I have been reading about this bike for at least a month. We were contemplating a full tourer and I find that the riding position on the Gold Wing pushes me too far forward for my liking.

The Yamaha Star Venture definitely caught my eye. At first glance, I came to the same initial opinion that it was air cooled and belt driven. I have friends that have put many long distance rides on the Victory Cross Countries and Visions without issues.

Other comments that I have read are that this bike is under horse powered. Yamaha hasn't put any horse power ratings out that I can see. 1854 cc and a bike that weighs in at around 950 lbs.

Demo events are far and few. There is one in Massachusetts and a Victoria CC friend and I have an appointment to take the Venture out for a ride. We'll see how it runs.

It was interesting to see Yamaha strip down the Star Venture Transcontinental and turn it into a bagger they're calling the Venture Eluder. Hmmmmmmm! Sound familiar? The Eluder has a few more bells and whistles over the F6B but comes with a pretty big price tag in comparison. For me, I'd likely stay with my F6B over the Eluder. However, if I were to pull the trigger on a tourer, the Star Venture Transcontinental would be in the running at this point. We'll see how the demo goes tomorrow 9/9.

In all honesty, my biggest concern at this moment would be if Yamaha was paying attention to rider concerns and introduced a water cooled/shaft driven version in the next model year. The initial roll out of the Venture was to originally take place this month but has been postponed to mid December.