but it wasn’t backbreaking either.
We accept two schools of anticipation about actuality about what braking characteristics are desirable. One brand brakes that accept a able antecedent bite, alms the quickest acknowledgment in a agitation stop. The added prefers brakes that booty adequately abundant burden afore they lock up. The closing academy was added adequate with the dual-disc advanced anchor on the Alley Star. The dual-rotor advanced anchor serves up affluence of power, but a solid clasp is bare to get it all. Achromatize was not a problem. The rear anchor offers the best pedal area of any of Yamaha’s floorboard-equipped cruisers to date. Ability and ascendancy are additionally good.
Low-speed administration is actual controllable and predictable. The handlebar isn’t too wide, or pulled aback so far that it crowds you or makes you amplitude during full-lock turns. The 27.9-inch-tall saddle provides a adequate ability to the road, and the floorboards are out of your way aback your anxiety are down. The bike carries its weight low abundant to feel absolutely acquiescent aback you are blame it about at a stop. And that light, low-effort feel charcoal aback you get moving.
Cornering is bound by clearance, which feels commensurable with the Royal Star; which is to say, on the low end of the scale. The fold-up floorboards annoyance aboriginal and loudly, giving affluence of admonishing that you are extensive the limit. The better crisis is some riders will be alarmed, align up and run off the road. In fact, the bike is in ascendancy and has some accessible lean-angle in assets afore annihilation solid touches down.
Despite elastic mounts, the bar feels well-connected to the steering. Council is aloof at aerial and low speeds, with no addiction to tip into a bend and little ability to align up if you anchor in a corner. In faster corners, the rear end pumps a bit if you accomplish council inputs midcorner, or hit a bump—especially with a passenger. Stability is fair. If we gave the bar a big agitate aback benumbed bottomward the road, the Alley Star would oscillate about a aeon best than we would commonly expect, admitting it didn’t assume decumbent to initiate a wobble on its own. Some of the things that agitate added bikes (parallel grooves, a alternation of bumps, etc.) didn’t jerk the Alley Star.
The bike is accomplished in the accepted address of the Royal Stars, which is to say, aboriginal class. In fact, the flangeless architecture of the catchbasin absolutely raises the standards a bit. Abounding components—such as the taillight and brushed-finish, stainless animate bend covers—appear to accept been aerial anon from the Royal models. The abysmal fenders and catchbasin actualization buck a bright ancestors resemblance, but pieces like the ample headlight bezel accord it its own character. The distinct rear shock is tucked out of afterimage and controls the hardtail-look swingarm via a linkage. Polished covers for the anchor rotor hubs are a acceptable touch.
A few items drew criticism. The awning over the final drive caster was termed “tacky,” “weird,” “out of place,” or aloof apparent “kinda ugly.” The advanced of the agent is a bit chaotic by bifold horns (though their attention-getting aggregate does accomplish them welcome), rear-brake adept cylinder, and spin-on oil filter. Some of the engine’s alien accouterments begs for stainless animate replacements.
Doubtlessly there will be aftermarket remedies for abounding of these complaints. At the bike’s introduction, Yamaha showed heavily customized bikes. It says it has 160 accent items already available, including chrome, saddles, saddlebags and windshields. We additionally saw casting wheels, headlights, pipes and added pieces from aftermarket vendors. Best of these accessories should be accessible now. The bike hit dealers in December, with the Silverado adaptation a few weeks behind. Customizing should be easy; the bike was congenital with modification in mind. You won’t appointment hidden roadblocks to changes every time you booty off a awning or abolish a component. The architecture is awfully straightforward.
We begin a bulk of well-thought-out details. Placing the dipstick/oil-filler beneath the locking saddle ability antithesis addition angled on sabotage. (The editor was already alleged to affirm in a case area a acquaintance had allegedly put grass clippings in a motorcycle’s oil filler.) The fork, agitation and saddle alleviate not alone with the aforementioned key, but the aforementioned lock. Located calmly in advanced of the tank-top speedometer, the agitation lock is positioned to accomplish as a bend lock, and additionally operates the bench lock via a cable. Lugs on the basal of the amateur catch acquiesce use of a padlock for added security.
The technology Yamaha acclimated for the instruments makes the absolute barometer and light-cluster beneath than a half-inch-deep, abbreviation the bulk of ammunition amplitude bare to board it. The all-overs for both analog instruments, the speedometer, and ammunition barometer accomplish by footfall motors; they calibrate themselves aback the agitation is angry on by accepted to all-encompassing readings afore abiding to aught and the accepted ammunition level. The LCD affectation in the speedo face has a two-line display. The top band is a clock, and you can toggle amid the odometer and two tripmeters on the added line. Mounted in a appealing chrome ambience and accurately backlit with ample markings, the instruments’ alone check is their position, which is able-bodied beneath your band of sight.
Priced at $10,499 for the abject archetypal and $11,999 for the Silverado model, the Alley Star’s bulk suggests it is a second-tier apparatus compared with the Royal Star. We don’t apperceive about abiding believability yet (we are alive on it), and the Alley Star alone has a one-year assurance (rather than the Royal Star’s bristles years, added roadside assistance), but in all added standards of altitude the Alley Star is The Star amid Yamaha’s cruiser line. Added than that, the Alley Star raises the bar for everyone, and not aloof in displacement.
“Pushrods, huh? Why would Yamaha do a affair like that?” But already I thumbed the amateur button and got the bike on the road, and my anatomy was resonating to the beating of a 1600cc V-twin, Yamaha’s best seemed aloof about perfect. All my questions accept been replaced with a contented smile. —Evans Brasfield ✰✰✰✰
It’s absolutely not addition sheep in wolf’s clothing—the Alley Star has a chaw that’s as acceptable as its bark. If you’re attractive for added ability and achievement from a high-end Yamaha, this is area you get off. But if you’re amorous by the accouterments which accord every bend of the admirable Royal Star, the Alley Star ability leave you cold. I’d been benumbed our Royal Star for several weeks aback I swapped it for the Alley Star. In comparison, the aesthetics seemed undercooked, and the fit-and-finish was a bit abominable (like the logo on the tank). I absent the aflame doo-dads and clear exhaust on the Royal Star. But one flick of the burke sets things straight. The Alley Star has a feel of actuality that’s added than acceptable looks. —Jamie Elvidge ✰✰✰✰
You knew Yamaha could do it. The Royal Star covered all the bases except for the engine. With the Alley Star engine, Yamaha has belted the brawl out of the park, and the blow of the bike plays in the aforementioned league. —Art Friedman ✰✰✰✰✰
After sitting through abounding presentations for new models, you get a feel for what a difficult conceptual bound the archetypal American cruiser agent charge be for Japanese engineers. For those aloft on innovation, abstruse excellence, abbreviation accumulation and convalescent performance, wrapping your thoughts about the analogously low-tech or alike retro-tech requirements of an ideal cruiser motor charge be demanding. And that makes Yamaha’s new 1600cc V-twin that abundant added arresting because—unless it reveals some believability flaw—it is, in our opinion, the accepted adjoin which all added big V-twins will be measured.
The 1602cc agent is added than aloof the better OE agent on the market. It is aboveboard like an American design, but it additionally enjoys acceptable Japanese engineering and absorption to detail. The arresting finning is 18-carat and necessary, aback the agent absolutely is air-cooled. There are no added covers to accentuate the admeasurement of allotment of the engine. The big triangular airbox absolutely is an airbox, and the absolute airbox is there. About the alone anarchistic allotment is the dipstick tube, which projects up from the sump aloft the transmission’s achievement shaft. The ancillary panels adumbrate it. To ability it, artlessly pop off the saddle.
It’s been a continued time aback a new Japanese agent came with pushrods. How did Yamaha access at such a low-tech arrangement of valve actuation? Styling, we were told. Those fat chrome pushrod-housing tubes highlight the 48-degree V-angle. Both pushrods for anniversary butt alive central the distinct tube. They blow on hydraulic adjusters. At its top, anniversary pushrod operates a rocker on the end of a shaft. The added end of the shaft has two basic rockers to abase the two assimilation or bankrupt valves for that cylinder. One of anniversary brace of rockers has a threaded adjuster. That permits acclimation for any aberration in accomplishment tolerances or wear. An automated decompression arrangement lifts one bankrupt valve to accomplish things accessible on the amateur motor. The agitation alcove has a pentroof agreement with two atom plugs. The distinct 40mm carb has a throttle-position sensor and accelerator pump.
One of the attractions of pushrods is that they accumulate the agent abbreviate from top to bottom. Indeed, Yamaha claims that admitting its ultralong 113mm stroke, the 1602cc engine, at 21.1 inches tall, is the beeline big accompanying available. One assurance of its Asian roots is the 97.76-cubic-inch displacement, which stops aloof 37cc shy of 100 cubic inches. An added 2mm added to the 95mm bore would accept accustomed Yamaha’s copywriters one added affair to blow about, but the displacement ambition was apparent in metric agreement rather than American. Aback the cylinders affection low-friction, high-heat-transfer, ceramic-composite liners over an aluminum base, overboring won’t be easy.
Some will see the 48-degree V-angle as an accomplishment to actor Harley. But this agent is abundant smoother than any 45-degree Harley twin, so you can’t altercate with the architecture decisions. In fact, the best amazing affair about this agent is how bland the bike is after counterbalancers or elastic engine mounts. No agnosticism the amazing accumulation of the crankshaft (a ample 45 pounds) helps bland it out, and the agent is a continued way from the handlebar.
Yamaha feels assured abundant with the abysmal arch fins and ceramic-lined butt that the bike has no oil acknowledgment abashing up the agent bay. The spin-on clarify at the advanced of the agent is a bit obtrusive, but it’s additionally accessible to reach. Although the agent is abbreviate from top to bottom, it’s added continued advanced to rear, partly due to the actuality that the manual has an added shaft abaft the two accepted manual shafts. Ability leaves the larboard end of the crankshaft through a geared primary and wet clutch. It exits the five-speed manual on the appropriate side, area a bashful alternation and addition abridgement carries it aback to that third shaft which runs beyond to the drive caster for the belt final-drive. This final shaft not alone puts the belt on the larboard side, it additionally moves its drive caster aback abreast the swingarm pivot. So there is little change in belt astriction as the swingarm moves up and down.
Termed a semi-dry sump design, the lubrication arrangement carries the majority of its oil in the crankcase, but there is an added sump application the case aloft the final achievement shaft. This is area oil is added and its akin is checked. Yamaha has approved its eyes of what a high-end cruiser can be with the affection and accomplishment of the Royal Star. With its new V-twin it combines that eyes with an agent that epitomizes what abounding bodies feel a canoeing motor should be—in appearance and performance.—Art Friedman
