The best touring motorcycle that no one buys...

hey moto man here and just the other day i'm riding by my local harley-davidson dealership and i happen to spot this 2018 yamaha star venture transcontinental if you're not familiar with this motorcycle it came out in 2018 completely new motorcycle from early adventures it's equipped with a 113 cubic inch v-twin motor air-cooled it has belt drive and just about every high-tech feature you could possibly think of msrp is 26 999 27 000 plus freight of course i'm not sure what the freight is and this motorcycle has been lingering in dealer shower rooms now for quite a while uh if you read any of the road tests on it from writer magazine and and others they always rate this at the top of the luxury tour market moto journalists seem to love the bike but the buying public not so much you can find brand new 2018 still sitting in dealerships if you could find a yamaha dealer that will actually stock the motorcycle it's nothing wrong with the bike it's a very modern looking in fact it reminds me of the gold wing it's got 76 horsepower to the rear wheel which is not a lot for a 963 pound motorcycle but it's more than adequate i notice when riding it that you hit the rev limiter at about 4 300 rpm which isn't much at all it's also equipped with electric windshield traction control two riding modes it even has an electric reverse so if you want to back up that 963 pound motorcycle you just press a button it'll do it for you there's a nav system infotainment touchscreen heated grips heated seat for the rider and the passenger excellent wind protection electric locking bags i mean you name it this motorcycle has it but for some reason they just can't sell this bike i'm guessing it's because in this price range people want to have an american style cruiser now earlier ventures i had one come to my class about 10 years ago in fact it's the only venture ever to come to my class in 22 years those bikes also did not sell very well this new model which is supposed to be the top of the line again still lingering in showrooms all right the first thing i noticed with this bike is it's got a very low seat height i'm betting if you're five foot three you could easily flat foot this bike i'm five seven though i identify as six two but at five seven my actually my knees are bent that's how low this bike is now this is uh we're at a harley davidson dealership it's a used bike and nobody know nobody here knows how to uh work anything on it uh it's not exactly what i'd call intuitive though there is a button here home i just press that and it looks like there's a nav system so this is the transcontinental model and we'll press a couple more buttons [Music] don't know what they do but the main thing is how does it ride so let's find out first thing i like to do is go out in the parking lot here and see how it feels at low speeds and how easy it is to handle now i've read that this bike doesn't have a whole lot of lean angle [Music] yeah i would say about probably a 29 30 degree lean angle just a it see the pants [Music] this by the way is a 113 cubic inch air-cooled v-twin [Music] and i believe it puts out 78 or 79 horsepower there is no heel shifter and from what i understand this this windshield is adjustable however i don't know which button does that it's got 10 768 miles which uh should be that that should mean that it's just broken in now yamaha's been making the venture for many years they came out with the first as competition to the goal wing back in the 80s and i see it does have uh no it does not have self cancelling turn signals so that's a minus you would think with all the stuff on this motorcycle and at least give yourself canceling but i made the turn signal i stayed on smooth motor plenty of torque but this bike weighs according to yamaha's website 963 pounds i believe that makes it the heaviest motorcycle money can buy and on this 2018 the transcontinental package was an option that gives you all the bells and whistles it was a three thousand dollar option it's now standard equipment nice plush ride definitely definitely rides softer than a harley ultra probably about the same as the indian touring motorcycles but anyway the history on this motorcycle they originally came out to compete with the gold wing and it looked very similar to a gold wing at that time later on they changed the styling to look more like the classic american look or a harley davidson look and they had a v4 that was supposed to be a very powerful motor except they detuned it and uh i mean it had plenty of power but it was you would think the v4 would have given you a lot more they detuned the motor they said that bike that promoted was out of a sport bike and uh yeah performance wise it was always right at the the top of uh most heavyweights or motorcycles but didn't have near the power of the gold wing when they came out with the six on the motor in the gold ring now this is an air-cooled motor just like harley's because they did their research and they found that that's what people wanted in this type of motorcycle they didn't want a v4 they didn't want water cooling their focus group said they wanted an air-cooled v-twin unfortunately it was never a big seller mainly because the price was i would say is too close to uh harley-davidson motorcycle so very few people would choose it over the harley davidson for whatever reason that is probably resale maybe deal a network by the way the sea feels very comfortable gives you a nice back support as well it's a little on the soft side so i don't know how it's going to be after a couple hours in the saddle generally a little bit firmer seat is better it doesn't feel like it weighs uh 963 pounds i mean it doesn't feel like a lightweight either but it doesn't really feel any heavier than gold wing or a harley ultra and again that's what this bike is made to compete with the funny thing is and it's in the price range it's it's about about the same as you get price wise for harley ultra but this year like i said they the 2021 models they gave you the top of the model range they reduced the price by 3 000 and that's because these bikes just linger in the showrooms many dealers won't even stock them because they know they're going to hang around a long long time and yes no dealership wants to have this kind of money just sitting on the showroom floor for two three four years and then have to really discount the bike big just to move it out of there and they uh they just never have been a big seller and even with this new revised model that came out in 2018 it still continues to be the a fine motorcycle that oddly nobody buys when i say nobody i don't mean nobody i mean very few people generally people in this gonna go in this price range are gonna get a gold wing or a harley davidson ultra or an indian chieftain what does this hit the rev limiter fast 4 500 rpms you're all out of rifts abs is standard and the brakes feel pretty powerful well i hit that rev limiter without even trying just trying to get a feel for how much power the bike's got and uh yeah 70 i think it's 78 horsepower i could be mistaken about that it might be 88 horsepower but it's moving 960 65 pounds or so that's a lot of motorcycle getting some rattles and squeaks on it too i think it's the windshield making that rattling sound but like i said this isn't a new motorcycle does not feel it feels like all the weight is down low because it's no problem getting the bike up off the kickstand i'm gonna check this signal light i'm gonna leave it on and see if it uh it ever goes off ah yes it did so take that back it does go off it just doesn't go off as soon as you make your turn there's a little delay yeah this is kind of motorcycle you could you can get on and ride all day long and and not get fatigued it is a heavyweight cruiser style motorcycle actually something between a cruiser and a luxury touring motorcycle or sport touring motorcycle as what the wing has become or the bmw 1600 bagger but i've actually never seen one of these on the road in all my travels since 2018 nobody has ever showed up in my class with one of these and i've never even seen one on the road it's like i said it's it's a fine motorcycle that oddly uh nobody ever buys for very few people but it's definitely worth a look and just like any motorcycle if you find a nice used one you're gonna save a whole bunch of money overall this is a fine touring motorcycle just about every motorcycle magazine that test this type of motorcycle rates this right at the top and why they don't sell i i really have no idea you would think well maybe it's price because at 27 28 000 there are some other choices that people can make and maybe people want the american style cruiser but if you look at the kawasaki's they're big touring bikes they're like six or seven thousand dollars less money not quite as many features as you find on this bike but they linger in the showrooms as well i think that motorcycles in this this type of bike in this price range people at least americans are looking for an american style motorcycle like the harley-davidson or the indian models but this is definitely worth a test ride if you don't care or if the the styling appeals to you definitely take this bike for test ride and i know here in my area there are no yamaha dealers that will let you ride this motorcycle that's the reason i'm riding a used one it just happened to be at the harley dealership but generally they won't let you test ride them and that could be why they don't sell too many of them if the dealer doesn't want people to ride a 27 000 motorcycle before they buy it yeah that that could hurt for sure but that's it for now please subscribe give me a thumbs up i hope you enjoy this and i hope you've got a little more knowledge about this particular motorcycle until next time

Channel: Ride Like a Pro Jerry Palladino

Views: 916,996

Keywords: harley, how to make a uturn, motorcycles, ride like a pro, slow speed skills, sportbikes, uturns, yamaha venture

Id: ZlpJ_m9yQTk

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021