new Yamaha Transcontinental Touring

[98valk]

It looks nice! Low seating, nice curves.

Air cooled twin - yuk!!

[unsub]

OP thanks for posting that. It looks promising for Yamaha.

OK being open and transparent here I did feel a slight twinge of smugness when the "owners" were bragging about their "mileage" on their previous rides.

No doubt it will generate a lot of interest, and I'll certainly be looking to see one in person.

[F6B1911]

I really don't want to be negative here, but what the heck is the deal with the v-twin and a belt drive??
To be honest I was expecting a new engine/platform to compete with the Goldwing, not the HD.

[RickW]

Looks pretty cool, but that will not compete with a GoldWing.
For the price they will have a hard time competing with a HD ultra classic.

[taxfree4]

Air-Cooled? Are they kidding

[opas ride]

I don't think that Yamaha is trying to compete with the Goldwing or BMW at all...The market for large touring rigs these days seems to dominated by big air-cooled V-Twins with belt drive...Indian, Victory, (before its demise), Harley and other model Yamaha's all fall in that category and they sell very well....The GW and F6B are in a market by themselves for those of us that prefer smoothness and power with shaft drives, etc. Look at the sales numbers for Touring rigs in the US market and one will see it is clearly filled will air-cooled, V-twin bikes for the most part....Hope Honda does something soon with the GW, F6B, and other touring/bagger type bikes......The price on the new Yammie is way to high for me and the thing weighs almost 1/2 a ton!!!!....Ride safe

[jmdaniel]

I don't think that Yamaha is trying to compete with the Goldwing or BMW at all...The market for large touring rigs these days seems to dominated by big air-cooled V-Twins with belt drive...Indian, Victory, (before its demise), Harley and other model Yamaha's all fall in that category and they sell very well....The GW and F6B are in a market by themselves for those of us that prefer smoothness and power with shaft drives, etc. Look at the sales numbers for Touring rigs in the US market and one will see it is clearly filled will air-cooled, V-twin bikes for the most part....Hope Honda does something soon with the GW, F6B, and other touring/bagger type bikes......The price on the new Yammie is way to high for me and the thing weighs almost 1/2 a ton!!!!....Ride safe

Huh? Victory is no more, at least in part to declining sales, and Harley is also seeing declining sales in everything but their T-shirts!

I think this thing was in dev at Yamaha well before the recent decline, and no one had enough balls to pull the plug.

[Miks]

The V-twin market - lets see, Harley comes out with the Milwaukee 8 to celebrate four valves per cylinder, while Polaris quits building Victories. The Indian is a good bike, but the Japanese manufacturers just haven't been able to get a V-twin that is a good seller in Americana flavorings.

It looks like a good bike, electric reverse AND forward for "tricky spots", so between the heavy Harley and Indian, I sort of like having a reverse for sure. My question is - does this up the ante for Honda to come out with a touring type GoldWing that says - you don't need no stinking V-twin, check out the V-four TURBO Goldwing with 156 horsepower??? Hmm, would love that!

[jm21ddd15]

Same motor as the old Roadliner and Raider, which were both belt drive. This one is a 6 speed, the other 2 were 5 speed. Lots of power and low end grunt. I've put several thousand miles on a Raider and a Roadliner, but, I'll stay with my F6 for now. Too much $$$$$$$

[lloydmoore1]

It's kind of weird check out the brake pedal on the right side looks like the same as the gear shifter??? I will have to test drive one just because but really air cooled and belt drive are a real downer for me.