Yamaha Introduces the Road Star Warrior

Yamaha is attempting to boldly go where no cruiser has gone before, with the introduction of its all-new Road Star Warrior, a high-tech motorcycle that is said to blend sportbike-like acceleration and handling with traditional cruiser styling. Yamaha describes the bike as having a cruiser heart with an athletic soul.

The heart of the beast is somewhat familiar to the Star lineup, as Yamaha started with the air-cooled, pushrod V-twin introduced in the original Road Star. This version, however, is equipped for go, as Yamaha engineers tweaked and tweezed the motor to produce 102 cubic inches, which equates to. And where the original Road Star's motor produced a mountain of torque but was a real wheezer on top, the Warrior's motor is said to capitalize on high-rpm pull. The fuel-injected V-twin features all-new two-piece cylinders heads with straighter intake and exhaust tracts, and a revised lean-burn system to maximize power while remaining emissions friendly. Performance camshafts mate with a shorter rocker ratio and new lighter pushrods for improved power and throttle response, and the motor is said to breathe tons better thanks to an all-new airbox design that offers a 115 percent air-cleaner volume increase over the Road Star. It also offers 70 percent less resistance. It all adds up to make for a mill that produces far greater torque than the Road Star and revs about 1100 rpm higher. Aiding acceleration is a revised close-ratio transmission, which has been strengthened to deal with the Warrior's increased muscle.

But weight, there's less: In designing the Warrior, Yamaha followed a formula to make the bike stiffer and lighter. To that end, the Warrior chassis and swingarm are all-new, all-aluminum designs, sporting an R1-style fork that is preload adjustable only, and hollow-cast R1-inspired brakes and wheels. Among the more interesting styling appointments are the racy-looking exhaust can and LED bar-graph tach, which sweeps in the same fashion as that found on Honda's high-tech V-twin Superbike, the RC51. Remember, the Warrior is supposed to be a cruiser, and you can have one of your own for $11,999.

Add it all up, and it would seem that Yamaha hit its mission target square in the bull's eye, the Warrior boasting similar power and torque to Honda's much heralded VTX, but with a claimed weight of just 606 pounds - some 120 pounds lighter than that motorcycle. It should make for one hot little dragster, especially when out-fitted with Yamaha's new line of racing parts designed just for the Warrior, the goodies marketed under the Speedstar brand.

Yamaha has told us that we will get the chance to ride one of these babies sometime in October. In the meantime, look for a tech feature on this exciting new ride in an upcoming issue of Cycle News.