Quote Originally Posted by SPGrenier View Post
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.
Just curious... What qualities are you looking for in a "full tourer" that your B doesn't/can't provide? Again, just curious because there are a lot of people that add a giant windshield and a trunk solution then put many, many miles.