Yamaha v-Star 650 Silverado edition

[burkbuilds]

I stopped by the local Suzuki/Yamaha dealer Friday and walked around the show room a bit, a particular V-Star really caught my eye. It was a V-star 650 cruiser, I think the Silverado edition but not certain. Anyway, this bike was really tricked out with chrome, floorboards, a nice windshield and custom Mustang Seats with an adjustable drivers backrest! The seat height was about 28" and I thought I'd be disappointed in that for my 6'1" frame but I sat down on it anyway and wow, what a surprise, this bike fit me really well. I was more comfortable than I am on my modified Vulcan 500 with a seat height of about 30"! This bike has chrome all over the engine, it looks great and the Mustang seat was amazingly comfortable, you could even adjust the drivers seat backrest with a thumbscrew that moved it up or back to fit your needs. The bike had some nice saddle bags already on it and all of this for less than $6500 brand new, I was impressed. By the time I added all the extras to my Vulcan, floorboards, windshield, custom seat, saddle bags and supports I was up to that price easily and no where near the chrome or the stretched out frame of this bike! I don't really like the "big" bikes (read 900 cc's and up to me) but this was comfortable for my frame without weighing and feeling bulky. If my wife wouldn't kill me I'd probably think about trading in my Vulcan on this baby. The one drawback I found was when I read some reviews, they were great reviews, shaft drive easy maintenance comfortable, all that stuff but I did notice that the bike topped out at 90 mph, now I don't really plan to ride 90 mph, but my Vulcan 500 will do 104 mph and I guess I was surprised to find that the slightly larger displacement bike wouldn't even come close to matching that. I also noticed that this bike isn't water cooled, which a lot of bikes aren't but when I've been stuck in traffic a few times, I was really glad my Vulcan was water cooled. The only other downside was that the V-Star was rated at 49 mpg, I loved the GZ's 70 mpg, and I'm okay with getting high 50's to about 60 on the Vulcan, but dropping another 9-10 mpgs just doesn't thrill me with as many miles as I put on my bike.

I guess, bottom line, I'll stick with the Vulcan until I graduate from Engineering school, but maybe my next bike might just be this 650 or whatever they've got available like it in a couple of years! :2tup:

[JWR]

I did a Dealer test ride on the V-Star 650 and 1100 last year.

I liked the 650 a lot more than the 1100.
It seemed to have more low end grunt.
This could have been because we were doing a follow the leader type of ride.
I was really impressed with the overall looks and feel of this bike.

[primal]

A V-star 650 will be a step down from the Vulcan 500 performance-wise. A pretty significant one at that.

[JWR]

Yamaha V-Star
-maximum torque is reached at 38 lb-ft @ 3000 rpm.




Vulcan 500
Maximum Torque: 33 lb-ft @6,000 RPM .

Different riding......

[burkbuilds]

Primal, and JWR, I think you guys are probably right, but man what a great looking motorcycle and a great fit for my long legs! I really love the way my Vulcan runs, it is a sweet machine, I was coming back to school on I-75 this morning, running a little behind schedule and I ran 80-90 almost the entire way and she just purred along like it was nothing, steady, no shakes and handles like an extension of your mind. Have to admit that it tanked my MPG's though, I filled it up after school and was all the way down to 46 mpg, but hey, I was running 7,000 rpms most of the time! The Vulcan does what I need it to do, it is very practical for my current situation and that is why I bought it, but I'm not blind, it's not exactly the best looking bike out there, very little chrome and well, just kinda okay in the looks department, but what a great engine/handling package!

I wonder what you could do to that V-Star's specs by changing the gear ratio's a bit? It's obviously set up for low end torque not high speed running. I'd gladly give up some low end power band if it would cruise at higher speeds easier. Long gone are my days of wanting to blow somebody off the line at a traffic light, but I do like the option of getting from city to city at a slightly faster pace now and then! I also noticed that they are running twin 28mm carbs on the V-Star which may be part of the equation for low torque but not enough volume to run top speeds, my Vulcan has twin 32mm carbs on 23% smaller cc engine than the 650 has. Maybe a carb upgrade would make a big difference in the V-Star's top end, does anybody have any experience with a change like that?

[Water Warrior 2]

According to Yamaha the 650 Star was specifically designed to run best at 55 mph. It is a cruiser and not a hurry-up bike. Other than engine upgrades there is still a matter of the drive shaft and assorted gearing pieces. You would have to change the gear ratio of the rear end and that would not be any easy task. Nor would it be cheap.
This is Yamamha's entry level V-twin cruiser and highly unlikely they have any options available for regearing. They would rather have you upgrade to a larger Y bike.
A chain driven bike is easiest to regear providing it has enough engine to pull the bike at lower rpm and still provide some mpg economy.

[bonehead]

BB-I borrowed my friends V-Star 650 to go to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and was having to watch my speed on the interstate. Almost every time I looked down at the speedo I was going 80-85 and the bike did'nt even feel like it. I was very impressed. IMHO that's fast enough on the hiway. My 90+ days went long ago along with my 20's and 30's.

[dannylightning]

Originally Posted by bonehead

BB-I borrowed my friends V-Star 650 to go to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and was having to watch my speed on the interstate. Almost every time I looked down at the speedo I was going 80-85 and the bike did'nt even feel like it. I was very impressed. IMHO that's fast enough on the hiway. My 90+ days went long ago along with my 20's and 30's.

i ran in to a guy that had one of those and i asked about it, he said it would run at 100mph if you need it to. but you can do 80mph all day

[burkbuilds]

bonehead and dannylightning, thanks for the input, I'm not really interested in going 90+ either, but I didn't want to be topped out at 80 something if I needed to get out of the way and I didn't want to be pushing the bike hard just running in the upper 70's which I seem to do more than I probably should. I'm really "drawn" to that bike right now, but my wallet is empty so it's really a moot point anyway. It was definitely the most comfortable fit I've had on a bike just sitting on it in the showroom, of course that doesn't really tell me how it will feel going down the road for a couple of hours, but it is a good place to start. The frame on the 650 is just slightly longer than the frame on a Honda Shadow 750 ACE bike and that's what my son in law rides so I've taken it for a few spins and it fits me pretty well too but that 650 Yamaha was even better looking than the Shadow 750 in my eyes. Plus the one in the showroom already had a lot of features I'd want like the floor boards, custom Mustang seat with a drivers backrest and the nice saddle bags and supports and a very nice windshield too for a pretty low price considering. Oh well, it doesn't cost anything to dream!

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by burkbuilds

I'm really "drawn" to that bike right now,

Well, you just HAD to look, didn't you ?? :roll: :biggrin:

I don't know if it's better to stumble on something like that when you don't have the money........or when you DO.

I tried to stop looking.......but it IS difficult.